Quote Originally Posted by Capt.Britain View Post
I wouldn't be so quick to say you're conditioning the snake to be aggressive out of the tank if you feed her in a separate enclosure. Because conversely, if you fed her in the tank, she would become aggressive when you'd go to pick her up, because a hand in the tank would mean food.

Not if you use tongs.

If the ONLY thing you were doing when taking her out of the tank is feeding, then yes, you'd be slowly conditioning her to be aggressive. Same case with feeding in the tank. But because you're doing different things when taking her out, like handling her and letting her roam around, she isn't being conditioned.

Pavlovian conditioning involves setting certain stimuli to produce certain responses. For example, when I go to handle or perform maintenance on my retics, I show them my snake hook and rub it gently against them, then I proceed to do my business. If I am feeding, the hook is nowhere to be seen and the only thing they see is me, the tongs, and the rat. The only difference with my other specimens is they just see my hand when it's not feeding time. It is more than possible to condition multiple behaviors.

I'd be willing to agree that it's simply a grumpy, stressed out snake.
You're more than welcome to try feeding her in the tank, as I don't think either method (in-tank or separate enclosure) has any real impact on aggressive behaviour, but I would definitely handle her a little less.

I have a scrub who has always been like that; however, this specimen has apparently went from relatively placid to slightly aggressive, and the accepted axiom is that every response has a stimulus, therefore something has caused a change and should be identifiable.
See bolded.