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increased aggression

yojoe05

Rapunzels Prince Charming
So baskerville tried striking me multiple times tonight before his feeding. He's about three feet long and at 165 grams now for weight. I'm feeding him regularly on schedule every week on Friday, temps are fine, nothing has changed that I can tell. He was getting better with handling and I was happy with where things were going. Now it seems like a total relapse in gained ground. He's constantly aggressive towards me and I have no clue why. Is it the time of year now that he's to breeding size, will it cause him to be more aggressive? I'm looking for any ideas as I can't seem to find any cause for it. He never bites me actually, just strikes with and open mouth and then retracts back. I need to figure something out because the wife is telling me I need to fix the problem or I need to get rid of him and I don't want to rehome him because I like him a lot even if he does have attitude problems.
 
It IS that time of the year, snakes are all bonkers it seems this year!

What size mouse are you feeding him? He may be ready for a bump up in feeder size.
 
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He's getting full size adult mice already so I don't think that's the problem. I feed all my snakes outside of their vivs to reduce aggression as well and he doesn't seem to calm down after being held. In fact yesterday it seemed the longer he was out of his Viv the angrier he got.
 
I feed high strung snakes like that inside their vivs only. If they will calm down enough to eat out of the enclosure, they probably aren't past help.
 
I think I'm just going to have to devote more time to him then. I mean he was upset and striking before he ate but he was perfectly calm hand feeding when he ended up out of his bin and I picked him up while he was feeding so I think it's just going to be a long road ahead.
 
cool side is in the 70s and I have a reptile basics thermostat regulating the hot sides for all my tanks at 85 with a 2 degree variance allowed. I'm thinking of bumping him back up though to feeding once every five days. I have noticed after a shed his next feeding he tends to be a little more agitated so maybe he's not eating enough. I've got a female just a month older than him and she's a good 100 grams his superior on weight, so I'm wondering if I bumped him down to one adult mouse every week to soon.
 
I've just finished a handling session with him actually because he was awake and watching me out of interest, I think I'm going to follow through with the feeding idea. He was a totally different snake today when he wasn't hungry and expecting a meal.
 
Thanks for the input and ideas guys, I've gone through three handling sessions now without any problems so it seems that hunger is the driving motivator in his bad attitude. I'm going to go back to a 5 day feeding scale on him for a while and see if that corrects his attitude problem.
 
At nearly 200 grams in weight, I think feeding every five days is going to lead to obesity. What sized prey are you feeding him? Maybe you could bump up the size. He could probably take large weanlings or small adults every 7 days.
 
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