What causes a snake to give itself a nose rub?

[bigdog02]

Hey all,
had monty (our burm) out last night and can see the tip of his nose is looking a little bit pink, not much yet. I know how to treat nose rubs with neosporine or antibiotic cream to avoid infection, but my question is this: What causes a snake to rub it's head along the sides of the cage and give itself a nose rub?
We have noticed that once we have him out and then put him back he seems to follow us around the room, rubbing in our direction like he wants out again.
Does this mean he wants held more? Our boa does it some, but usually calms down after she is back in her cage for a few minutes.
Any ideas?
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[Ed_r]

I'm assuming he has a screen top. Basically he figures he can see through it so it possibly could be an ascape route so he is testing it. They are very curious specially males. Trying to force the screen loose. Only real way to eliminate that is to remove the sreeen. As far as the nose rub he now has, treat with a Neosporin type ointment (non pain relief formula)
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[telefrag]

How often are you feeding the snake?
perhaps its restless in a search for food, perhaps its cage is too small, or too hot, or maybe something in the cage is irritating (like a prop, or substrate).

Any number of things can cause an increase in activity, find out why he may be moving around so much, in nature they only move around when they are hunting, looking for mates or water, or they are shedding, or looking for a new hiding spot.

Keeping that in mind, why would a snake move around excessively in a cage trying to get out ?(hench rubbing against corners, screen tops, walls)
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[bigdog02]

He is eating a med rat every 10 days, so feeding should not be a problem.

He isn't terribly restless UNTIL we get him out, hold him, and then put him back, that is when he really gets restless, when we are still in the room after we have held him.

Substrate is fine, was changed within the last couple weeks.
As far as size of cage, it is a big 55 gallon breeder cage, so I HOPE that is not too small for him, cause next step up is custom.


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[eddie]

How big is Monty?

If small enough for a 55 gallon, then every 10 days for feeding isn't quite enough.(hunting)
If big enough and old enough for feeding every 10 days, then chances are he is too big for the 55. (trying to get some stretching room)
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[bigdog02]

he is between 3-4 feet in length, and the breeder cage seems to have tons of room for him to move around in. Plus it is the biggest store bought cage i could find around here, next step has to be custom.

He has been in this cage for several months now, so the cage is relatively new.
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[eddie]

Ahh, ok, still a baby then!
Bump his feedings to every 7 days, see if that calms his searching down some, especially since every 10 days is a little sparse for one his age. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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[bigdog02]

He is around 4 to 5 years old, got him from a college kid who had to move, long story, but he said he got him when he moved to the frat, and he was already an older baby by then, and 3 years of college later, he had to leave and we took him in. We have had him a year now, so we guess his age to be 4-5 years old.
For his age, I am guessing he is small.


the kid would binge feed him like 5 mice on a party night then let him got a couple weeks to well over a month to a month and a half at the longest without feeding.

Stunted growth maybe?
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[dlamphere]

I think my burm was small for his age when we got him (about a year ago) and he is almost 8 foot and just over 18 months old. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

CORRECTION he is about 24 months old now. Man does time fly.
[img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] He was just about 4 foot when we got him and he was just under a year old then.

[telefrag]

a 3-4 ft burm probably could use more than 1 food item every 10 days.
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[John_White]

It has been my experience that there are two main reasons that snakes pace the enclosure. The first is hunger and the second is temperatures too high. I tend to agree with Telfrag in that your snake may need to be fed more often.

John
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[bigdog02]

it's a medium rat, and it leaves a VERY large bulbous mass in him for about 3 days. He is no wider than like 2-3 inches wide. So it is pushing the limits of size that he can handle. He is not actively hunting til like day 8-9 or so, and when he starts actively hunting we feed him the next day.
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