First, allow me to begin by saying that while it is true that this is certainly the behavior of a hungry snake,. and that she probably does want (not necessarily "need"
more food, that this is most likely the result of conditioned behavior rather than a sudden decrease in the amount of her food. If you want to change this behavior you need to take the time to RE-condition her.
Now,.. did you raise her from a baby? If so I have a few questions for you. It's about how she has always been fed. If your response to this aggressive frontal attack is to feed her to appease her hunger, then you need to stop that. Never reward the behavior you don't like. If she gets food every other time she does this, then she will continue to do this. If this behavior NEVER results in getting food, then she will stop doing it in time. Instead of how you may be presently giving her her food, wait until you are holding her outside of her cage,... place a prekilled rabbit in her cage,. and then let her go back in and find it. But not every single time you hold her. This can also result in her making the connection between being held and being fed, and you don't want that either.
What I don't agree with here is where John said that when taken off heavy feeding schedules and placed suddenly on very light, or "maintainence" diet schedules, that the snakes can go into starvation mode and become very aggressive. In my experience this is not the case. Every single one of my female burmese makes this transition and I have never experienced any undue or additional aggression or higher than usual hunger levels. One would think this would be the case,. but it just isn't. All of my girls are powerfed or fed VERY heavily for the first 8 to 12 months of their lives. The moment I detect that their growth is slowing and they are becomming fat I take them off of this diet and place them on a fairly severe diet. I maintain this for a few months or until any noticeable excess fat has diminished and then I increase their food to that of a maintainence diet. Through all of this neither their attitude, disposition or behavior ever changes. In my experience it is the exact opposite. It is the individuals that have always been fed very little that have this hunger and sporadic, aggressive feeding response. Again, this is why I wanted to know if you raised her yourself. If so I would like to know if she's always been on a "slightly deprived" diet. These diets seem to lead to this behavior of a more "oportunistic feeder" looking for possible food in everything that moves.
Before I post this I would also like to acknowledge the fact that there is never a 100% flawless "constant" and while 25 out of 25 burmese (or any snake species) may be a certain way for one person or group of people, that there are always going to be exceptions to every rule. So what I posted here about my burmese and my experiences may not apply to your burmese, or other people's burmese that read this. Your snake may be that 1 in 100 snake that is the exception to the rule. She may NEVER respond to conditioning and her behavior may be ingrained in her response mechanism. But my guess is that she won't likely be any different. So I hope this all works for you and that in a month or two you have a more mellow snake. Good luck.
>>She does need to be fed more.
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>>It sounds to me like you are trying to keep her at a certain size. And, that this is why she is acting like she is. I understand people wanting to keep certain animals at a manageable size. With some snakes it works.......With others.........It does not. In my experience, trying to control a burms feeding schedule too much will bring about "problems" like this.
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>>What you are describing to me is an animal that "needs" more food. You have it on a "diet" of sorts. This "diet" keeps her "healthy" and functional.......But, within her little pea brain her body is telling her she needs more! You really have to understand how/what these animals are. They have a instinctual need for certain things. Like your female burm for example. Females, as they start becomming sexually mature have a "need" to put on size and weight so they will be able to breed successfully. Wheither you want to breed her or not. This will be her instinctual drive. This doesn't mean that you have to feed her and make her obese. Or, try to have the largest burm known to man/woman. But, it does mean that when you restrict basic needs from an animal.....There will be consecquences. (ie. stalking you, striking at you)
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>>Let me give you one more experience that I have had over the years. I keep boas now. (I will have a burm again when my kids get bigger) But, back some time ago I had a couple of retics, and burm, and boas. I also keep my animals on a "maintance diet" of sorts. Most, of my boas get fed every two weeks. When I had the retic and the burm......I fed them every week. (They were babies) Out of the three types of animals.....The one who I feel this really caused problems with was the burm. Boas are easy and mellow. No agression at all with mine. The retics did REALLY well I felt. They grew at a nice slow rate and I really feel that the weekly feeding tamed them down a bit. (They were both mellow. But, I feel that when some people feed their retics every 3-4 days they are more use to feeding than handling.) As I said, the burm was the more aggressive with this. I had to actaully modify his feeding schedule because of it.
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>>So, to sum it up. I really think that burms are just not the animals to be restricting too much in the diet area. If they are......Then, these are the problems that will arise.
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>>Another thing that could have caused this problem is this. (And, I am just assuming here) Most new burm owners want to quickly get their animals large very fast. Once the animals has reached the owners "desired" size the owner will begin restricting the animals caloric intake. To me this type of "program" really spells disaster. The reason why is this. The burms body is use to an abundance of calories/energy to grow....grow....grow. Then, once it has reached it's "size". They are put on a diet the equals caloric depletion. (ie starvation) This will stress the animal to no end. It's thoughts will become/lean twords a feeling of survival. A need for food. This really is the wrong way to go about things.
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>>Now, if the animal was raised slowly....This type of behavior might not be as noticable due to the fact that the animal is use to the calories/energy that it has been given in the past.
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>>Forgive the typos and such. It is early and I haven't drank all my coffee.
>>John
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>>"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."
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It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Sytstems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]
