my precious girl has become quite forward

[cncmachineguy]

My beautiful 1 year old pastel is all of the sudden very aggressive seeming. She has always been an excellent eater - never missed a meal. Fed her on Friday and she is back out hunting today. She even bit my wife when she was cleaning some soiled bedding. Now I don't mean to say my wife put her hand in front and got bitten, I mean Charlotte came out of her hide to bite her at the other end of the tub.
So tonight I was looking in on her and out she came from the hide, zoomed towards me and struck at me. (I was outside of her clear side so she could see me).

Now I get maybe she is just having a bad day (if that exists?), but figured I would see if anybody has noticed this before and should I worry?

[Bogertophis]

Do you feed live rodents? Either way, she sounds maybe hungry...what size is her food (compared to her)? You might be under-
feeding her without meaning to. And feeding live rodents had been known to make snakes hard to handle without bites, they get
used to being pumped up to attack whatever is tossed into their cage.

[cncmachineguy]

Yes she has always been fed live under a close watchful eye from me including while she "takes care of business" I watch the mouth area for her safety. As for size/amount of food, she is fed weekly 10-15% of her weight. now keep in mind, when she was 500g, that was 50-55g rat. now that she is approx 1000g, the window opens up more. 100-150g rats. I gave her 2 approx 50g rats. I should think that would be good until next Friday. Do they care about 1@ 100g vs 2@ 50g? I never really thought about it but I suppose she could still "fell" hungry if that belly is not full enough.

We handle her 2 - 3 times a week on the regular. This is the first time she has acted like this.

[Bogertophis]

Snakes learn what works for them...they don't think about being pets...so when you feed live you might not have a good "pet", one that doesn't bite you.

Besides the fact that feeding live, sooner or later your snake will get injured & need medical care (expensive), feeding live rodents brings out the aggression
instincts in snakes. Even if they've eaten "enough", think of snakes like teenagers...always hungry for more. And remember, even though their growth slows
down eventually as adults, snakes grow their whole life. Food is always gonna be their "thing".

[CALM Pythons]

Most likely if she tagged your wife and didn’t try to wrap it was defensive not a feed bite... if it was a feed Bite you would know as they don’t usually let go without either Mouthwash, Alcohol, Hand Sanitizer or good Patience lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bogertophis]

Yes she has always been fed live under a close watchful eye from me including while she "takes care of business" I watch the mouth area for her safety....

Also, I hate to burst your bubble, but no matter how close you stand by & watch, you cannot prevent a nasty rodent bite to your snake, and they tend to get nice &
infected. (I've raised rats, mice, & hamsters for many years, & an accidental bite from one when I broke up their fight nearly had ME at the doctor...nasty infection!)

Rodent bites happen fast & any exotic vet that's been in business for a while can tell you the horrible cases they've seen where a rodent destroyed a snake's eye, etc.

[cncmachineguy]

So prolly I am just confused some here. I thought when fed F/T or fresh killed, the snake still goes through all the motions? Like doing the zombie dance, doesn't the snake strike at the food and kill it anyway? If this is true, how does live vs dead affect the aggressive nature? Also are you suggesting we can turn a naturally chicken curl up in a ball snake into basically a rattle snake just by feeding it live food? Mind you I am just trying to be sure I understand what you are saying.

[cncmachineguy]

Also, I hate to burst your bubble, but no matter how close you stand by & watch, you cannot prevent a nasty rodent bite to your snake, and they tend to get nice &
infected. (I've raised rats, mice, & hamsters for many years, & an accidental bite from one when I broke up their fight nearly had ME at the doctor...nasty infection!)

true, 1 of mine bit me on my thumb ( I thought it was doing the normal Squeeze my finger thing) and actually drew blood. That rat is no longer in my colony. Lucky for me no infection, but I assume I was just lucky there.

Now that the rats are getting older when fed, I was thinking about fresh kill instead of live.

[Bogertophis]

Yes, snakes "go thru the motions" but some snakes also learn to eat calmly from tongs, or at least aren't as pumped up as making kills. I've never seen any f/t that
fought back, lol. It's your snake, do what you want.

[Bogertophis]

true, 1 of mine bit me on my thumb ( I thought it was doing the normal Squeeze my finger thing) and actually drew blood. That rat is no longer in my colony. Lucky for me no infection, but I assume I was just lucky there.

Now that the rats are getting older when fed, I was thinking about fresh kill instead of live.

Fresh-killed is a great option, assuming it doesn't bother you to do it. It has more scent & natural warmth to entice the snake, but safe for the snake...especially with
larger rats. Not worth the risk of feeding live to get that beautiful snake all scarred up, or needing a vet for medicine & treatment. With the feeding response that yours
has, it probably won't care one bit.