children's python help?

[pretzelpython]

So I've had my (supposedly a yearling, not 100% sure) childrens python close to seven months now. She's been pretty chill, eats regularly, sheds regularly. All of a sudden she's become super defensive and almost panicky if that's a way to describe it in the last month. Any movement or noise she whips around gets super defensive. Today I grabbed her water dish to change it, and the moment I took it out, she raced over to the spot and was all defensive and almost seemed pissed I took her dish. she also bit me today for the first time in a long time, and that's not normal for her. Any ideas or suggestions?

[Herpin' Man]

I would look first at any factor that may have changed recently. My first guess is that warmer temperatures may be making the snake more active. This could increase defensiveness, and it could also increase appetite and feeding response. Are you absolutely certain this is defensive behavior?
I keep Stimson's pythons, which are a closely related species. Mine have become pretty nippy and hyper lately too; I attribute it to increased feeding response. For captive specimens, this is "eating" season.

[pretzelpython]

Honestly, I can't be entirely sure. If it's "eating" season, should I be increasing her food then? I usually feed her a fuzzy mouse (7-10 gs) every 5-7 days, should I change anything about that?

[EL Ziggy]

Double check your temps and make sure they're dialed in. Some snakes get grumpy if it's too hot. Also, how large is your snake? Maybe it's time to increase the food intake a little.

[pretzelpython]

El Ziggy she's only 83 grams as of last time I weighed her, I can't remember what her length was last time I did it but she's definitely closer to 24 inches now. I've been following the 10-15% of the body suggestion as I'm still learning with her. Ive also been struggling with my temps because the hot side is right but I'm struggling to keep the cool side up. The cool side should be 80 F but I can't get it above 74 F.

[EL Ziggy]

What kind of enclosure are you keeping him in and how are you heating it? Can you use a RHP, CHE, or heat bulb to boost your ambient temps? Once your temps are dialed in you could also offer a 2nd prey item every once in awhile or try getting him on rats. My snakes seemed to grow faster on rats.

[pretzelpython]

She's in a 24x18x12 exo terra, it's got an UTH that I keep around 97 to 95 degrees and it in the tank it comes out to be between 85-88 on the surface of the shavings. There's a ceramic heat bulb that's 60 watts, and I do have a regular solar glow bulb but I found that once it went off my temps dropped too much at night, but that was when I had her in a smaller temporary tank. Should I try to switch back to the other bulb and see if that works better?

[EL Ziggy]

I'd measure the surface temps of the glass not the top of the substrate. I had a hard time dialing my temps in with a che. I prefer red heat bulbs controlled with a dimmer. I keep my ambient temp at 78-82. My uth is on a thermostat set at 92-96. That gives me a hot spot surface temp of 88-92. I kill the lights at night and the ambient temps drop to 72ish. As long as they have access to a hot spot they'll be fine.