HELP! I fear I'm doing something horribly wrong!

[kckilgannon]

My almost 3-year-old male, Cali, who has always been a sweetheart, has suddenly turned extremely aggressive and antisocial. He used to be a dream, I could handle him as much as I wanted, and would almost every day. For about a month now, his personality has completely changed for the worst. I don't know what to do and I fear I'm doing something wrong. The fact that I am afraid to handle him is causing other problems such as my inability to properly clean his cage. I will try to explain in the best detail the conditions and events that may have led to this. I also have a few ideas of what the problem could be, but this is my first and only snake I've ever owned, so I can't be sure.

I bought Cali about a year ago off of a friend. He has always been very healthy and docile. He has never bitten anyone or taken a strike at anything except for a mouse. When I bought Cali, I also bought a large amount of frozen mice that my friend had as well. They are about medium-sized and he had been feeding them to him for a while. He did well on one a week for a while, but soon I saw he was beginning to get bigger and the mice appeared to be too small. However, I still had SO MANY of these mice that I had to try to get rid of as many as I could before I moved him up to rats, etc. After awhile I started to feed him two mice a week, the same day about twenty minutes apart.

About three months ago, he seemed as if he needed more than two mice; he was always still very active after eating. I was hesitant to feed him three, because I felt it may be too many separate prey items at once. So, I started to alternate, feeding him three mice some weeks, and two mice others. He seemed as if he was doing fine until about a month ago. After feeding him two mice, he was still extremely active, looking like he needed more. I had fed him three mice the previous week, however, so I denied him at first. I waited two days to handle him, as I normally do. He was out of his hide, and I walked over to the cage. This is when I first noticed he was acting strange. He was immediately on me, stalking me almost. He had his head in the air, and he just kept following me, looking very aggressive. When I opened the tank, he immediately lunged down into strike position.

I have read that you should not feed a snake outside its weekly schedule, but I was afraid that he was really hungry and was acting this way because he was stuck in "eat mode." I panicked and fed him two more mice that day; I had been reading that mice have less nutrients than rats. I usually would never do something like this, but I was afraid that he was starving and I had to do something. I waited two more days to handle him again, and this time when I went to put my hand under him he started almost "shrugging me off." He did not want me to hold him AT ALL, and this is when I first began to get extremely scared.

I had my boyfriend go to the pet store that day and get me a few prepackaged small rats. I then waited until Cali's normal feeding day to try to feed him one (this was about four days after the last two mice). Once again, I would normally never do this, but out of fear of his possible malnutrition, I really wanted to attempt to feed him the rat. He took it readily, and then I waited two more days - still extremely aggressive. This was a week ago, and I have tried to pick him up twice since. He immediately recoils and runs into his hide when I open the tank. He is still being aggressive, but also acting like he is now terrified of me. And I am very afraid that the longer I go without handling him, the more antisocial he will become and I will not be able to handle him anymore without getting attacked.

I have no idea what the problem could be, but I have a few ideas:

1. My original thought: he was eating too little and is now stuck in "feed mode" because he is always hungry.
2. Maybe, on the other hand, I was feeding him too much (too many prey items, and especially the mistakes I made in the last two weeks).
3. Climate: I live in Pennsylvania, and lately our weather has been very strange. It is autumn, but it has been 80 degrees every day.
4. Mating season: Cali was too small last year, with his old owner, to be sexually mature. I don't know how ball pythons act during mating season, but I have read that it is during autumn/late autumn. (ALSO: a friend of mine, who also has a male python of the same age and size, is experiencing the EXACT SAME problems with her snake as I am.)



PLEASE, if you have any ideas on what the problem could be, please tell me! I considered my snake to be my best friend and this is truly hurting me. Thank you.

[Badgemash]

To help ease your mind on the food, don't worry too much about the schedule. It's nice when it works, but real life often gets in the way. If he's not hungry, he's not going to eat, which is why it's almost impossible to "power feed" a ball the way some people do with boas. I'm happy he was willing to take a rat for you, some of them are very difficult if not impossible to switch once they've been on mice for extended time periods. To be honest with you, he probably is quite hungry. 2 or 3 mice (or one small rat) is a rather small meal for a 3 year old. How much does he weigh, and could you give us some details on his set up? What are the temperatures in his enclosure? If it's too cool, he may be having trouble digesting his food, which would of course make him rather uncomfortable.

