Spotted python, strange behavior?

[Tahra]

Not sure if this is normal or not so need some opinions.

My spotted python is coming on 26 months old. She's just hit roughly 1m long if not more. She's never ate regularly, she's never shed regularly and lately she's been going through some really strange mood swings. I know that sounds bizarre but hear me out.. For a couple of days she's all lovey and greets me at the glass with a nuzzle to my face and wants all my attention. Then 2 weeks back we had a mishap and she bit me. I tried to calmly wait until she let go but she started constricting me and I had to gently pry her off because it was really painful and I panicked a bit!. I didn't touch her for like 3 days after that because she was skittish. Anyway went back to normal but she has all of a sudden become jumpy and she doesn't greet me, she doesn't want to be touched. I fed her on Monday last week and then Wednesday she went blue and has been since. She didn't move off her log for 5 days. Today I finally just couldn't take it anymore and got her out and she started to push her face against me like she was itchy and trying to shed so I soaked her for 20 minutes and then she just went back to her log. I don't know what else to do? Is she having trouble shedding? How do I help her?

sorry for the life story!

 

[Vixen]

Sorry but your snake isn't 'greeting' you, as much as we like to think they do! She is probably just exploring and being curious as to this massive warm thing in front of her.

It's also a rather dangerous practice to be letting her nuzzle your face while she's in the enclosure. That's just asking for trouble ( for obvious reasons - well you already saw why now )

Sounds normal though if she's going into shed, just leave her be until she does - perhaps mist once a day if your worried about the humidity.

 

[Tahra]

I understand what you're saying and agree but I've witnessed with my own eyes when someone else is holding her or even just resting on my bed and I leave the room she gets panicky and when I come back into the room and come near her she darts for me even In mid air when being held. And she has never nuzzled anyone else but me. She only responds to me.. I know people think I'm crazy and I've discussed this numerous times with people but I honesty don't think she is the type to just randomly bite me because she never has, ever. She bit me two weeks ago because I was an idiot and Stuck my hand in her hide to bring her out instead of what I normally do which is remove the hide and let her adjust because I was in a rush to leave somewhere.

okay well she's never done this before! Even when shedding she's always been friendly and more than happy to move around. But to stay in the same spot for 5 days. It's just got me worried.

 

[Mavrick]

Are your temps/gradient and humidity at the right levels? There may be some environmental change that has her thrown for a loop.

 

[Tahra]

Are your temps/gradient and humidity at the right levels? There may be some environmental change that has her thrown for a loop.

I recently went from a 100W bulb to a 50W bulb. I was thinking this could be the problem but wasn't 100% sure... Smart cookie! I'm also ordering a new thermostat for her, old one crapped itself. So that's why I down sized the bulb to prevent over heating for the time being. But I didn't think it would affect her this much because she wasn't overly active with the other bulb and didn't bask a lot but now she's out heaps and was extremely active but the bulb I have advertised that it increases and promotes activity. Maybe she's not liking it..?
Thanks!
oh and not to mention its been hitting temps of 40 degrees here and I've just turned her bulb off for safety reasons.

 

[hayden123113]

I wouldn't worry about it snakes sometime do weird things my 4 yr old intergrade has never bitten me until about 3 months ago. And she was constantly hitting me for 2 weeks straight along with constricting me until my arm was blue. Then she stopped and went back to her normal self. Snakes are pretty hardy creatures im Sure your spotted will be fine.

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[Tahra]

I wouldn't worry about it snakes sometime do weird things my 4 yr old intergrade has never bitten me until about 3 months ago. And she was constantly hitting me for 2 weeks straight along with constricting me until my arm was blue. Then she stopped and went back to her normal self. Snakes are pretty hardy creatures im Sure your spotted will be fine.

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Wow that is really odd! Thanks ill keep it in mind !! =)

 

[Gruni]

Sounds like a hunger hit to me. Even if you fed her maybe she is due for a larger food item and is getting hungry too quickly again. Just the way you say she latched on and then squeezed till it hurt makes it sound like your finger was a mouse.

 

[Tahra]

Sounds like a hunger hit to me. Even if you fed her maybe she is due for a larger food item and is getting hungry too quickly again. Just the way you say she latched on and then squeezed till it hurt makes it sound like your finger was a mouse.

I feed her two weaner mice a week? So next step up you think? I was feeding her an adult mouse per week but she struggled to eat it and it was making me worried she would hurt herself. I'm over reacting aren't I?

