Please Help

[4:20]

My 3 year old Hogg island Boa has become very aggresive out of the blue. I have had her since she was born and she has never been aggressive in any way to me or others. She was fine last night before I fed her, but about 25 min. after being fed she was hissing and tried to bite anything that moved. I got her back into her enclouser ( I don't feed her in there) but she is still striking at everything. Even with the enclouser coverd I can hear her striking when somthing like the front door is closed. I have never seen this type of agression from any of my reptiles. I am in fear that she is going to hurt herself.
What gives ??
Any help would be great.

Cheers
4:20

[BoidKeeper]

Well it could be that her feeding responce was still kicked in when you were putting her back in her cage. She could also be in shed. Some boas get cranky while in shed. She could also be buliding folicules. Folicular development can cause aggresive behaviour in ball pythons.
Cheers,
Trevor

[4:20]

I have taken her back out of her enclosure and put her in the dark green rubber maid that I feed her in. For the first time in the 3 years I have had her I had to use a hook to move her. I am dumbfounded at her agression. I have never seen this before. I am trying to find a local vet to take a look at her (moved to new city). The agression started 25 min after feeding. 48hrs later and she is still hissing and striking at everything.

4:20

[REH]

There is avery good rep vet on elbow drive jus kitty cornor from henery Wisewood high school

Sorry can not remember her name

RH

[tonyj]

Hogs remain the sweetest and most predictable of all my snakes.

They can however exhibit the most intense feeding responses and leave me in no doubt when they are ready to eat more. This does not mean I underfeed, more than they are prepared to over eat. Normally they will eat any food refused by other snakes.
All this can be easy to manage as I never feed my snakes during daylight hours. I only feed late in the evening with a dim 25w light just to make things easier. The snakes know this and respond accordingly. Plus they are nocturnal of course.
All cleaning and handling (playtime?), takes place during daylight hours. The snakes show no feeding resonse at this time and are very easy to handle. They are as I say, predictable.
I excercise the usual precautions when they are in shed or for a day or so after eating, but occasionally I have had to work on something in their enclosure at these times, but have not encountered any problems.
Consistency seems to be the key. Don't feed during the day, and no playtimes or handling during darkness.

4:20, I think your Hog is just fine. You must have a good reason why you move her to eat,- I wouldn't do it that way.
I think she is letting you know she is still ready to eat more and you are sending her off to bed instead. I assume also that your hands are washed after feeding as you don't normally use a hook?

Bring her over to me, I will calm her down for you. I'll bet she's the sweetest thing. Aren't all Hogs?

Really though I'm sure she will be fine. Simply examine your procedures and see if there isn't something that you could modify.

Good luck!

[4:20]

I have always fed my snakes in different "feeding" enclosure. I will do a search on the site, I am new here and this topic may have been beaten to death already. It was done by a friend that got me into reptiles and I followed suit. If it is o.k to feed her in her enclosure.......I will.

Thanks for the vet referal REH they are not far from where I live.

4:20

[Jeff_Favelle]

A vet isn't going to diagnose a reason for a snake's agressiveness, LOL! And if he/she did, they'd be lying out thier a$$.

Its a wild animal. They are unpredictable. You want an animal you can predict? Dogs are close, but even then.........

Maybe a goldfish??

Hogs are the most unpredictable snake I own. And I have 14 of them.

[tonyj]

Jeff, in what way are your Hog's "unpredictable"? I would be interested to hear why snakes that I allow my grandchildren to hold are considered "unpredictable".
I know from following these threads that you are what may be termed an expert, and that you also own many animals, including 14 Hogs ( I only have eight), but to say they are the MOST unpredictable of all your snakes, is quite interesting and quite a statement.
Maybe my Hogs get spoiled by too much individual attention as I am not a large scale breeder, or perhaps I have been plain lucky. I don't think so.
I believe if I try to understand the behaviour and needs of any animal I own (could be dogs, birds or snakes etc.) I am part way to having a non-confrontational relationship with that animal. Perhaps some of this "unpredictability" is really very predictable.

Could you please explain what it is that is so unpredictable in Hogs compared to Carpet pythons for instance, or any other snake you may own?

Your reply to 4:20's question was perhaps too laced with sarcasm and vitriol than required. Indeed it posed more questions than it provided answers.

[4:20]

Originally posted by Jeff_Favelle
A vet isn't going to diagnose a reason for a snake's agressiveness, LOL! And if he/she did, they'd be lying out thier a$$.

Its a wild animal. They are unpredictable. You want an animal you can predict? Dogs are close, but even then.........

Maybe a goldfish??

Hogs are the most unpredictable snake I own. And I have 14 of them.

I did not start this thread to ask "why is my snake unpredictable" I was concerned that she was going to hurt herself striking at the glass in her enclosure. Everything has a reason, rational or not, I was looking for help to find the reason why she was doing this.
She is better today.

I will go and find a goldfish forum.
Thanks
4:20

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

JEFF:

I see goldfish have fooled you, let your guard down and you will be on the news concerning goldfish.

N E W S F L A S H .............in BC.

