Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i had a quick question. i have a 4 year old female green, from judds and kellys 03 clutch, that has been aggressive and bitting lately. it start back in january of 08 when i was moving here to clean and take her to school for a demo, and she bit me. after the bite i noticed that she still had remains of her meal, and i figured that was the reason for the bite.

two to three weeks later she bit me again, she was in blue and i am sure that is the reason, she has allways been testy in the blue.

around that time i moved her from a 4 foot vision to a larger cage (72x36 vision), and down into the basement of my house. she is over 9 feet and since the first to bite in january, she has continued to bit, usually ever other time she gets mes.

is this a "phase" that she is going through?

she was the tamest snake in my collection since i had her, and i cant figure out why she has turned so quick. so any help would be great!!!!!!

mike

That is a great question. I have a boa that did the same thing. As a baby was great, but as she grew up would bite for no reason, at least I say no reason. Sounds like you better start working with her, I have been told a couple things. One is if she bites do not put her back in. Two, some say if you put a piece of your clothing in with the snake it will get use to that smell and not bite. Three maybe you are trying to handle her and she does not feel as safe in the bigger cage. Four, you may just have one that does not like to be messed with. Also check the humidity, heat and make sure she is not sick, I have heard that can cause them to act weird. She may also just be hungry.

If you can explain a little more it may help. Does she bite while taking her out or after holding her?

When I hold my boa now, if I do at all, I wear a sweatshirt and gloves, and she does not try to bite at all.

These are all things I have been told when I ran into this challenge.
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0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
1.0 Amel Retic
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda
1.0 Emerald Tree Boa

i talked to a good friend of mine, don soderberg of south mt) and was atlking to him about it the other day, and since she started becoming aggressive right before i moved her, that it is with the set up itself. don thinks that i have a little to much heat on her. so im going to modify my encloser and turn down the temp a about 5 degrees.

im am going to work with her more, her bits hurt lol. im hoping that turning down the heat will work. and i vision that i bought for her was used and and housed goulds monitors, so im going to go through and scub it down again, to make sure that that they are no foriegn smells in the cage. i did it once, but maybe i did not get it good enough.

mike

here is a pic of her, old pic and she is in blue, of course lol

First, it was nice to hear that she had been doing so well up to this point. Even very calm greens retain this species inherent trait of nervousness that can be brought out in certain specimens under specific conditions. People they are not familiar with handling them too roughly, bumping the cage and startling them while they are sleeping, changing them to a new cage, or other environmental changes (temps, humidity, light). These are just some examples of conditions that could trigger aggressive behavior in otherwise calm greens. This is very rare and usually not the case with previously calm specimens, but it can happen with a select few. The problem with greens is that sometimes when this aggression is triggered, it may take a considerable amount of time before they relax again. Don is correct in that temps that are too high could be an issue, but they would need to be considerably high. What temp range are you using as far as cool and warm side temps?

I would continue to work with her fairly frequently, avoiding any of the above triggers, and I believe over time she will revert back to her previous temperament. Please keep us updated on the progress. Thanks,

Kelly

hi kelly,

her warmest spot in the cage was around 90 degrees or so. i have a temp gun and the last time the i shot the cage with it that i what the reading was (roughly 10 days ago). and her cool spot was 79 degrees.

i redid the heating in the snake cages and her basking spot is closer to 85 and her cool spot is 77. i am hoping that this will do the trick, do you think that i should go lower than that?

mike

I think that new temp range is fine and would not go any lower. I don't believe that your previous temp range was so extreme that it would have caused a reaction like you experienced. It was probably some other stressor that made her uncomfortable and triggered her reaction.

Kelly

very pretty snake, what is the name for this type of pattern?