 

[Gruni]

You can get mice between those two sizes that she will handle happily. My Mac at that size was chugging down a 2 subadults (3/4 grown mice) or 1 large/XL mouse every 10 days or so. Mine is 1.2m and she wolfs down 3 adult mice now or 2 hopper rats that are about a head longer than the mice.

 

[Tahra]

You can get mice between those two sizes that she will handle happily. My Mac at that size was chugging down a 2 subadults (3/4 grown mice) or 1 large/XL mouse every 10 days or so. Mine is 1.2m and she wolfs down 3 adult mice now or 2 hopper rats that are about a head longer than the mice.[/QUOTE

ill have to search the pet shop. Thanks!!!

 

[Gruni]

It won't take long for her to handle the full grown mice. Worst case give her three weeners at a time until she is ready for the big ones.

 

[Mavrick]

Sounds like a few new options to try out, hope she goes back to her calm self soon! And PS, it's freaking amazing the size of food those lil guys can handle, don't get too scared of upping a size.

 

[smileysnake]

hey tahra like gruni said bump your food size up see how you go my 2 macs are almost 4 year old and are eating weaner rats easily well sorry one has a problem with getting the front legs in lol so i just chop it off to help him other than that they are fine with that size infact they could probably go up one more size my macs are not fat and are great looking snakes..the people that i but my rats from even wanted to see my macs cos they were surprised they ate so much and they must be fat just slow down on the feeding,i told them to have a look next time they came over and they said wow they are big macs lol and look in great condition...good luck tahra let us know how you go....

 

[Gruni]

I'll try to get a good pic of Skittles next time I have her out, just not sure how to give you a good sense of her size. She has the groove down her spine that shows she is in good condition. She's due for a feed Tuesday or Wednesday maybe I'll get a pic of her chowing down on her rats and I'll weigh them to give you an idea of size.

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You can get mice between those two sizes that she will handle happily. My Mac at that size was chugging down a 2 subadults (3/4 grown mice) or 1 large/XL mouse every 10 days or so. Mine is 1.2m and she wolfs down 3 adult mice now or 2 hopper rats that are about a head longer than the mice.[/QUOTE

ill have to search the pet shop. Thanks!!!

I forgot to get pics but I just fed Skittles and she just wolfed down two 50g rats and they are quite a bit bigger than the large adult mice I used to feed her so you should be fine giving yours adult mice. I was a bit blown away as these were a bit bigger than the biggest feed she normally gets and I was wondering if she would cope with them but she scoffed them in no time at all.

I just snapped some pics of her to try to show you her feed bump... in the first pic you can see her head up on her castle and her belly is up against her basking rock so you can get some idea of the size of her feed.

This pic is just her bloated poggy guts! :lol:

 

[Tahra]

Hey everyone sorry for the late reply! Works been crazy! Anyway Lilly has shed! She's back to herself giving me kisses again and greeting me any chance she gets (photo below giving me lots of kisses!)!! Ill feed her tomorrow the rest of her hopper mice and then up size her like you all suggested! I'm also sorting out her temps with a new habistat thermometer in the next two weeks so once that's done I can continue decorating her enclosure because its really basic at the moment with newspaper bedding after the repti bark and aspen bedding gave her first signs of scale rot =(

thank you for the pictures grungi, they're awesome! Ill message you with a few questions!!!

Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[Gruni]

That's fine, I only PM'd you as it hadn't been long enough since my last post for it to show up as a NEW post which is annoying if you 'update'. As per the PM you need to judge your snake by it's body language (as I explained in the PM), what works for Skittles may not work for you. Don't upsize the food too drastically in one hit would be my thought if the Hoppers are noticably smaller than Adults then for maybe two feeds give her the in between size it will still make a difference, even if you offer her 2 or 3 subadults (she may only accept 2) even though the total weight/quantity is the same it is, to my way of thinking, a better adjustment than stuffing her gob with a much rounder item in one hit.

I don't know about others, I got Skittles in late Feb and was feeding her anywhere between 8 and 14 days until mid winter and then roughly every 14 days. With the hot weather of late Dec and Jan Skittles has been feeding evry 9 or 10 days but that will be cut back to fortnightly next month again. I'm lucky as she doesn't go off her food over winter but she also doesn't burn through it the way she does now. That is kind of typical of wild snakes though too, as they will try to feast now in preperation for the famine of winter when they are less active due to the temps.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine.

Oh here are two more pics of her trying to get comfortable after her feed this afternoon...

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The feed bump of the two rats is the part of her that is still on the branch.