[kckilgannon]

To help ease your mind on the food, don't worry too much about the schedule. It's nice when it works, but real life often gets in the way. If he's not hungry, he's not going to eat, which is why it's almost impossible to "power feed" a ball the way some people do with boas. I'm happy he was willing to take a rat for you, some of them are very difficult if not impossible to switch once they've been on mice for extended time periods. To be honest with you, he probably is quite hungry. 2 or 3 mice (or one small rat) is a rather small meal for a 3 year old. How much does he weigh, and could you give us some details on his set up? What are the temperatures in his enclosure? If it's too cool, he may be having trouble digesting his food, which would of course make him rather uncomfortable.

He has always been in a 30 GAL long tank, for as long as I've had him. There is one hide on the hot side (rock cave), and one hide on the cool side (log). I have been meaning to actually buy a thermometer. My friend who sold him to me, who has a good amount of snake experience, insisted that it wasn't necessary with a ball as long as I was attentive of his movement around the cage. He told me that if he regularly changed from hot side to cool side, that his temps were normal. Recently, he's actually spent more time on the COOL side, so maybe heat is an issue? I should also probably add that he has been defecating a little more often than usual, BUT it is normal-looking.
I think it's definitely time to get a thermometer though; I think I may run to the pet store and get one today. It is about 75F in my room, so I'd assume his cool side is about 75-78, while the hot is about 85ish. All I know is he's always been fine until recently.

I am not sure how much he weighs, the most I can do for you is give you a picture. It was taken about two months ago, he's the same size.





Also, here is a picture of the new rats I got for him.

[200xth]

You should definitely get a thermometer. Hard to identify potential temperature issues without one, and it's good to know what the temps actually are that your snake is experiencing.

Might want to get a scale, too. Tracking his weight over time can come in handy at times as well.

Is that rat about the same width as the widest part of your snake?

[Badgemash]

85 is a bit cool, but if you have no way of measuring with certainty it's hard to judge. I recommend you skip the pet store thermometers, many people on here have found them to be wildly inaccurate, and I'd hate for you to waste your money. I personally use an infrared thermometer as it's much more accurate, something like this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-Non...y#.UlLoxBac8Rk would work. If not, the accurite weather thermometers (I'm told you can pick them up cheaply at walmart) are generally correct within around 4 degrees.

[Crazymonkee]

What heat source are you using to create the hot side?

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[kckilgannon]

What heat source are you using to create the hot side?

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Exo-Terra under tank heating pad

[bcr229]

My first, second, and third guess is that he's just very hungry. This is the time of year when BP's really start pounding the food b/c most will stop eating during breeding season. Also, be glad he switched from mice to rats quickly, many "mousers" stay picky and simply won't touch a rat.

You said he got pre-packaged small rats from the store, so I'll assume F/T. If they were the "Arctic Mice" brand then their small rats are pretty danged small, I think 50 grams each is typical. So, I could see an adult male easily downing two of them and wanting more. Look on FB or CL for a local supplier who can sell you F/T mediums, and offer one of those each week.

For handling, I would avoid it for 2 days after feeding, give him time to digest. Otherwise, diving into his hide and hissing is defensive not aggressive behavior, it just means he's happy and comfortable in his "house" and doesn't want to be messed with.

ETA: Do you have a thermostat regulating that UTH?

[kckilgannon]

My first, second, and third guess is that he's just very hungry. This is the time of year when BP's really start pounding the food b/c most will stop eating during breeding season. Also, be glad he switched from mice to rats quickly, many "mousers" stay picky and simply won't touch a rat.

You said he got pre-packaged small rats from the store, so I'll assume F/T. If they were the "Arctic Mice" brand then their small rats are pretty danged small, I think 50 grams each is typical. So, I could see an adult male easily downing two of them and wanting more. Look on FB or CL for a local supplier who can sell you F/T mediums, and offer one of those each week.

For handling, I would avoid it for 2 days after feeding, give him time to digest. Otherwise, diving into his hide and hissing is defensive not aggressive behavior, it just means he's happy and comfortable in his "house" and doesn't want to be messed with.

ETA: Do you have a thermostat regulating that UTH?

The thing is that he has never exhibited this sort of behavior. He's never been afraid of me picking him up, and he seems terrified now. Is it possible for him to become unsocialized due to the lack of handling, even if he's been handled often his whole life before now?

Also, there is no thermostat for the UTH. He has used the same one his whole life, and it still feels like it's working/same temp. as far as I can tell. I'm thinking I need to completely overhaul his tank supplies.

[Crazymonkee]

I ask because without a thermometer or thermostat who knows what the actually temps are... if his hot side is too hot that may be why he's spending so much time on the cool side, and if the cool side is 75 then he may not be digesting correctly...

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