"Selective" striking?

[xFenrir]

I took my girl out the other day so my two friends could get a look at her and she could get some "fresh air". Every time I've handled her or had her out she wanders over everybody and shows no problems being handled. But as soon as she was out she locked on to my guy friend and stared him down from halfway across the room for a good minute before striking at him twice. She's never shown aggression like that before, and my friend said it might be because he owns a LOT of cats.

Is it possible the cat-scent made her nervous/afraid or could it just be she was having an off day?

[xFenrir]

No one knows?

[OhhWatALoser]

scent is very possible

[TomC]

I know my cats scent does not seem to have an effect on my snake but I am sure she is used to it since they live in the same house. I am curious to see what others think about this.

[vangarret2000]

It could be a lot of things. Does it strike at him every single time it sees him? If not it is probably just a coincidence it struck towards him. Just because his head was pointed towards him, doesn't mean his was staring at him. His eyes could have been looking at something else.

It could be scent. No neccisarily the cat scent, but something on him. Or i might be spooked by the cat smell. Other animals won't always bother snakes but they could. Out of my collection, none of them care about our dog, but we do have one snake that you can easily see it's behaviour change when the dog if near it. This could be a stretch, but if his cats ate or played with rodents he could have had the scent of food on him.

It could be his movements spooked him.

Something else could have spooked it and he was just in the way when it struck out.

Bring it out a few more time when he is there and see what happens.

[vangarret2000]

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[llovelace]

Maybe he was just giving off the wrong "vibes"

[xFenrir]

I know snakes can sense when your nervous and he started backing up when she "stared" so maybe that triggered it. And he doesn't have just one or two cats, he literally has 30 or so cats and maybe it was just the overwhelming smell that did it?

[vangarret2000]

It could have been the smell or it could have been some other factor as well. There are many reasons a snake could want to defend itself if it gets spooked.

Try having him handle the snake a few times and see if the same reaction happens. If it keeps freaking out I would say it could probably be the cat smell. If it doesn't have that reaction again, it was probably some else that triggered it. Have your buddy over a few more times to see how the snake reacts. It would be interesting to hear the results.