Young male attacked by aggressive goldfish.
Hear his side of the story, see the goldfish' s side as well.
Stunning video shows male trusted goldfish.
Also not released video shows the goldfish planned it all out over a few days.
Medical reports say young male un-named may over come this vicious attack and may consider having goldfish again as pets.
The community is all in fear yet this strong minded young male will prove not all goldfish are attackers.

BREAKING NEWS FLASH......worldwide.

Goldfish around the world are starting several attacks, call to ban all goldfish worldwide and have them all flushed down the toilet.
World out breaks, people everywhere in fear and other' s striking for the goldfish rights and to be left alone.

LOL....................OK I went too far, but the possibilities are there....................LOL.

Cya...

Tony

[Invictus]

LOL Tony... now that was funny.

Tonyj - about half of the hogs I've encountered have been mean little b*stards. I have no doubt that regular handling probably has a great deal to do with the predictability of your snakes. All of my boa constrictors, even the babies, get handled regularly from birth, and I trust them more than I trust most humans as a result.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Originally posted by BOAS_N_PYTHONS
N E W S F L A S H .............in BC.

Young male attacked by aggressive goldfish.

Young? You must have the wrong Jeff. Ol' Favelle, as he is known around his home town, must be about 43 yeas old by now. He has salt n pepper hair, a pencil moustache, crows feet and his vision is going quickly (at least he still has his hair). The guy's almost as old as FM radio. Legend has it that he once killed a man for asking about Monitors on HIS forum and from what I've seen, he just might be crazy enough to have done it!

http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~cranwill/net_pics/olfavelle.jpg

See what I mean? A truly weird man.

[bistrobob85]

HAHAHAHAHA, nice pic, Tim! Very good one about goldfish, Tony!

In my opinion, and i haven't dealt with so many hoggs before, is that they may just have a very quick developped feeding response that stays for a long while... Makes them good eaters, hehe!

phil.

[BoidKeeper]

All that and he still looks pretty!

[Kimo]

did anyone take the time to notice we probably just lost yet another member? and your all sitting here cracking jokes?

*shakes Head*

[Asian Jon]

I don't think we lost 4:20, the "pros" (hehe) replied to 4:20's questions and discussed them.

Besides humour is healthy, nothing wrong with having it in here.

4:20 will be back posting in no time.

[tonyj]

After reading all the silly stuff, I'm sure that 4:20 is a lot wiser by now.
C'mon you guys, answer the questions asked and going off topic with your 'inside' humour.
I would think that a breeder would offer a well thought out answer, rather than put down a potential customer. Could this be an indication of after sales attitude? I hope not. but some things are becoming predictable.
4:20 has a genuine concern and he deserves some input from others that may just help him to understand or solve his problem or at the very least perhaps save him a vets bill.

These forums do have an excellent catagory for jokes etc., and thats were some of the answers should be placed.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Guys, you need to chill out. I (we) have the right to joke with a few friends ANYTIME I (we) want to. If you don't like it, that's YOUR problem. At that point it had NOTHING to do with 4:20's question or him/her. The question had already been answered several times (and by people that answer LOTS of questions). If 4:20 was/is going to leave the forum, he/she would have done it by that point anyway.

Take a breather and crack a few jokes... you'll live longer. ;)

[Tim_Cranwill]

And another thing.... I quit using the forum for a week because it stopped being <b>fun</b>. 100's of questions get answered daily on this site. 99.9% of the questions I answer, I carefully word and edit to make sure they are well understood and polite. I see NO problem cracking a few jokes here and there. And it's not like the joke was even aimed at 4:20. It was aimed at Jeff Favelle... and I don't think HE'S crying about it.

[Vengeance]

Hey may not be crying on the outside, but I bet he is crying on the inside :D

[Tim_Cranwill]

Now, now, Vaneance... we're not allowed to enjoy ourselves here.

Tsk, Tsk...

;) :D

[Vengeance]

Oh yea, I forgot

*smacks self on back of the head*

Bad Vengeance, Bad!

[tonyj]

Tim, great set of creative stats, you must be a politician. H'm, mustn't let you near the score card when next we play golf. Could get expensive.
I agree, lets have fun, but as my Pappy once said " not till the work is done".
BoidKeeper, great theory, I hadn't thought of that.
Jeff, you didn't answer my questions, I really am interested in better understanding Hogs. Your answers could help.
Invictus, you are right when you say most Bcis will calm down with frequent handling, and Hogs are Bcis.
To 4:20 hang in there! Please PM me to let me know how things are going. I'll help you if I can.

This has all been way too much fun for one day, need to go chill out.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

EVERYONE:

NEWSFLASH.

Tim C, (one of our snake buddies) is now running for politics for Manitoba Government and leading news states he may enter the USA presidential runnings against Kerry and Bush.

BREAKING NEWS.

Tim C, has entered the USA campaign and won, with over welming odds but after many interviews with the public it was seen that most of the votes came from herpers who want laws changed and the border dissolved for herpers to get great animals from USA and CANADA.

LIVE on CNN 6pm Central:

Tim C, tells us can world peace be accomplished while he is in power.

OK OK, enough I better stop before the grumps show up and say I did not answer the original questions after it was already answered by others.........LOL.

Tim you got my vote give em heck.

LOL.

Cya...

Tony

[Matt_K]

Talk about beating a dead horse...


The answer's been given.. 4:20, if you continue to have questions or issues, start a new thread...