I have a female sinaloan milk snake aged about 15 months. She's reaching maturity and has been searching for a nest and refusing food. (I know it's too early to breed her)

At the last feed she was offered a small mouse rather than a fuz which she took. That was sunday.

Today (wedsnesday) she has been launching herself off her hide and 'flying' across the viv, rushing back along the ground and doing it again. After several minutes she retired to bed (no doubt exhausted) but when I tried to look at her, she shot off very quickly.

Now, she is behaving normally and lounging around. She seems ok. Her eyes are clear and I'm not expecting a shed, temps seem fine, she has water, plenty of hides etc

Whats going on?

LOL sounds like you have a case of terrible teens!

In all seriousness though, this does sound like quite strange behaviour.. can you tell us more about the way she is kept? - how big is her enclosure, temps, etc. It is doubtfull, but not impossible, that she is looking for a nesting site if she hasn't been bred,. it could be possible that she is searching for more food, however since you said she has just been moved up to a larger food item that would be unusual. She may just be more active due to the season. Is it definately a female?

Other than that, all I can think of is you have a snake that... wants to be an acrobat or a circus act

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Maybe she is in some sort of pain??!
I would watch her closly,and try to take her out and check her over,or go to the vet!

It sounds to me like shes just interested in exploring. Once my snakes get bored they start moving around the cage and climbing up under the lid. They appear to jump down to the floor of the tank, but I think they just lose their grip and fall.

My suggestions to curb the behaviour would be getting a larger enclosure with more places to explore, or perhaps putting in more distractions for her to climb around in.

Is it possible that something is startling her? Some movement or reflection?

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Thank you for your replies. Yes she is def a female - she was probed and checked over a couple of weeks ago.

She has a 30 inch viv (and until I got her about 6 weeks ago) she was in a hatchling box so her space has gone up considerably. Temps are 82 at the warm end and 70-72 at the cool.

She has two well enclosed hides, a bark 'arch', and a couple of branches. Although they are meant to prefer being on the ground she likes climbing. She also has a moss box and some plastic plants which she climbs in.

Something may have startled her, but it was early morning and there seemed to be very little movement in the room.

It wasn't like a one off as if she was startled - it was more like circuits and she seemed quite happy!! Since then she has been fine.

I really appreciate all your advice

Is anything sitting on the table that her tank is on that may be buzzing/vibrating? Even clock radioes 'click' when they flip the numbers of the time. The sound of an alarm going off makes ME jump out of my skin, I couldn't imagne being a snake with one right next to my house! Maybe the vibrations of a radio beingon on the same table as her?
The only other thing I can think of would be to buy a temp gun and check her temps for sure and see what they are. Maybe it's just TOO hot when she hits that spot in the tank and she decides to take a dive for it? LOL

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