Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here to visit Classifieds
Click for ZooMed
Click here to visit Classifieds

ball pythons see lifeless ...need help

evercraig190 Feb 20, 2006 11:51 PM

hi, i bought 0.4 ball pythons awhile back from a reliable breeder. they are eating every 4-6 days and were doing fine. THe humidity was perfect and every shed was perfectly in one piece. Then one day i realized that one of them looks lifeless. He couldnt control his body. So i took him out of the cage and cleaned the cage again. I had been cleaning the cage everyday and changing the water every other day. I even changed the substrate, which was coconut bark and i changed it to reptibark..then a week or two later another one became sick. I took him out and changed everything again. I didnt have mites because i cleaned the cage so often. I have no idea what is wrong with them. The two that are sick are still alive and i have two healthy ones that just ate yesterday. Im not sure what im doing wrong but any help is appreciated. I am insterested in buying a piebald, but if i cant keep some normals alive, i dont want to invest in something really expensive.

PS i have boa constrictors and never ever did any of them get sick. I know that the living conditions for boas and pythons are different in the humidity level..any help is greatly appreciated..
-----
0.4 normal ball pythons
0.1 normal Redtail boa
1.0 Hypo Redtail boa
1.0 true Redtail boa
1.1 100% Het Albino Redtail boa
1 baby sulcata tortoise
0.0.1 Baby Bearded Dragon
0.0.1 Baby Red Uromastyx
0.1 GF Eryn (WC)

Replies (3)

evercraig190 Feb 21, 2006 08:40 AM

np
-----
0.4 normal ball pythons
0.1 normal Redtail boa
1.0 Hypo Redtail boa
1.0 true Redtail boa
1.1 100% Het Albino Redtail boa
1 baby sulcata tortoise
0.0.1 Baby Bearded Dragon
0.0.1 Baby Red Uromastyx
0.1 GF Eryn (WC)

Liann Feb 22, 2006 11:15 AM

First off, I would be very concerned about the symptoms you are describing. Do you have a reptile vet in the area? I would try to get the sick ones to a vet asap (even if you have to drive a few hours, it is worth it to not lose your entire collection). If you house your BP's together, I would separate them immediately. Put the sick ones in another room of the house even - if possible. Keep them away from your boas too! Since you have had two come down sick, I would treat everything as if they were highly contagious - wash your hands between every snake and anything you use on the snakes (you should always do this anyways - but you probably know that) . Are they experiencing any other symptoms besides loss of motor control?

Some diseases/parasites can take a while to show up (I had a girl for months before she showed any symptoms of a protozoan infection - just died on Sunday). I am in the process of having all of my snakes screened for IBD and some other bad bugs just to be completely safe - regardless of what big breeders I got them from.

Also, cleaning every week isn't going to keep you from having mites. I am a neat freek with my cages and thoroughly clean every week and still ended up with them a few weeks ago. They were impossible for me to see on the snakes or in the enclosures, but once they gorged themselves enough and drowned in the water bowls, I was able to see them.

Keep us updated on how everything turns out!!! I feel the same way about high end morphs. I want them, but want to make sure I can handle the lower end ones before I jump in over my head.

>>hi, i bought 0.4 ball pythons awhile back from a reliable breeder. they are eating every 4-6 days and were doing fine. THe humidity was perfect and every shed was perfectly in one piece. Then one day i realized that one of them looks lifeless. He couldnt control his body. So i took him out of the cage and cleaned the cage again. I had been cleaning the cage everyday and changing the water every other day. I even changed the substrate, which was coconut bark and i changed it to reptibark..then a week or two later another one became sick. I took him out and changed everything again. I didnt have mites because i cleaned the cage so often. I have no idea what is wrong with them. The two that are sick are still alive and i have two healthy ones that just ate yesterday. Im not sure what im doing wrong but any help is appreciated. I am insterested in buying a piebald, but if i cant keep some normals alive, i dont want to invest in something really expensive.
>>
>>PS i have boa constrictors and never ever did any of them get sick. I know that the living conditions for boas and pythons are different in the humidity level..any help is greatly appreciated..
>>-----
>>0.4 normal ball pythons
>>0.1 normal Redtail boa
>>1.0 Hypo Redtail boa
>>1.0 true Redtail boa
>>1.1 100% Het Albino Redtail boa
>>1 baby sulcata tortoise
>>0.0.1 Baby Bearded Dragon
>>0.0.1 Baby Red Uromastyx
>>0.1 GF Eryn (WC)
-----
-----
Amber

Boas
1.1.0 Colombian (Austin & Ava)
1.0.0 Suriname (Aloysius)
1.1.0 Albino (Bo & Daisy)
Balls:
1.27.0 Normal (Tucker, Taylor,and lil' girls - RIP Eva)
1.1.0 Pastel
1.2.0 100% Het Pied
1.0.0 100% Het Albino (Bubba)
0.1.0 66% Poss. Het Albino
Corns:
1.1.0 Amber
1.1.0 Butter Motley
1.1.0 Crimson
1.1.0 Ghost
1.1.0 Hypo
0.0.1 Normal
1.1.0 Okeetee
1.0.1 Snow (Aiden)
1.1.0 Sunglow Motley
Milks:
1.1.0 Hypo Honduran (Damien & Lucy)
0.1.0 Pueblan (Marishka)
1.1.0 Sinaloan
Other:
2.1.0 Dachshunds - Dakota, Montana, & Cheyenne
2.0.0 Ferrets - Bailey & Keyta

3dmike Feb 24, 2006 06:14 PM

What do you clean daily with. Many cleaners are known to cause nervous system problems such as you describe either fumes, injested via the water bowl or absorbed via the skin. Daily pick up of poop, etc. is good, overcleaning can run the risk of continued exposure to such chemicals. Just a thought.
-----
Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com

Site Tools