Behaviour Changes in Spotted Python

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emmadactryl

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Indi's a one year old spotted python. I've had her since she was about six weeks old and she's never shown any of the typical young Children's python attitude- up until her first birthday. The day she turned one it was like I had a different snake, and for the last four and a bit weeks she's been insanely twitchy and hyper alert. She's in a constant S when I go to get her out of her tank, and strikes on first instinct before bolting under her water dish or into her hide, or trying to head for the lid/my hand. Leading up to her behaviour change was a three and a bit week period where she went without a feed because she stuck herself in her hide, then went through a shed. She's normally on a fuzzy mouse every ten or so days, but has had a couple of similar breaks in feeds to that three week gap before, usually around a shed; could she be stuck in some sort of feeding mode, and her behaviour is just because she's hungry, not aggressive? Would a few feeds in quick succession (as soon as she's digested one mouse, feed her another) help? In the year I've had her, she's only ever been fed in her cage once, and that was her last feed because I just couldn't get her out of the tank to put her in her container; I'm well aware that probably hasn't helped the issue, but I think I'm going to have to do the same thing when I feed her tonight.

She's my first snake, and I was so stoked with her because she's been a delightful pet so far, and I figured I'd lucked out and escaped the snappy hatchling- now I've got a grumpy one year old. Could this be hormones? Is it just a stage that she'll grow out of? Do I need to handle her more or leave her alone?

I know this sounds absolutely pathetic because she's a tiny spotted python with a mouth the size of my thumbnail, but she's just such a wired little handful at the moment that I haven't handled her since a couple of days after this behaviour started- and when she had a go at my hand while I was holding her. I can't even remember where she bumped me and it just felt like I'd brushed up against the pointed end of a thumbtack, but combined with how difficult it is to even extract her from her tank at the moment it's just not a pleasant experience handling her, and if she's panicking about being out, I don't want to go making the situation worse.

Towards the end of last year, partly because of the insanely hot weather we were having and partly because I felt she was ready for an upgrade, she was moved from a small tank about half the size of her in width/depth/height to a tank that I think is just under two feet. She almost is the full length of it stretched out. I thought her behaviour might be because I got her in too big a tank too quickly, but considering she was in there for a couple of months before this started I wasn't sure; should I put her back in a smaller tub again for a bit?

Could the weather have something to do with it? She hasn't had a heat mat in since before summer started because it's thirty degrees plus constantly in her tank; on the really hot days we had I was putting frozen blocks on top of her cage just to try and give her some sort of temperature gradient.

Sooo many questions and theories, I know, but I'm feeling a bit lost and aren't sure what to do with her. Any answers and advice will be much appreciated.
 
I'm not a professional but try feeding her once every 5 to 7 days not 10. My yearling Spotted was eating every 5 to 7 days and she was great and maybe try rats instead of mice I believe they are a bit bigger and this may help. Also keep trying and hopefully she will settle.
 
She's normally on a fuzzy mouse every ten or so days, but has had a couple of similar breaks in feeds to that three week gap before, usually around a shed.

Sounds like she is starving, if you are running a hot spot of around 32-33C feed every 5-7 days (as Tiffany said) and move to hoppers for 2 months then weaners and so on.

I aim for spotteds to be on adult mice by the time they are yearlings.
 
Can I ask a question on top of the responses?

I was under the impression that when they turn 1 you lengthen the time between feeds to 10 days.
I presume my stimmie would be a similar size being born in the same season and he is only on pinkie rats every 8 or 9 days.
 
id up the size of the food , and leave it be for a few weeks , my spotteds don't like being handled that much .
 
Lol I'm another non-expert but I normally get tagged if they are hungry.
Unfortunately you don't say a weight for your snake but a fuzzy mouse doesn't sound enough.
I am sure my thumb nail and yours are very different but even your pinkie in snake terms will fit a large meal.
You want to see a good size bulch in there stomach after the feed goes down.
My one year old Stimmies get Hooper/Adult Mice or Fuzzy Rats at least on alternate feeds.
I vary feed intervals don't lengthen to 10 days until fully grown.
 
Fuzzy Mice ???? your 1 year old Spotted Python should be on full grown Mice or fuzzy Rats by now, both my Spotties are a little over 1 year old and both are on full grown Mice every 7 days and if 1 of them is coming into shed and does not eat it's mouse then the other 1 will eat both, some might dissagee but i also keep mine at 34 deg c at the hot end and they are thriving, personally i would up your food size and frequency, i think all the spit and fizzle it is showing will all but dissapear. :) ........................Ron
 
Can I ask a question on top of the responses?

I was under the impression that when they turn 1 you lengthen the time between feeds to 10 days.
I presume my stimmie would be a similar size being born in the same season and he is only on pinkie rats every 8 or 9 days.
Ants can be fed once a week with no dramas... No need to over feed... One adult mouse or similar size rat...
 
