BP Gumpy and hissing

We have had out Male BP for two months now. He is an adult we adopted. We have been feeding him medium rat every two weeks. Warm side is 88 degrees during the day, cool side is typically 78 or so. Night time temp never below 70. Humidity is 59%. Aspen bedding with a hide on the warm side and the cool side. Until now he has never used the cool side hide.

His feeding came up Tuesday of last week. He defensively struck at the rat but never fed. When he showed no interest in eating I removed the rat and returned it.

The day before yesterday, he started laying on the cool side of the tank. This is unusual for him. When we tried to pick him up he started hissing. And stayed in a very defensive position. This is a 1st for him. He has been very very passive, with very little head response.

Is he trying to tell us he is hungry? Any ideas? Am I worrying too much? DO they just have bad days?

Sounds like he is uncomfortable with his environment. Im assumimg you have him in a tank? Do you have the sides covered? Might wanna throw in some fake plants too. Feed him a smaller meal in two days like a small rat then fed him something a little smaller than a medium every week. Til he takes to larger meals. He coulda been bitten and it put him off a bit. Smaller more frequent meals are always better.

Thanks for the advice. I will try blacking out the back and sides of his 75 gallon tank. I have tanks on either side of his. With Kenyans on the warm side and a baby florida king snake on the cold side. Could he possibly have sniffed the king snake and feel threatened? The king snake is tiny but his aquarium butts up to the cold side of the pythons tank.

Ill throw some plants in there. He has a bunch of drift wood in there to hide in also.

His last meal was very large. They were out of small rats and he ended up eating a large one. This Ball Python is a normal male of about 3 feet for reference.

Originally Posted by KY Reptiles

Sounds like he is uncomfortable with his environment. Im assumimg you have him in a tank? Do you have the sides covered? Might wanna throw in some fake plants too. Feed him a smaller meal in two days like a small rat then fed him something a little smaller than a medium every week. Til he takes to larger meals. He coulda been bitten and it put him off a bit. Smaller more frequent meals are always better.

My first guess would have been that he was going into shed, but this isn't your first snake so I'm guessing you would have thought of that already. Kelly is probably right, just give him plenty of hiding places to make him feel secure and her will probably chill out eventually.

I couldn't resist...

Give him a box of chocolates and see what happens

Some of you will get where I'm going with this

Id like to know where you are going with it.

Originally Posted by hetsnowboa

I couldn't resist...

Give him a box of chocolates and see what happens

Some of you will get where I'm going with this

Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates. Try chocolates for a "Gumpy and Hissing" ball python. Just a little dumb humor during the work day.

LOL with my typing abilities I am surprised I didn't describe him as Gumby and hissing.

Incidentally, my ferocious every other week eater refused food again last night. I even got a smaller, less intimidating looking rat than usual. I am going to wait another week before trying again.