Hi you may or may not remember me but I have a male checkered garter snake named Steavy and he just turned 7 a few days ago! He has never really bit me before other than once or twice, I was dumb and had the scent of pinky on my hand and he bit me. But today I didn't even even get near his food let alone touch it. So as usual I got him out today and he was in his paper towel roll as he always is, and I took the roll out of the cage and slid him out (not as gentle as I probably could) but like I said I do this every day when ever I get him out, and he never got aggressive. But today was different, after he slid out of the roll I picked him up and was handling him, then out of no where he bit my knuckle, it was only a quick strike but it still drew a tiny bit of blood. I set him down and let him calm down, after a few minutes he crawled to me and was nuzzling against my legs ect, but when I moved he got defensive again, trying to strike at me but missed... I gave him some space and put him back in his cage. I needed to clean his cage out today and feed him so I took him out again carefully (he was in his paper towel roll) and I set him into a smaller cage (without touching him bc i was scared he'd bite me again). After I cleaned his cage out I thought I'd see if he was nicer this time and i put him on my bed, I let him calm down a little and i picked him up by the tail, and set him down on my lap, and he bit my leg for no reason. The last time I fed him was last friday and I fed him two pinkys today. (after he bit me twice.) Could it be he was just in a bad mood? Do older snakes get cranky more easily? Was he just hungry? I kinda ruled the hungry part out since I had no scent on me what so ever, but i don't know. It shocked me because he's been my baby for the past 7 years and i'm kinda afraid to touch him now. I usually feed him two pinkies every 8-10 days ish. Has this ever happened to you? thanks for reading
-brittany