Territorial Carpet?

[Sunshine81]

Hello I am new to the forums. I will start with as fun as it is to be bitten I would prefer not to be, so I would appreciate answers beyond "get used to taking the bite" that I have received elsewhere.

I have a beautiful carpet python. She has been mine for close to 4 years, and I got her from a friend that was moving to Florida and didn't want to run into trouble with all the new laws they are trying to put in effect down there. She got her as a baby.

Beo has always been a vocal little puffer when she is handled or during routine maintenance of her cage, but NEVER struck. She'd just huff and puff and make sure I knew she was irritated with my intrusion.

Since I have been pregnant however she has become nothing short of aggressive. I went in to grab her water dish one day, nothing unusual and she almost tagged my face! Fortunately the lid to the cage was between us and she has a mouth full of screen instead. I thought maybe while she was eating I could go ahead and try to clean the other half of her enclosure, waited for her to get her rat half down (she was on her third by that point) and she promptly spit it out to come after me. As soon as I closed the lid back up she went back to eating. I put a fourth rat in that day, because seemed to be looking for more. She opted against it, but as soon as I popped the top open to get the rat out she tried striking me again, but had no interest in eating the last rat. I'm at a loss. I can't have her just tearing my arms and hands up while I am trying to take care of her. Unfortunately (well I don't think so) the snakes are mine and the man of the house wants nothing to do with them. So I'm on my own here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My two ball pythons (I know different species different temperments, but still) don't seem fazed, and their behaviour hasn't changed at all. The only issues with getting bitten previously have been obvious feeding errors. Which this behaviour is not!

[Lankyrob]

I used to own a carpet that was very defensive of its viv but once picked up was docile as anything. Invest in a snake hook to be able to defend yourself with and to remove him from the viv when needed.

Can I ask why you are feeding so many rats? We used to feed one large prey item every two weeks.

[Will0W783]

I don't stick my hands into any snake's enclosure. We give them only that small space to claim as their territory, and most will be more defensive and on-edge in that space. Imagine how you'd feel if a giant reached into your living room for you and you had nowhere else to go, lol.

I use a snake hook to let my non-venomous snakes know it is handling time, then I hook out a coil and only then will I reach my hands for the snake. Since I started doing this I've not been bitten.

[pdomensis]

There's a couple things where more information would help. From what you said it sounds like you have an adult carpet in a cage with a screen top. It's possible that your humidity/temp needs aren't being met causing the snake stress, or that the cage is simply too small and or doesn't offer enough security. Is she possibly in blue or shed? Any stuck shed over the eyes? Also, like Rob indicated, your feeding sounds odd to me.

I really doubt it has anything to do with your pregnancy (congratulations btw). Rob is right though, a good hook is a must. At the very least it will help you get in and out without getting tagged.

[jpsteele80]

Picture of the snake and enclosure always help in most situations, agreed that it sounds like you have absolutely no humidity in that cage and the snake is stressed. I had a carpet at one point that was real flighty and nervous but never bit me. If we could see the living conditions we might be able to help you out a lot more.

[Sunshine81]

She is an adult carpet. I have the screened top covered in foil to assist with the humidity and to hold in the warmth so both of those are fine. I check them. Her enclosure is 5ft long, 2 ft tall, and about a foot and a half wide. She can stretch out end to end, but the thin part of her tail curls around a few inches. I do think she needs a larger hide, and I have been trying to find something larger and most importantly sturdy enough for her. (Any ideas there would certainly be appreciated, our repti shop closed, and traditional pet stores don't offer much in the way of anything for larger snakes). Currently she has large logs, and she can squeeze in, but part of her body is out. She rarely uses the hides, and more often than not would rather be laying on top of them or climbing the driftwood. It is not a high traffic area. As a matter a fact you would have to go out of your way to be near them or for them to see you.

She won't touch an extra large rat to save my life, and in many cases not even a large. Not that she wouldn't be able to, but it seems she would rather have several larger mediums or smaller size larges. I offered in a extra large daily for a week and finally gave up and fed it to my ball. As soon as I put a smaller rat in she ate it with no issue, but ate 2. She's always been that way. She will average between 2 and 3 smaller prey vs. 1 larger. Whereas my ball would probably try to eat horse even though she couldn't.

When I take her furniture out to clean I put it back where it was. I remove her when I do a full cleaning and put her in the extra enclosure. For spot cleaning or changing water dishes there was never a problem with me just getting her water dish to scrub it out and clean it or for me just to grab the poops between the biweekly change out of all the aspen and to put in fresh.

She's never been a biter. There was even one day she was climbing around and kept going in my hair and I kept pushing her away, and she decided that what she wanted, shot up, and got tangled in my ponytail, and she got scared (me too for that matter, but I kept it together, didn't want the kids to get scared too!) but not even then did she did she think to bite (that was a couple years ago, I only remember because she's a strong girl and whipped her body and nearly knocked me down). She let out a big puff of air, and I figured our handling for the day was over because that was rough for the both of us.

She's a wonderful animal. She always has been.

I was just thinking maybe my body temp change, maybe I smell different, there's an extra heartbeat, so as far as she is concerned I'm foriegn? Though she has never been shy with anyone. When people say puppy dog she certainly tends to be one. Active, but sweet as pie. I asked the kids if they had friends over that might have gone back over there and messed around by the enclosures. My thought was maybe someone was over the banging on the glass or something.

I'm going to get and snake hook and see if that helps. Maybe she's turning grumpy in her old age, and is getting defensive of her home. Even our personalities change with age. Thanks for all the thoughts, I really do appreciate it. I just want my happy girl back!