Waiting to exhale...

[nyx]

Occasionally, when my female boa is annoyed, she'll let out a large "sigh", for lack of a better word. She doesn't have an RI, and her breathing is normal 99% of the time; the behaviour is very much like a closed-mouth hiss. ["I'm mad, but I'm not mad enough to hiss at you. Yet."]

Has anyone else come across this behaviour in any of their snakes?

[Grant vg]

Blood pythons do it all the time.
I doubt its an RI, especially if the mouth remains closed.
Is she an adult?

[nyx]

She is an adult. And it's definitely not an RI - just odd behaviour, apparently. I asked about this previously on other forums, and everyone told me to check her for an RI.

[moperri]

my boas and even my burms do that

[Pixie]

My ball does this occasionally. At first I was worried about an RI as many were suggesting at the time that it could be but she's never had any of the other symtoms. She "hisses" with her mouth closed and not very often. Mine usually will do it when disturbed, if I pick her up and she's a tad grumpy, I'll hear the little hiss.

[Big Mike]

Snakes like the "puff adder" do this all the time... or at least when they have a crazy Austrailian grabbing their tails.

[Linds]

Yup. I'm with everyone else on this, sounds perfectly normal. Quite a few of my snakes exhibit this behaviour. Another noise that they can make is a "stress whistle". It sounds similar to the whistle they make when they are about to shed and their nose is plugged.

[Mr Maggot]

Yeah i've encountered this in my Argentine and i am positive she has no RI. Every now and then she'll make that noise. She will not show any other signs of aggresion or anything after that.

[Pythonian]

T hats all my blood python knows how to do.

Mike

[Dunner]

my burm and retic, do that all the time

[Zoe]

Almost all of mine do that, when I take them out of their tank of have held them for a long time. I wouldn't worry.