Hey guys. First off, let me say that I have years of experience keeping and breeding reptiles, and being in the position that I am in with them, and being that I work with them, I get a lot of unwanteds here and there.

About a month ago or so, I had a guy bring me a ball python that he said he had no success in keeping healthy. The snake, a male, was about three feet in length, skinny, dehydrated, had a case of mouth rot and URI, and overall weakened, made its way to my place where I began to treat it for the more serious ailments it had. Well, fast forward to the present day. The snake is doing much better, and although I can still see a little bit of a RI, he is eating well, although when he goes to strike the f/t mouse, he does it really awkwardly, striking in a slow motion toward the mouse, but sometimes missing and grabbing a mouthful of the wall of the enclosure and attempting to contrict it. Eventually he gets the mouse and eats it.

My question is, has anyone ever had to deal with this, and if so, how long did it take before he struck normally at the prey? I'm sure there are many variables, so ask if you need to know anything else. I'd like to get this snake healthy and normal and on its way to a better "forever" home (more into the higher end stuff myself). Is it because of the RI? thanks you for your time.

Joe
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1.0 Solomen Island ground boa
1.1 green tree python
1.0 jungle carpet python
1.0 Boa constrictor imperator
0.1 Borneo short-tailed (blood) python
0.1 woma
1.1 Western hognose snakes
0.1 crested gecko
...and a recovering rescue ball python.

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• Question regarding rescued ball python. - candoia, Sun Sep 17 18:34:46 2006
• RE: Question regarding rescued ball python. - beastmistress, Thu Sep 21 17:18:22 2006