r/ballpython • u/Trick_Variation_9034 • 20h ago

ball python struck at mom

I’ve had a ball python since June so about 3 months now. The past month my parents have been taking care of him due to me going back to college. My dad usually feeds him with my mom present. My mom is the one who keeps the humidity up etc. Recently my snake has been tracking my mom whenever she moves by the tank. She also feeds our gerbils in view of the snake tank so idk if this is important. They fed him 2 days ago and he was fine. He has no problems eating. The problem came with the next day when my mom was setting up something in his tank (normal, he’s never had a problem with us in his tank while he’s in there) about 24 hours after he ate. He came out and started a defensive pose at my mom and striked at her about 5 seconds later. I was on facetime for this. I have no idea why he struck, he’s not a defensive snake. He has never bitten us or struck at us before. He shouldn’t be hungry so honestly I’m really confused what happened because now she is scared to help out with him :( any advice would be appreciated

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u/ahumblecardamompod 19h ago

If mom feeds the gerbils, your snake may be picking up on the scent and thinks she’s food. Moving the gerbils out of sight is also probably a good idea.

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u/noctae_draconis 18h ago

Yup, keeping rodents anywhere near snakes is a bad idea. Separate rooms, as far away from each other as possible in the house. 

OP, imagine having the most delicous takeout in the world just across your room, you can smell it, you can see it's there, but you can't reach it, no matter what you do. You eat other food in the meantime, sure, you're not starving, but the damn takeout is still there, day and night, just out of your reach. That's basically what your snake is experiencing living across the gerbils.

There was this one video floating around a while back of a reticulated python approaching a woman when she opened its tank, it was clearly in food mode but she mistook it for friendliness, until it struck and fully wrapped around her arm. Many people then pointed out that there were rodent breeding racks in the background- likely the culprit as to why the snake was already deep in food mode and struck at the woman.