Striking but not striking freak out??

[wmach22]

Hey everyone, I tried looking online to see what may cause him to act this way and the only conclusion I may come to is that I may have startled him by such a change in atmosphere and he became stressed quickly.

Situation explanation, I have had my Royal for nearly two years now and the owner before me had him for about five years, I work in the Everglades around around other reptiles and animals and many co workers on site who have seen my snake said that he is a very healthy looking 3 footer. Living in Florida, the outdoor temperature constantly changes from extreme hots to humid to rainy to even at night sometimes freezing. My python is in a 40 gallon tank, has a wicker woven upside down basket hide that i intertwined vines through, an AstroTurf substrate, a glass waterbowl big enough for him to soak in that has vines and smooth rocks around it, I have an under the tank heating pad and a night glo light thats 50 watt considering my room tends to already be hot, I don't want him to be cooking in the tank, I change his water repeatedly and mist his tank everyday, I handle him quite often and is very gentle, some days he is a bit finicky and wont let me pick him up so I will leave him alone but he is surely handled often.

I took him out today during the day time which I do about 2 times a week, at night I take him about about 4 -5 times a week considering he is nocturnal.

Today when I did take him out he was a little tense at first which is normal, after a few minutes he relaxes and is all over my hands and wanting to explore, I can hold him with one hand and he will stay perfectly fit around it, he is a very gentle snake.

However...

Today I took him out with me to get the mail, and this is where I think maybe I startled him due to the temperature and lighting change and the overall outside atmosphere which today is a bit of a 70's heated air. On my way back to the house, he made a very quick hiss and strike, he did it about 5 to 10 times, either away from me or towards me, he tried getting away from me a bit it seems to the point where his tail was gripped around my wrist and hand tight enough for him to sort of hang from it, so I held him with both hands, at this moment, when I got a good grip on him to show him he was elevated and not going to fall he calmed down a bit more but here or there would strike. The odd thing with his striking was however, when he struck, his mouth never opened as if he were to bite. His entire head lunged foreword, he exhaled and hissed but never opened his mouth like he does when striking for his food. How it kinda looked as an example if a human were to do it, I could say it would kinda look like if someone had a big big big sneezing attack.

When I got back into the house it was a little darker in the hallway he completely calmed down enough for me to get him back to his tank. When I put him in the tank is where another odd thing happened, his body was kind of whipping everywhere in tense bursts. He would tense up a bit and then whip his body, banging against the glass or his water bowl, he completely push his basket from one side of the tank to the other in one move, and would give off a hiss like he doesnt want to be touched, like if someone were to shrug off another person. He then would press his head against the glass and kinda try to push the cage off the top which is securely in place, so that didn't alert me much but its the fact that he acted that way, when usually when I put him in his tank he crawls straight into his basket and lays down.

SORRY FOR THE LOOONNNG POST, but just wondering has anyone else's Ball ever done this? So far this is the third or fourth time its happened, but it is a long period of time between his little freak outs and a few days after I am a little more cautious picking him up but I am successful. Could it be maybe taking him outside startled him? Stressed him out? and what about the striking but not striking thing? Could it be that for some reason maybe when I get a little nervous holding him he senses that and has the freak out?

I watched him in his cage till he calmed down a bit, misted the cage and covered part of it up to kinda give him his space. Anyway, would appreciate some feed back from more experienced owners??

Thanks. :]

[The Serpent Merchant]

You probably just stressed him out, but it is difficult to say for sure.

Do you have any thermometers in your cage? if so what type? Is your under thank heating pad being regulated by a thermostat? What about cage humidity? Is his hide tight fitting do you have more than one in his cage? He might have been stressed out to begin with if anything in his cage is wrong.

[Flikky]

I've noticed that when I walk around with my reptiles too much they get squirmy sometimes and want to get to the floor. I assume they don't like the jerky motion. If it was a long walk to your mailbox, maybe that got him riled up. I'm just trying to think of something other then being outside that scared him.

[wmach22]

I did till recently have a thermometer, and hydrometer, when I first got him the temperature got up to about 90 which frightened me because my bedroom itself has sort of bad air conditioning, I switched the light bulb to a night glo bulb of a lesser watt and it regulated the tank on one side to about 80, and the other side a tad bit less. Only recently did I get rid of the thermometer. I have both the bulb and under the tank heater on a daily timer, to turn off for twenty minutes but stay on for forty at night just because temperatures drop, during the day I switch it to a bit less heat because like I've said before my room itself heats up and I don't want to have him becoming dehydrated...I have been rereading over all of my research I have done before I got him, and even had a neighbor who breeds snakes look at the cage and he has even approved it. Like I said also this striking freak out thing happens between long periods of time. The last time this happened was the beginning of the year. So maybe it could be that too much time and activity out of his cage can spook him. I am definitely heading to the pet store today for a new thermometer...has something like this happened to you before where your snake got startled? Also one last thing the 40 gallon that I have, holds mainly the snake the one hide and the water bowl. The hide fits perfectly enough for him to coil up and rest his head on. The wicker is tight fitting that when I look inside it I can barely see him, so its dark in there for him and I put the vines on top too, to allow it to blend in with the other vines in his tank.

[wmach22]

Hey Flikky, yeah I'm trying to go over everything and think of what maybe else could have caused him to act like that, I am considering Aaron's reply a lot because if he has been stressed out since the beginning I feel really bad because I want him to feel comfortable in his living environment, and to think the past two years I have been maybe doing it wrong I want to fix it immediately. Has your python ever done the striking thing? Like he struck about 5 to 10 times in all different directions but he never opened his mouth as if he were striking to bite.

[Flikky]

No I haven't had anything like that happen so I can't explain that Why did you get rid of your thermometer and hydrometer?

[The Serpent Merchant]

OK, you MUST regulate UTH's with a thermostat, and monitor them with a probed thermometer. Unregulated they can and will get up to 130 degrees in a matter of hours. This is more than enough to kill your snake. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean that it won't. Unregulated UTH's can be a real fire hazard as well. You want the hot side of the cage to be 90 degrees and the cool side to be 80 degrees. 60% humidity is ideal.

Checkout this thread on cage heating for info on good heat sources/thermostats/thermometers: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

And this thread on husbandry: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

Your hide really isn't ideal, as it has to be hard to clean. plastic is the best choice. I prefer these: http://www.reptilebasics.com/hide-boxes

You need to have a hide on the hot side of the cage and one on the cool side so the snake can regulate its body temperature without having to sacrifice security.

This is what many would consider the ideal BP cage setup:

[wmach22]

Flikky I got rid of the Thermometer and hydrometer recently because when I cleaned out the cage this past month I had the simple stick on ones, well from the water they ended up getting ruined and so I removed them. Aaron I definitely will look into a more health based set up for the cage, I put up pictures so you can see exactly what I have been describing about the cage set up, I wanted to keep it more of a nature based look, with the wicker hide and vines. It has always bugged me that my python hasn't had a warm and cool hide, its just that from the original tank I had for him to the upgraded 40 gallon one now, there still seems to be little space for two hides big enough for him to fit into, a water dish, and room for him to roam around...It's the spacing of the overall tank that has kept me to his layout now...Check out the pictures of his habitat so you get more of an idea.

[wmach22]

Also Aaron, the hide box page you posted up is SUCH A HUGE HELP, I didn't even know that site existed. How big is your python and what size box would you recommend for a 3 foot ball?

[The Serpent Merchant]

I would get the large size for your snake.