I've been keeping kings and milks for quite some time now and just got a baby ball python. I've noticed that it's breathing is pretty visible and do not know if this is normal. The breathing is not audible, there is no popping/wheezing, and its mouth is not open. It has a strong feeding response and as far as I can tell is behaviorally normal (spends most of its time in its hide, curls into a tight ball when I disturb him, eats...)

My obvious concern is some sort of respiratory problem. The time between each breath ranges from once every second when it feels threatened and is balling up to about once every 5 or so seconds when it doesn't know I'm around. It could just be that I'm so used to handling much skinnier snakes that the breaths seem more noticeable to me than I'm used to. How visible should a baby ball pythons breathing rhythm be?

I just uploaded closeup video of the snake taken seconds after removing it from its tank. The video shows its faster breathing pace that I notice when it has recently been disturbed:
Baby Ball Python breathing (24mb)

[ Hide Replies ]

• new to the python world - quick question - anuraanman, Mon Aug 18 00:27:10 2008
• RE: new to the python world - quick question - luvmyhydra, Mon Aug 18 00:40:54 2008
• Seems fine.... - ExecutiveReptiles, Mon Aug 18 01:30:06 2008
• RE: Seems fine.... - anuraanman, Mon Aug 18 01:36:38 2008
• RE: Seems fine.... - littleleeper23, Tue Aug 19 08:59:22 2008