SNake is staring us down...

[Crawdad]

Well, our juvenile BP is acting weird. He refused feed on 12/01, then entered shed and finished shed on 12/03, ate a full meal of a small mouse on 12/07, and has been acting crazy ever since. Temps are 77 cold side, 92 warm side, holding steady, and humidity is at ~70%. All these are steady, and have been for nearly 2 months.

for the past 5 days when we go in the room he is in (my home office, a quiet, warm little room that sees relatively little noise or traffic other than myself and my wife), he always has his head and about 3 inches of his body sticking out of a hide, and he is staring straight at us, neck curved, and tongue flickering. Every. Single. Time. No exception, day or night.

We haven't handled him any since he ate (we give 48 hours after feeding, and the other 3 days he was just acting too odd). If we stick our faces up to the side o the tub, he will often approach, and get a fraction of an inch from the side of the tub, and just sort of sit there. No striking, or anything else, he's just always there, watching us. It's never been like that, we usually don't see him much of the time (though he will occasionally stick his head out of his hide near feeding time, like he's waiting ).

Any ideas?

[RichsBallPythons]

try lowering your humidity as 70% is too high if hes not in shed. also bump up that 77 to a minimum 79 if you can.

[Crawdad]

I will give it a shot, but I don't think it's a humidity or temp issue -- he's even hanging out on the cool side right now. My wife thinks he is just hungry again since he refused a meal, which is why he's in "stalk" mode constantly. We were planning on feeding today, but the pet store was out of frozen feeder mice, and I don't want to go back to live. I'm going to swing by PetSmart tomorrow and grab some Arctic Mice there, they always have them in stock.

I should mention that this behavior literally started right after feeding on 12/05 -- he got the mouse down, and while he usually retreats into his hide as soon as he gets it down, this time he stayed out and stayed in strike position, like he was waiting on another mouse. It's not like the mouse he ate was too small, it was actually the largest prey item he has eaten yet, maybe just a little larger than the largest part of his body. He didn't come out of his strike pose until my wife and I left the room, and then he backed into his hide.

[Kaorte]

Then feed him again? Its been 5 or so days.

I really don't see anything wrong with that behavior. He probably just sees you in the room and pokes his head out to see what is up. All of my snakes do that when I enter the room but I highly doubt they are really just awake all day and all night with their head out of their hides.

[Crawdad]

I plan on feeding tomorrow -- I was irritated about not being able to do it today, but I really, really don't want to get the snake back on live when he switched to F/T so easily.

I'm glad that it sounds normal -- it is unusual for our snake, but maybe he is finally "settling in" now that he finished his first shed.

[Southernshooter]

He is just a little curious.

[singingtothewheat]

curious, healthy, hungry and probably feeling the seasonal urge to seek a mate? any of these could be to blame. I have one ball like this, my normal. The minute she hears me she comes out of her hide to investigate. While I don't totally believe balls can feel affection, at least as we know it. It secretly thrills me. lol

[AMPearce]

Maybe it's time to up the prey size a little bit.

[zantedeschia]

My ball python was doing that before I upsized her prey. Always had her head out or stuck it out of her cave when I walked past. So yours might be hungry.

[j_h_smith]

Sounds to me like you've got a hungry snake on your hands. Either bump up the size of prey or feed every 4 to 5 days.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith