Okay - All I know is that I know nothing... so pardon my ignorance up front.

I have a 3 ft 3 y.o. ball that I got on mother's day (5/11) which was 25 days ago.

When we got it, the previous owner said it was 3 years old, docile as could be - had never bitten anyone. It ate only live mice, and once a small rat. He tried to get it to eat a frozen mouse - not interested. That's some background as told to me prior to becoming ours.

Since we've had it, it's eaten twice: once the week we got it (one mouse), and once 2 weeks later. The first time was one mouse, and the second time two mice. Here it is eating the 2nd mouse the 2nd time: http://youtube.com/watch?v=VCXxBiSYdlk

We've handled it every day since we've had it. It had a bad shed a week or so ago, and after reading up on here, we did a soak in a pillowcase, and I helped it out of its skin (eye caps 'n all). It was a heck of a lot calmer after it got rid of the skin.

Now things get interesting..... on Tuesday (2 days ago) it bit my son hard enough that it broke the skin. Out of the blue. And last night it hissed at my husband. I have no idea what's going on. I didn't even know ball pythons hiss.

Here's my stupid paranoid newbie question: Is there any chance it could be a female and could have been fertilized without our knowledge over 25 days ago, and could be "preggers"? I read an amazing page from a link on here, and it's not doing the things like wrapping itself around its water bowl or anything that I've noticed, but the spine is very, very defined like it said on that link. It's more angular than round on top.

Just a thought.... would love to hear yours.

Thank you.

- judiilana