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Suddenly aggressive python

Posted By:

tearsoftheblameless

In Relation To:

Rock

i have a 3 month old burmese python whom i started out on live food items. recently i switched him to frozen thawed and hes been doing well. i slipped the other day and gave him a live rat... my bad. never again... he attempted to strike and wrap but the rat was able to escape. my snake was so scared he flew out of his feed box and i grabed him only to have him striking at me. i waited a week and tried with a smaller frozen thawed prey item. once again he immediately went into attack mode whipping and striking not paying any attention to the mouse. how do i calm him down? hes fine when i pick him up just when i offer food. should i just wait it out?


Points:	150
Topics:	Feeding
Tags:	Aggression, Behavior, Bivittatus, Feeding, Molurus, Python
Species:	Pythons > Pythons > Python molurus bivittatus
Administrative:	Show/Hide

Member Comment

11/7/2009 4:34:00 PM

masterfulpoopsie

Wait it out, Bad on you, Thats like giving live bacon to Nate, you just don't do it.

Wait it out, offer the FT, he will be aggro towards it because its food but theres a difference from food ag. to just nasty.

Assisted Answer

11/7/2009 7:19:06 PM

Carusima

Just wait it out. He's thinking it's going to happen again when you offered him food, once he figures it's not then he'll go back to eating normally.

Assisted Answer

11/7/2009 10:05:02 PM

Sony Raju

just keep feeding f/t once you have gotten an animal onto that. i learned that the hard way as well with animals becoming aggressive, more so than they originally were. youll be ok. hes just acting on an innate feeding response he was born with. nothing to worry bout.

Accepted Answer

11/9/2009 8:00:13 AM

Jeffriey

This is one of the main reasons why I never feed my burms or retics outside of their enclosure in separate feeding boxes and always F/T. They have crazy feeding responses once in that mode. You're lucky he's still a litle guy. In any event like everyone said just give it time. It's definitely a feeding response and he may or may not grow out of it. At 3 months believe it or not it's still learning how to hunt and eat. My burms and most of the retics I've had, if I can quietly toss a feeder in the cage with little movement and they haven't picked up the scent they will just go up to the food item and start swallowing without curling around and trying to constrict. They are less aggresive afterwards. If I dangle the feeders in front of them or they have picked up a scent before I open the cage they will strike and coil like a SOB and then stike at anything that moves afterward. Retics can be more aggresive though and a heck of a lot smarter. I've had ones that would let go and drop a feeder in their mouths to go after a second food item I'm trying to toss in their cage. You'd think it would be safe at that moment while they have their mouths full and curled around food... NOT. They know they can go after a second prey while still hanging onto the first one. My burms would probably do the same but they swallow faster. I have 4 foot long feeding tongs just in case I'm ever serving seconds LOL. I also had one retic that killed 5 live guinea pigs simultaneously. I was in a hurry one day and this was back when pet shops didn't sell F/T. Tossed them all in at the same time. She grabbed and curled around the first and body slammed...yes body slammed the other 4 against the side of the cage and suffocated them like that. She was a pro when it came to eating

. Seriously that shocked the hell out of me. I'm just trying to point out how some snakes can be once in feeding mode. Take care, be cautious and you'll get to know the eating habbits of that beautiful burm you have.

Author Comment

11/21/2009 7:03:11 AM

tearsoftheblameless

hey thanks everyone.. as you all know burms wont go long with out eating. back to his normal self.

Member Comment

1/17/2011 11:46:39 PM

abi21491

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