Unusual behaviour in my jungle?

[joanna_maryanna]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why my jungle is being strange?

He is about 2 1/2 years old, and I have had him for about 19 months.
I never have any problems handling him.
He feeds well - usually 1 fuzzy rat every 2 weeks. Never refuses a feed.
He is in the same 4 foot enclosure that he has been in ever since I got him home. With no changes to the decor.
Temps are: 25.7(cold) and 35.0(hot), and haven't been changed.
His last shed was 18/4/11.

The "problem".
Usually he is happy to move around the enclosure as he needs to, hot/cold whatever. But really only ever staying on logs or rocks, never on the ground. Even when drinking, he hangs down from the branch and reaches into the water bowl. He is usually fairly active, even moving toward the glass when he see's someone near the enclosure.
BUT, the last 2-3 days, he has spent all his time on the floor of the enclosure. This is very unlike him. It is not at 1 particular end, so I don't think it's a temp. thing. He is still very alert, and moving around as usual. It is just very bizarre. In the past 19 months I can count on one hand the number of times he has been on the floor, and now he's been there constantly for a few days.

Does anyone think I need to be concerned?

Thanks for your help.:?

 

[Bel03]

It doesnt really sound like anything to worry about......from what you have said he has the correct temps etc........I am definately not claiming to be an expert or anything, ive only had my bredli for a few months, however id wonder if maybe your jungle is searching for food.......my bredli is under a yr old & on hopper rats, so perhaps the fuzzy rats are not filling your jungle, & therefor he is searching for more??? When was his last feed? Maybe try offering him something bigger?? Again, im only giving my opinion, im sure someone with more knowledge could tell you if im way off, & it is indeed something else. Goodluck though.

 

[Ned_fisch]

Definitely feed him more then that, Weaner rats every week, his probably a bit hungry. He will knock down a lot more then you think. When my jungles were that age, I had them on Small adult rats.

How big is he?

Other than that, I wouldn't worry mate, sounds like your doing everything fine. My jungles used to climb a lot, but now with some age, they don't seem to anymore. He could be coming up for a shed, that may be why he doesn't wanna climb, try feeding, and give him a few days, should be fine then.
Then, leave him to shed, if thats what he may do.

Good luck.

 

[Colin]

definitely needs to be fed some bigger food items. Im assuming he's small? my jungles at that age are eating mostly medium rats every two weeks. outside of breeding season (when I dont feed my snakes) they usually shed roughly every 8 weeks and if they take longer I up the food size a bit and if they shed less than 8 weeks I spread the feeds a bit more apart.. thats just me and everyone does things a bit differently.

Id personally take the hot end temp down a notch to say 32 degrees.. depends on the size of your enclosure but if he spends most of his time at the cooler end maybe its a bit hot at the hotter end.. and if hes going into a shed.. just leave him be.. they dont need to be handled all the time and despite what some people say... most really dont like being handled much, some just tolerate it more than others..

 

[joanna_maryanna]

Thanks everyone,
I thought he may be ready for a shed, but it never entered my head that he may be hungry!!
I'll try feeding more often, and work my way up a few sizes.
Thanks again.

definitely needs to be fed some bigger food items. Im assuming he's small?

Id personally take the hot end temp down a notch to say 32 degrees.. depends on the size of your enclosure but if he spends most of his time at the cooler end maybe its a bit hot at the hotter end.. and if hes going into a shed.. just leave him be.. they dont need to be handled all the time and despite what some people say... most really dont like being handled much, some just tolerate it more than others..

He is about 120cm long, is that small for this age?

I usually only handle him about once every 2-3 weeks.

 

[thexbluexfairy]

My 1 and a half year old jungle is on that size of rat, my 2 and half year old bredli is on small adult rats. Im sure he would be very happy going up a size in food and eating moor regularly.

 

[Pythoninfinite]

If it's a male it could be hormnal behaviour as well - they can become very restless at this time of the year when the boys are out looking for girls.

Jamie

 

[wokka]

Jungles are very variable in size depending upon locality. Adults can vary from around a meter to nearly 3meters. Depending upon its size you may be feeding enough although personally I would rather feed a larger item less often. As Jamie said your animal may well have reached sexual maturity and be "on the prowl".

 

[Schnecke]

Just to give you an idea, my 9 month old Jungle (Black and Yellow Palmerston, the smaller of the Jungles) is just on 80cm long now and is on the largest fuzzies/velvets available. The last 2 feeds he's had haven't left a really large "bulge" like they used to and the little lump he had was gone within 1 day after his last feed, so this week I am upping him to small weaners/hoppers. Don't know if he'll be able to get one down, but I'm told he can handle it so I'll give him a go (I'll just make sure all the feet are pointing backwards for him to make it easier - he can be a little "odd" eating sometimes and his last attempt was 45 minutes of searching for it's head!) and I of course always supervise just in case. I'm still a newbie myself so worry about stuff like that.

Good on you to look for an answer to odd behaviour - a lot of people don't study their pets (including dogs, cats, horses etc) very closely and don't notice when something's up - I remember one time I knew something wasn't right with my horse, he just felt "strange" when I hopped on him (we had a 40km ride that day) but everyone said there was nothing wrong with him. Had 3 people jump on him and each one told me he was good to go. I chose to trust my gut and not ride him that day. Next morning I went to unrug him and he couldn't walk and turned out he had a massive infection in his hoof and the pressure was causing pain (he was fine once I got him seen to - ended up with a massive section being taken out of his hoof to get to the problem) and I know that's long-winded but I suppose my advice is to always trust your gut. If he doesn't look "right" then always ask the question. To someone else, he'd seem normal, but you know he's not, so now you can take the steps and get the advice to hopefully get him back to his normal routine.

Hopefully with an increase in food size (should be able to go up to weaners/hoppers for 2-3 feeds then small adults before long at all) plus a little drop in temp on the hot end (I keep my little guy at 32 in the hot end/top and the other lower parts of the enclosure are room temp) and slightly drop the hot end temp to 27 overnight - even though he's young and most people keep hot temps 24/7 for young ones he still explores his entire enclosure at night and doesn't always stay in the warm part during the day or night unless it's within 24 hours after his feed (even then he comes out looking for another meal!) and he hasn't missed a feed since going into the enclosure) and seems like a happy little fellow with the temp set up I've provided.

Good luck with your guy and would love to see some pics after he sheds (which sounds like he may, with your decscription)

 

[wokka]

Jungles are very variable in size depending upon locality. Adults can vary from around a meter to nearly 3meters. Depending upon its size you may be feeding enough although personally I would rather feed a larger item less often. As Jamie said your animal may well have reached sexual maturity and be "on the prowl".

I just noticed the previous advice that the jungle is 120 cms long. At that length I wouls be feed weaner rats(35grams) or small rats (50 grams)