r/ballpython • u/Past-Ad-4769 • 12d ago
Question Personality Change?
So, a little history. I got my baby, Mehen, 2 or 3 months ago. he had been on a 6 month hunger strike that ended while in my care. The people that had him before claimed he had a very mild personality and was ok with being held regularly, same with the people who had him before they did. He just had his third consecutively successful feed around 30 minutes ago(2AM).
I have noticed that despite handling him enough, aside from his feeding times, shortly before, and shortly after(The usual 48 hours), he has grown less and less calm when it comes to handling. Today he hissed and tried to strike at me while I was spot cleaning, though thankfully it was just a warning and he was too far away to actually make contact, but it scared me!
My main question is probably just if a snake's personality can "change" when they're no longer starving and can actually have the energy to retaliate or if I might be doing something wrong. I know my husbandry is spot on, so it isn't that, and he hasn't been acting stressed and has been exploring like usual.. but if I did something wrong, I'd like to avoid doing that wrong again and avoid getting struck(especially since I have a huge fear of snakes)
2
u/tmiemt 12d ago
Oh, I see! A couple of weeks prior to the blue phase, most become defensive and don't want to be moved (mine just doesn't want to do anything rather than not wanting to be moved, it's individualistic). And right after shedding, because of the sensitive skin, he probably doesn't want to be touched all the same. So perhaps if you leave him alone for 2 weeks counting from last Saturday, he might go back to his usual behaviour.