First off, I'd like to thank all of you who post here for helping me (though you haven't known about it) with taking care of my little Burmese.

Maybe a little background before I get to my question. I purchased him from a small pet store located in the mall here in the Cleveland area which specializes mostly in dogs and cats. I realize now how atrociously their reptiles/amphibians/fish are generally treated after reading posts off this site religiously and mimicking your advice to others to fit my own problems. Balls kept in very small cages, no hides, 5-6 to a cage, not being spot cleaned.. They even had a cage of extremely small green tree snakes where so many were kept in a 5 gallon cage that 4 had died and gone through rigor mortis and they hadn't realized (this was today). I was, however, generally lucky with my snake.

He's a little small for his age, my guess is around 3-4 months, but has shown great promise despite where I got him. He's a voracious eater, has never turned down a frozen pinkie/fuzzy, which I feed him weekly, and drinks in front of me when offered water. The cage I currently have him in has a coconut grind substrate, is small (a ten gallon for now), has an overhead light and an undertank heater which keep the tank from 90-92 on the basking side in the day and a general 80 at night. He's also very docile, and even while acclimating to his new home, never tried to tag me.

My first issue with him came about in his first shed. His eyes clouded, so I tried to leave him alone and give him his space, but then noticed after a few days that he was shedding in small pieces. I had a wire cover at that time and looked around on the site and found the tin foil/electrical tape treatment to that problem. It kept in the heat/humidity much better. It took him a few more days, but the rest of the skin came off (still in pieces), but I'm hoping that was only because of how he had been before.

Now to my problem. I took him out today as I would any other day to do a full clean of his cage. He came out gently, wrapped around my fingers and I layed him down on my bed while I unplugged the heater and pulled out his hide, water dish, and the little things I keep suction cupped to the walls. I took them to the bathroom to soak, came back to check on him, right where I left him. Took the cage to the bathroom, emptied the substrate, washed it, came back and was going to play with him while the water dish and things soaked. I walked back to the bed, sat down, and noticed a small spider running away from him. I reached down to pick him up and WHAM!, he got my thumb. I was shocked, he'd never done that before. I don't know if he was startled by me or if the spider got him and scared him, but he was ticked. He flattened out and snapped at me four or five more times.

Eventually, I covered him up with a towel to calm down and finished cleaning his things. I went back a few times to check on him and got the same response. He lashed out every time I got near. Grabbing a pair of gloves, I picked him up, causing him to move faster than I've ever seen him, and struggling, finally got him back in the cage. The second he hit the bottom, his tongue started flicking and he unflattened and started moving around. The second I moved again though, he stopped and didn't move again for an hour or so. I covered the cage with an old shirt and stuck a sock of mine in with him.

So that's my question/rant. I'd just like to know if he was just startled or if any of you have had any problems with small insects freaking out your fearsome serpents.

I'd also like to thank you again for all the help you've unknowingly given me and say hello, because I'll have this guy for quite a while and I'd like to become more active on the forums. So whatever responses you have, thank you in advance!