Hey, so my ball python just shed and he’s become a bit aggressive? This is his second time shedding with me he’s about 8 or 9 months old now. By “aggressive” I mean he struck at me once when I opened his enclosure but I was just wondering if this is normal? I was also concerned about the state of his shed, both times he’s shed it’s come out all balled up. It’s in once piece still just balled up like a sock so I was also wondering if this was normal. Thank you!
Shedding all balled up like a stocking is fine. It’s actually one of the ways to know they probably had a very good shed. They will also tend to poop in that too. Gift wrapped for you to find.
Sometimes they can be a bit more nervous just before shedding, so it may still be some of those nerves that haven’t calmed down yet. It can be more difficult for them to see before they shed too so that’s part of the nerves.
It also could be that he is HANGRY. It’s not uncommon for a BP to skip a meal when in shed, or we hold off on that meal cause it can make it easier for them to shed when they aren’t digesting. So now that the skin is gone he is ready to eat. You might have happened to peek in during that.
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Hey, so I did feed him right after he shed and I figured maybe he was just a little cranky but it’s been 4 days now and he’s still quite angry, my best guess at the moment is that he’s still hungry? He weighed 300g as of about a week and a half ago but he’s only been eating mice that weigh 20-23g as when I tried to feed him larger he couldn’t fit his mouth around it. Do you think maybe that could be the issue? I’m not sure what else it would be his humidity fluctuates between 60-85% for the most part, his basking spot is 91-92, hot side is around 88 and cool side is around 82, his whole enclosure drops to about 77-78 at night
He can definitely fit his mouth around prey larger than that. I’d bump up prey size closer to 30-45g
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I’ll try again today! Last time I tried he started to eat it and then just stopped so that was the only explanation I could come up with
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