I've had my girl for about 6 months now and she has never shown any signs of aggression at all - eats and sheds regularly, etc. I am a dancer and intend to perform with her soon. I had to film an audition today, so I brought her to the studio in a large basket, ran my routine with her several times, which entailed me needing to take her out of the basket and put her back in several times in a row. All was fine during this time. When I got home, I was taking her out of the basket to put her back in her cage and she struck my shoulder. Luckily I was wearing a thick sweatshirt so it didn't hurt terribly bad. I was casually talking to my roommate while bringing her out so not sure if maybe she was in a weird position or something was hurting her, I don't really see what it could have been. I don't know what caused this - could it have been stress from the day? I also normally only bring her out about once a week and this was about the fourth time this week I brought her out. I have friends who perform with snakes and they were shocked to hear of the incident as they regularly travel and do shows with their red tails with no issues.

The other possible factor is that I recently discovered she has mites. I tried treating her with a natural spray earlier in the week but I don't think it worked as she is back in her water bowl. I have ordered PAM and waiting for it to arrive.

She is also due for a feeding, it's been a little over 4 weeks now but I don't think this would have been an issue?

I'm glad to know that i can handle a bite from her, but I don't want it to happen again! And if it happened on stage it would be mortifying. Does anyone have any insights as to what could have caused her to do this?