Posted by:
lifeshighways
at Wed Oct 15 15:52:09 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by lifeshighways ]
I took in a rescue ball python last week:
2.5 years of age
Very underfed (reason will be explained below)
An unproven male (have not probed him yet, trying to give him some acclimation time...)
When he arrived he was covered in OLD shed.. by old I mean it was discolored and looked as if perhaps there were two sheds coming off at the same time, one eyecap was crinkled and apparently had been that way for quite some time....
He was turned over to me because:
He was blind (He is NOT BLIND)
He was unable to "aim" properly (His Aim is fine, it's his chewing that screws him up)
He would bite himself and coil up on himself while trying to eat (this is true)
He would refuse food if he sat for too long with it (frustration)TRUE
Once he arrived we did what we do with all reptiles that we rescue:
Nice warm, probably a little too warm bath... 30 minutes
2nd bath with betadine diluted in the water - for the 7 plus RAT BITES
3rd warm bath - that produced a nice void - both urine and feces
After the water is drained and the tub is cleaned a big heating paid is laid down with a plastic bag over it, set to medium is placed in the tub.. He is offered a frozen thawed hopper - SNAP takes it like a champ... struggles with it some as he catches his bottom lip on the corner of his skin (only the top 2 layers of shed, not through the body to produce blood though)
He takes it all and looks around for more... we offer a second, he misses 3 times before finally biting down on his lower body full bite.. mouth open wide and POP bites himself NO WHERE NEAR the rat....
After coiling on himself for 7 minutes he releases and starts to look for the rat... finally laying in a nice ball on the heatpad...
He is taken out of the tub and placed in a 40 long tank with cyprss chips, two hides one on the warm and one on the cool side, he is given a bath tub and a rough rock of which to rub against. We go to bed....
When I get up at 4 am to check on him, nearly a full shed is in his tank and he is curled up on the warm side of the tank... apparently sleeping.
And - the eye "crinkle" was gone... obviously an eyecap
4 days later a hopper is offered again... after 4 attempts to strike the dead rat he opens his mouth wide and chomps down on his body - no where near the rat ..... seriously it makes me think of a teenage cutter... as if he's so frustrated that he's so hungry that he just bites himself... now we both know they dont "think" that way.. but it really does look like that.... we have noticed that his tongue will flicker out straight but more times than not it will come out in an L shape to the right... when he does coil up on a rat... he struggles HARD to uncoil to the left.... but this is ONLY when he is feeding. When being held for pleasure he coils both left and right turns left and right.. but when eating he can not successfully uncoil to the left.... After 45 minutes of struggling and him mutating the mouse beyond recognition he never ate it... an obvious defeat!
Have you ever seen such a thing before?
I am assuming that it's neurological....would you agree?
Thank you so much for reading this, I look forward to your feedback
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 Neurological or Not - lifeshighways, Wed Oct 15 15:52:09 2008
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