I have a 4 year old male ball pythons and ever since I got my new female in the same room as him the enclosures are next to each other but pvc so they can’t see each other my male is now constantly aggressive striking at everything he can always out of his hides it’s very very odd behavior for his as he’s my most docile snake any advice?
This is not odd behavior. Your male is an adult at 4 years old and he can sense a female in the room. He’s more than ready for a girlfriend and you have placed her right next to him but she’s inaccessible which is literally driving him crazy. Unless you don’t mind his behavior my advice is to separate the two, as in separate rooms……
Since he is behaving this way imho it would not be fair to him to leave them in the same room……
Others may disagree….
Edit: He doesn’t have to SEE each other. He can sene that she is there.
As @caron said, your boy can smell a female and we ARE technically still at the tail end of acceptable breeding season, so it’s likely that he’s able to smell her and is getting riled up. If this behavior bothers you, and to a further extent is stressing out your boy (as in it makes him stop eating, etc) then the best thing you can do for them is to place them further apart or in different rooms entirely. See if that solves the increased aggression, otherwise his behavior may indicate that something is wrong in his enclosure or with his health.
How old is your new female? She shouldn’t be causing issues if she’s under 2yo.
I haven’t seen as many get worked up like that for breeding, usually my boys will just go on a food strike for a while when the females are cycling.
I usually see that more with 2 males. It’s not uncommon for accidents to happen with sexing. Some males are uhm … Late bloomers. Lol.
If he doesn’t seem to improve I would maybe consider shed testing the new snake just to verify sex, or have someone familiar with sexing BPs take a look for a double check there.
I’ll have to back the others up in saying this, its very normal behavior.
All of my breeding age males get hissy, refuse food sometimes and act like they dont want anything to do with me but its only after recent pairings. Your male might be more sensitive to the female’s pheromones if she is mature, that is and is acting out of frustration that he can’t breed.
I’ve never had it happen when I have 2 adult males in proximity to eachother but its another possibility.
Lol, you know, it’s actually kind of nice then knowing that all of my males (except one who is a little jerk year round, lol) are just sweethearts compared to your guys’ little dudes.
I don’t keep breeding age males directly next to each other anymore because when I did I had more issues with the pushing and striking. Since then never had that happen it’s just been striking at me for food. Lol. I do keep my males on the leaner side too though if that’s a factor.
She’s 3 years
At 3 years she’s of breeding age……
I will move her to another room I’m hoping he settles down when I do I thought her being in there might have something to do with it but Google said it’s not possible lol we know Google is wrong a lot
He just came off a 6 months food strike so I’ll move her to keep him comfortable
It’s worth a try to move her to another room just to see if your boy settles down. If he doesn’t then you will know something else is causing his unsettling behavior……
I will definitely keep a eye on him and see how it goes moving her upstairs as we speak
Well, maybe your little sweethearts are the “odd” ones Christina! ![]()
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@caron lol, probably!
I do have one het VPI male who just refuses to breed 2 years now so ![]()
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I just wanted silver babies at least once. Hahah
@ashpatt50 yeah at 3 she’s probably causing breeding stress. Eventually he should get used to things, but to calm him down sooner a different room is the best option.