There is ample evidence that stress is one of the strongest toxic agents in mammals. There are no organ systems that stress cannot adversely affect and I would not be surprised if the condition I'm seeing in the Oxyrhopus is not, in some part, due to stress. I have no hard evidence for the following - simply my opinion: I have repeatedly heard people describe difficultes in keeping some WC animals healthy as being due to the fact that they were "heavily parasitized". Well, the parasite levels may be high but we tend to forget that the snakes did not become "heavily parasitized" after they were caught - they were surviving and reproducing with a full parasite load before they were captured. The health problems in captivity begin when the stress of capture, shipment, and/or changed environment in captivity lowers their immune systems - then the parasites begin to overwhelm the animal. When an animal is CB, these stress factors aren't operating - it is born in a cage and quickly becomes acclimated to its environment. I believe that this lack of systemic stress is the reason CB animals do well - not the fact that they eat clean food and drink clean water. If clean food and water were a necessity for survival, there wouldn't be any snakes in the wild. Bottom line - a captive snake can go without food and water or a clean cage for some time without problems. What it can't handle is unusual levels of stress that may be induced by those conditions.

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