pretty sure they are just hisses then, fairly constant tho. my otherball never hisses hes just a sweetheart. no it wasnt left alone, put poly on burn everynight till its shed, aplied sporaticly now. the guy before me only had it a month. hesaid he bought it for his 8yr old son but this snake was a bit of a handful i guess. it has tagged me 3 times already since i got it. he wasnt able to get it to eat anything he said he tried mice and rats. ive gotten it to feed twce for me now on ft sm rats. but it acts so scared of them like I said. defensive strikes a few times then coils. actually almosts runs from it till its fed up enough with being bopped in the head with the rat. named it skittles as its very very skittish. stressed makes alot of sense