Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 3 y.o. 13 foot 100 Pound Burm died tonight and I do not know why. I came home to find her with her lying on her side with her mouth open. The Temp in the cage was checked frequently on the cool side of the cage is where she spent most of her time and the ground temp was 82 degrees. The warm side ground temp was 90.

She stopped eating a couple months ago. I moved my heat panel to the side rather than the middle to give a more gradient temp a few weeks ago.

I squeezed her head to look for mucuous bubbles just a couple days ago and there were none.

I hope she did not die due to a respitory infection due to temp. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks for any help
-----
0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
0.1 Green Burm
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda
1.0 Emerald Tree Boa

Hi Jeff,

Sorry to hear this. It's always painful when you lose a pet snake. Trust me, I know how it feels. I have lost some very dear snakes over the years.

Sometimes it can be things like respitiory infections, sure. But with that ailment it would be very hard to not hear the gurgling and wheezing that goes hand in hand with the illness. Sometimes a snake can simply have a defective heart or other vital organ/s and just simply have a shorter lifespan. It can just simply be the bad odds life sometimes throws at us.

I hope this helps y'all in some small way.
-----
David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Thanks for the comments, it really is hard. You have people get them and the release them, and mine passes. Today when I took her in to be creamated it was very hard. I will miss Sway, just like how she got her name from the move gone in 60 sec it feels how fast she went. If I knew how to post pics I would.
-----
0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
0.1 Green Burm
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda
1.0 Emerald Tree Boa

Sorry to hear of your passing. That is one of the worse feelings with such a young snake. I went through a similar loss with a black milk in the beginning of the year.

My condolances
JasonMc

How unfortunate. I know how you feel. My recently-acquired one and a half year old green burm, Jurgen, died a month ago and I still feel sad.

Michele

Are you going to do a necropsy on this animal? That would be the best way to figure out what happened (not that it will make you feel any better but I have learned quite a bit over the years from necropsied animals). It sounds like your conditions were good. