extreme agressiveness please help

[bigballs]

i have one little red tail boa that i got in august. comparing her to her clutchmates she has hardly grown at all although she eats every week. she only weighs 100 grams and i have seen a couple of her siblings and they are at least 3 times her size or more. since she came home with me she has been a little shy but never scared and can be handled regularily with no problems. her feeding response is crazy. shes always ready to eat whenever i open the tub and if i put my hand in front of her face without a rat pink she would not strike.

so heres what happend. i opened her tub as usual and shes there flicking her tongue in strike postition. i slowly pick her up as usual and slowly walk over to my couch where my scale was placed at the time. i placed her on the scale and as im reading "100g" she struck at my face. she climed off the scale on to the table, hissing and puffing up, i carefully tried to pick her up as she kept striking and eventually bit me. i was shocked as she continued to open mouth hiss at me in strike postion and would continuosly strike in my direction when i moved. so im sitting in front of her, half shocked to realize how scary such a small snake can become within a matter of seconds, just watching her for a good 10 mins to see if she might calm down. shes not calming down so i put her back in her tub. i used winter gloves to pick her up because i didnt want her to bite me again. she didnt strike too much at the gloves and actually calmed down a little until i placed her back in her tub where she started hissing and striking at me as i walked by.

i am really surprised here because this came right out of nowhere. am i doing or did i do something to cause her to act like that? has this happend to anyone before? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[frankykeno]

You got her in August 07 (not sure her hatch date) and she's only 100 grams now in January 08! Wow that is very small. What did she weigh back in August when you got her?

Lack of weight gain on appropriate feeding, would trigger me to automatically have a fecal float done. What are you feeding her and how often?

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

I would say its normal. Just keep handling. There is no set size for a boa to be at a certain age. As long as shes not skinny, you are fine. If you are worried, yes you can get a fecal done but that wouldn't be a concern to me. Boas all grow at different paces and just like people, they can have bad days.

I would on the other hand bump her up on feeding a bit. I am feeding my 80-90 gram female nics 2 large rat pinks every 10 days and they are doing great. If you don't feel comfortable going up a rat size, feeding 2 prey items is the way to go.

Hope this helps. I have quite a few young boas still, if you need anything, be sure to let me know

[bigballs]

well im not worried about her size too much. she eats every 7 days and takes rat pinks like crazy but she is too small to move up to anything else. an adult mouse would leave a bulge too big in her. she is not skinny at all and has a good thickness for her size. she is guaranteed captive bred as she is het for pastel and i know the breeder she is from. i won't rule out getting a float done but i doubt parasties are the issue. (although if she does have parasites it may explain this behaviour).

im more concerned about why she just snapped on me like this. i took her out the next day and she did the same thing. i'll keep handling her to try to calm her down but its so weird how she switched from a complete angel to a crazy devil!

ill feed her a rat pink every five days and maybe see a growth spurt and hopefully it will help calm her down. at 2ft shes scary as hell i could hardly imagine what shes going to be like at a couple times that size.

thanks for the responses guys. if you can think of anything else please let me know. ill try to get pics of her up soon!

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

More that likely, you just freaked her out, she is going in shed, or she was just having a bad day just like we all do from time to time. No worries in my book

[JimiSnakes]

There is no such thing as a "het for pastel" in boas. Sorry man.