Marble is usually pretty clear in communicating her dislikes. The "please stop that" reaction of backing away but not fleeing in outright terror, the "nopenopenope" flight of outright terror, the "hide until it goes away" ball, and the least common "stand ground and attack" sort of aggression. If it's a rat and she's not hungry, she usually just hides. If I touch her neck and she's not in the mood, she backs away but ultimately stays in my hand. I don't usually see her running for the hills, she's pretty chill. But the only times she's struck at me seemed to be reactions to smells.

I keep a fairly short list of things not to smell like if I want to handle the snake. For example, vodka. If I have had a drink in the last few hours, she's nippy. If I spill the drink on my hand and forget to wash it off, she's angry. Vodka is a smell she hates, so I just don't fuss with her if I drink. Simple enough.

But now she's tensing up and getting ready to strike nearly every time I touch her. It's not an immediate attack on sight, so I'm hesitant to think she's found a new smell to hate. She's fasting, but it's also quite cold in my house, so she may just think it's time to hibernate. And she isn't trying to shed.

I'm baffled at the new aggression in a snake that's generally as timid as they come. Is that a common thing for the cold season? Is it just a run-of-the-mill grumpiness because she's female? She's maybe a year and a half old, so I'm hesitant to chalk it up to breeding hormones. On the other hand, I don't know anything about breeding snakes, and I don't plan on breeding her. For all I know, she might just be having her first menstrual cycle and its accompanying agitation.

Has anyone else experienced a sudden, inexplicable change in behavior? Did you find out what caused it, and if necessary remedy the problem? If this is a normal thing for snakes to do, will she eventually get over her moodiness, or will I need to find a way teach her I'm not a threat? I'm not bothered by snakebites, just confused.