Ants can be fed once a week with no dramas... No need to over feed... One adult mouse or similar size rat...

Really?
So once a week as in every 7 days I can feed a 20% body weight rat and this can go on forever?
This is great if it can because that means I can just feed on the same day. I was always under the impression that over a year and start feeding less.
 
Really?
So once a week as in every 7 days I can feed a 20% body weight rat and this can go on forever?
This is great if it can because that means I can just feed on the same day. I was always under the impression that over a year and start feeding less.
People miss interpret ... It's different when u have a 2.5m carpet... These can eat huge meals... Where I keep all my ants simple... Small meals once a week and they have all grown to adulthood and all looking very fit... These r small snakes with simple needs
 
My Mac is now 3 years old and basically eats 120-140gr feed every 3-4 weeks. When she was a year old I fed her between 10-14 days and I would agree with the other posts up her feed size (15-20% of its body weight). If you still have fuzzies left, give her 2 instead of one until you use them up. At that age my girl was a food pig and smashed her feeds now that she's 1.2-1.3m she's slowed down considerably and if I want her to hit her feeds rather than gently taking them out of my hand I have to hold her out a bit.

She has tagged me three times btw, twice because I startled her and once to tell me to up size her food but even at her current size her bites don't really hurt and they draw very little blood, so definitely don't be put off by her speed and the odd tag.
 
I would agree that the sudden change in behaviour after two months in the larger container is highly unlikely to be related to the upgrading to a larger enclosure. The question is was there any more recent change in any of the environmental or husbandry elements? And in considering these, could any one have lead to the changes observed?

It is worth knowing that snakes should not be fed during heatwave conditions if the prevalent environmental temperatures affect those in your enclosures (from Pythoninfinite).


If you would like any further information feeding regimes, there are some excellent threads on the subject. Please do not hesitate to ask.


Blue

 
Thanks for all the responses! I clicked subscribe so I would get alerted to them but that apparently hasn't worked because nothing in my inbox, and now all these! :p

I've got half a dozen or so fuzzies left, and I have definitely been feeling that they might not be big enough for the last few feeds because the bulge has been a whole lot less noticeable; still there, but not as much as it was. They seemed HUGE when I bought the two packs, but she's definitely grown since then, even though it doesn't really look like it to me; I have to remind myself how tiny she was when I got her. She'll be upped when I next buy some and will try feeding her two fuzzies until then. Will buy some adult mice, be stricter with her feeding, and cross my fingers my lovely little girl comes back :)

I stopped being such a wuss and got her out of her tank and once she was out she was fine. Very calm and settled like she usually is, but hasn't been in her tank lately. Feel a bit more confident with everything now, and I know I CAN get her into her feeding container now so that should also help limit her wild striking when I take her tank's lid off. Thanks everyone for the help! Much appreciated from a very novice snake owner.
 
Sorry if it has already been asked but why are you feeding in a seperate container?
 
I know lots of people feed their snakes in other containers, I've never bothered and have had no issues with Skittles knowing the difference between food and my hand. I don't even bother with tongs when giving her a feed.

I know where you are coming from with the size of feed items Emma. I was blown away when I visited my breeder friend and he showed me what he feeds his adult Macs which are as big as my girl. She takes 140-150gr rats without any issue. I can't remember if it was mentioned before but if you use some kitchen scales and an icecream container to weigh your snake a rough guide to food size is 1/5 of their body weight.
 
I'm a new snake owner doing what I've heard to do :p Up until her behaviour change I definitely noticed different behaviours between having her in her cage and having her in the container she was alway fed in; I could wave my hand all around in her cage no dramas, even if she was really hungry, but as soon as she was in that container she'd be nailing anything that went in there. Figure it wouldn't do any harm to just put her in somewhere specific :)

I gave her two fuzzy mice on Sunday and already have noticed how much calmer she is; she shed two days after, then wandered out of her hide and just lay out, all relaxed, on the substrate which she hasn't done since January. Normally she'd have been twitching all over the place and hyper alert. I can't believe it didn't twig in my head that she was just hungry! I feel absolutely moronic.

I picked up some fuzzy rats today, getting prepped for when I run out of the fuzzy mice in another couple of feeds, and I'm rather alarmed at the size difference. They'd be probably equivalent to the two fuzzy mice I fed her on Sunday in terms of weight, but even still, looking at them to the size of Indi's head... I didn't have any in between option, and the guy I get her food off doesn't sell adult mice, so it was fuzzy rats or more fuzzy mice. I got them home and holy moly, big babies! There are a couple in there on the slightly smaller size that I'll give her first, but now I'm worried about giving her too big a feed in terms of size, all in one hit. I know they're pretty insane with what they can eat, but is too much just as bad as too little? She still seems so small, even though I know that fuzzy mice aren't enough for her any more.
 
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