Adult ball python suddenly aggressive out of the blue

lupegirl8 · 10-19-15, 09:37 PM

A few months ago my girlfriend and I adopted an adult female ball python (about 4 feet) from the Colorado Reptile Humane Society. I was interning there over the summer and handled this snake several times before we adopted her. She was always extremely friendly and calm even when she hadn't been handled often (they have so many animals they can't handle them all regularly).

Well a few days ago she started getting aggressive out of the blue. I opened her cage to get her out and she came out fast like she does when she's looking for food. I tried to push her head away to let her know it was handling time not feeding time. I reached around to grab the lower half of her body and she turned and bit me. She immediately let go and I was able to handle her totally normally after I washed off my wound (she acted like her normal self).

I assumed that was a fluke and my hands must have smelled like food or something. However the next time I tried to take her out she acted similarly, striking several times and nicking my finger again. It was a day before she normally gets fed so I assumed maybe we weren't feeding her enough and she was just super hungry.

We had been feeding her 3 adult mice once a week. Yesterday we fed her 4 adult mice, hoping that more feed would make her calm down. Well today my girlfriend says that every time she walks by the snake's tank she is striking at the glass.

Nothing has really changed except it's starting to get cooler here (but it's about the same temperature inside the apartment).

Any ideas what could be causing this sudden change in behavior? Do you think she will be handleable once I can get her out of the cage and she realizes it's not feeding time, or will she still be bitey even out of the cage? Is there anything we can do to get her back to the sweet, calm snake she was before?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: SHE IS DEFINITELY NOT IN SHED; SHE SHED A WEEK AGO
Edit 2: I've heard sometimes they get super hungry in late summer/early fall because they are fattening up to fast for the winter? Any chance that is why?