Need some advice please (red tailed boa)

[spence198111]

Hi all,
Hopeing someone can give me some advice please.
I have a red tailed boa, female and around 5,8, she's always been brilliant great manor and always feeds well she ads have been great, but in the last 5/6 weeks she's become very aggressive always hissing and striking at me also gone of her food, I have no idea why she has started to act like this as I've never had any problems with her but now it's nearly impossible to handle her.
Any advice would be great

[IDvsEGO]

that is a big shift in behavior. is she getting enough food? have their been any environmental changes? how big is the enclosure?

[Andy_G]

It is not as common as with males, but it's not unheard of for mature females to become defensive and refuse food during breeding season regardless of whether or not a male is in the vicinity.

[bigsnakegirl785]

My proven adult female does this as well if I let her nighttime temps drop too low. It still stays about 75F give or take a degree or two, but if it falls below 80F at night she turns into a beast. She'll strike at any movement outside her enclosure, and it got to the point I was worried she'd mess up her face, so now I use a heater to raise her temps and that hasn't failed to snap her out of her mood. I've even tried offering her 3x her normal amount of food without any impact on the degree of her ferocity. So long as I keep her warm, she's her normal self, as soon as it drops down she gets on edge. I assume it's breeding season behavior, since lower temps can spark breeding behavior, and I also notice increased interest in the adult male I have housed above her only during these periods of heightened feeding response.

[SnakeyJay]

Are you certain it’s a female, because at that size it’s possible it’s a male tbh... which would readily explain the behaviour at this time of year...

Obviously we can’t rule out environmental issues, as in noise vibrations, too much handling or temps too high etc. Any big changes to routine environment can also unsettle them enough to show some defensiveness... If you’ve got any photos of the viv and her it could help narrow it down.

Goodluck, hopefully you get her sorted!!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by SnakeyJay

Are you certain it’s a female, because at that size it’s possible it’s a male tbh... which would readily explain the behaviour at this time of year...

Obviously we can’t rule out environmental issues, as in noise vibrations, too much handling or temps too high etc. Any big changes to routine environment can also unsettle them enough to show some defensiveness... If you’ve got any photos of the viv and her it could help narrow it down.

Goodluck, hopefully you get her sorted!!

It's possible she's a dwarf, or not fully grown yet as well. Not every female gets large, and OP doesn't seem to know the snake's history. A good probe at a vet should be able to tell the snake's sex with reasonable reliability.

[SnakeyJay]

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

It's possible she's a dwarf, or not fully grown yet as well. Not every female gets large, and OP doesn't seem to know the snake's history. A good probe at a vet should be able to tell the snake's sex with reasonable reliability.

Very true, a good point and your probably on the right track in this case, however in the uk a “Redtail” is bcc.. Bci’s are just called boa constrictor or common Boa.

You could also check for spur size but again, it’s not a definite answer unless you probe.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by SnakeyJay

Very true, a good point and your probably on the right track in this case, however in the uk a “Redtail” is bcc.. Bci’s are just called boa constrictor or common Boa.

You could also check for spur size but again, it’s not a definite answer unless you probe.

In the US, both Bcc and Bi are called red tails, though certain Bi localities may be exempt. I don't really like using that label to refer to Bcc either, though.