Need others input on male BP behavior so I know to be concerned or not.

[ontariosnakelover]

Hey everyone. My yellow belly boy Kronos has been acting differently the past couple months. I've had him for a few years now and he's proudly sired a couple clutches with my others.
Recently he just won't stop moving around the enclosure. Like I know they are escape artists and can get motivated in the right scenarios to go crazy, but this is just too much. Like he goes for hours and hours trying to get somewhere, pushing off and into things , scraping against the glass and wood and such. Hasn't wanted to eat for a couple months but wasn't worried about that at first since he's done 6 months plus dry stretches befor. Still offer him weekly tho. He's one of those picky ASF eaters lol I'm kind of concerned though because if he was normal and not eating then thats one thing, but days and weeks of tons of moving, he's gotta be burning energy stores. He's thinned out slightly but he's not in any negative looking condition.
His tongues are flicking and he's got no discoloration in the mouth area or underbelly. He just seems crazy hyper which immediately made me wonder if it's a breeding thing? He's bred previously but never went through times like this, although I shelved him this year so he hasn't bred at all. Do male balls have this type of reaction to this time of year for that reason? He's been like this basically April 2024 to now which is June . Maybe if he'd eat then I wouldn't worry much but I'm a nervous papa for sure.
Tried doing a deep clean of his house, all the stuff in it. Gave himself a good clean,.sometimes the coco husk color rubs on him after fresh stuff is added. As of today his hotspot is around 88. Any advice, input or just words of wisdom would be appreciated 😊

[Armiyana]

Just sounds like he's restless from hormones. If you have females nearby he could be picking up on the pheromones.

I would just keep an eye on him and make sure he's not dropping too much weight. I expect that he'll be pretty pushy or jumpy if you try to pick him up. That tends to be another sign of a restless, hormonal male.

Hopefully he won't push hard enough to injure his nose. Once the season winds down he should start eating again and just start settling in again.


If for any reason he starts dropping weight, becomes very lethargic or you see any suspicious stools I would get him checked out with a vet. Otherwise just keep an eye on him.

[ontariosnakelover]

Thank you for your input. Yeah I keep all my snakes in my bedroom and there's 2 other female balls ten feet away from him. He bred 1 girl for 2 seasons back to back, then I stopped so.he hasn't bred this year. I honestly didn't think that would be enough to drive him this crazy if hormones is the reason why.
But yeah, he isn't dramatically losing weight, he's still flicking normally, no food so no stool, still small urates now and then.
Despite acting crazy with all his movement , I havnt seen him rubbing his nose excessively, but mainly using his body pushing against everything. Hopefully within the month or 2 more he will calm down I hope

[Armiyana]

yeah, body vs nose pushing is another good sign it's just hormonal. Remember one of the first things they'll do is just press up against everything when you put them in the girl's tubs. The "I'm here" warning to any potential boys in the area. So definitely sounds like he's just being a boy.

[Luvyna]

My male BP has been behaving the exact same way for several months! Sporadic eating and he is also pushing off of parts of his enclosure with his body and highly active for the whole night, but no nose rubbing. Sometimes if I touch him when he's out cruising his enclosure, he will push my hand away with his body. I've also noticed he's slimmed a bit but body condition still looks fine (he was a tad overweight before though).

If you've been offering your BP food every week, it might actually help to cut back on that since offering food too often can stress out BPs or develop a habit of refusals. If he's a few years old and eating appropriately sized rats, he may only need to eat once every 2 or 3 weeks instead of every week. Giving him food only when he's definitely hungry instead of on a set schedule may help with avoiding food strikes.

I was able to get my BP who had become very ambivalent about food and a drop feeder to go back to striking every time with the advice people gave me in this thread and he has not missed a meal since my last post, hopefully some of this can help with your BP as well: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...eeding-trouble