Ok so I just purchased my first snake last week, I got a fairly young ball python, around a foot and a half long. I have him in a 10 gallon aquarium currently. I have been monitoring the temps, hot side sits between 88-92 degrees and cold side around 80-85. Humidity between 50-60. Substrate is snake friendly wood chip according to the pet store.

I have not really handled him much to give him tim to acclimate to his new home. He doesn't move around alot, and prefers the hot side 70% of the time. That is not my concern however.

PROBLEM: My roomate said last night he noticed the snake stretched out and breathing with his mouth open. Did not notice any bubbles or fluid, just said he looked very skinny, completely stretched and about 20 seconds later moved into his hide and curled up. Today was his scheduled feeding day so I put him in a seperate feeding bin and dropped in a live mouse (pet store said he wouldn't eat frozen).

He showed no interest in the food, but from what I understand this is common. However when I was holding him he felt fairly limp and was not supporting himself besides his head. When I put him back in the cage, he was moving around but very strangely. Almost like he was drunk. He didnt slither as much as he would curl his head all the way back, and propel himself forward this way.

So my question is, what is going on here? I'm pretty nervous, maybe a resp. infection?

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• New snake owner here, need help PLEASE - bigcity157, Mon Jul 5 14:20:10 2010
• RE: New snake owner here, need help PLEASE - gsrept, Mon Jul 5 14:37:30 2010
• RE: New snake owner here, need help PLEASE - LibertyReptiles, Tue Jul 6 12:46:11 2010
• RE: New snake owner here, need help PLEASE - SugarFox03, Wed Jul 7 15:29:33 2010