Sudden agression in two JCP yearlings?

Hello, I’ve had my two jungle carpet pythons for about a month, they were hatched in June of 2010. Was a little worried at first, heard that young JCP’s can be very nippy until about 3 years. They were the two sweetest snakes I owned, until today. I would always handle them (daily for ~ 15 minutes a piece, sometimes twice a day) and they always just tried to explore or sometimes just chilled on my hand, both ofcorse went for my glasses, but neither showed any signs of aggression, no hissing, no striking, nothing.

Both of them just shed about two weeks ago, both healthy sheds and the eye caps did come off. I feed them in a separate feeding cage. Here recently I’ve been having to give them shots for antibiotics, when I got them they had mites and my vet said to give them the shots to prevent any infection from the mites and some spray stuff to spray them with every 3 days. I last fed them on Saturday.

Walking by the cage today she struck at the cage. Twice. Every time anyone gets near the cage, she goes into striking position and stalks them. The male will go into striking position but haven’t seen him strike.

Are they just having a bad day or is this a sign of an underlying medical issue?

Originally Posted by OwnerSince2010

Hello, I’ve had my two jungle carpet pythons for about a month, they were hatched in June of 2010. Was a little worried at first, heard that young JCP’s can be very nippy until about 3 years. They were the two sweetest snakes I owned, until today. I would always handle them (daily for ~ 15 minutes a piece, sometimes twice a day) and they always just tried to explore or sometimes just chilled on my hand, both ofcorse went for my glasses, but neither showed any signs of aggression, no hissing, no striking, nothing.

Both of them just shed about two weeks ago, both healthy sheds and the eye caps did come off. I feed them in a separate feeding cage. Here recently I’ve been having to give them shots for antibiotics, when I got them they had mites and my vet said to give them the shots to prevent any infection from the mites and some spray stuff to spray them with every 3 days. I last fed them on Saturday.

Walking by the cage today she struck at the cage. Twice. Every time anyone gets near the cage, she goes into striking position and stalks them. The male will go into striking position but haven’t seen him strike.

Are they just having a bad day or is this a sign of an underlying medical issue?

its the shots. they are very stressful for a snake, especially a baby one. if they were calm before the shots, then they might settle down in a week or so.

Ok, thank you Wasn't sure if it was that or something more serious

It is fairly common for baby carpets to be aggressive.
Since yours are only about 7 months old, unless they're showing other signs
of potential problems, I wouldn't worry about it. They will generally mellow out as they get older.

Originally Posted by nwheather

It is fairly common for baby carpets to be aggressive.
Since yours are only about 7 months old, unless they're showing other signs
of potential problems, I wouldn't worry about it. They will generally mellow out as they get older.

I heard this, but they showed no signs of aggression before, which is why I was worried :O

Maybe they were just getting adjusted to a new home. I have one hatching that showed no signs of aggression for a few weeks, & I started to worry that something was wrong. Then one day she struck at me when I went to change out her water. For the most part, she's a docile baby, but during feeding time, & on occasion, she shows her aggression. Another one I have, that is a 2009 baby is pretty much grumpy all the time. LOL
Like I said, I wouldn't be too worried, unless there's other factors involved (not eating, not acting right, etc)

Young carpets, and even some older ones, are very movement oriented and touch responsive. That's why the tap tease method of feeding works so well with them.

Think about it for a minute, if you were hanging out minding your own business, and one of those big came over and jabbed a needle in you; how many times would it have to happen before you started reacting to its approach?

Antibiotics for mites??? Am I the only one that found that unusual?

Originally Posted by hhmoore

Young carpets, and even some older ones, are very movement oriented and touch responsive. That's why the tap tease method of feeding works so well with them.

Think about it for a minute, if you were hanging out minding your own business, and one of those big came over and jabbed a needle in you; how many times would it have to happen before you started reacting to its approach?

Antibiotics for mites??? Am I the only one that found that unusual?

I did too, the dude was a little bit of a quack (I brought them in, after finding a mite, with the mite in a baggie and some tell-tale signs. He said they didn't have mites, and the one I found was a free-roaming mite. He looked over them with a magnifying glass and didn't "find anything". Wasn't til they were crawling with mites that he admitted they were "fast moving" mites.) but he's the vet and 2nd closest herp vet is ~ 90 minutes away, which I didn't wanna do in this weather