Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys,

So, I had an intersting thing happen to me today. Brutus is my 3 year old 8' male burm. He has an incredibly aggresive feeding response, that much I have gotten used to dealing with, but I've yet to encounter this. I walked up to his cage tonight and he struck the door very hard. He sat in a defensive posture, wagging his tail until I left him alone. I returned 5 minutes later and he did it again! When i had him out for cage clean this morning he was calm as kitten (as always). He has NEVER shown this type of behavior up to this point and I'm kinda baffled.

There are a couple of things that were different about tonight. First, I didn't have time to do a couple cage cleanings this morning so I went in tonight after work at like 8:30. Their lights all go out at 8:00 and I rarely go in there after lights out. Second, I decided to put him on aspen today. He's been on newspaper for the last couple months so I thought I'd change it it up a little bit.

What do you guys think? could thse factors have played a role in this behavior or is this just a random incident? Have you ever had the same thing happen with your burms? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks,

Andy

Huh... Sounds weird.
I'm just guessing here, but the major factor might have been the break in his routine. I'd think that snakes are creatures of habit, even more than people are. Your snake may not have been expecting you.
If the UPS guy came ringing the doorbell to deliver a package at 10 PM I'd sure as heck be bent out of shape.
One way you might be able to loosen him up is to consciously make breaks in routine, but small ones that don't scare him. Examples may be cage cleaning ten minutes earlier or later than you usually do, or coming in the room at an odd time to read a book for a while.
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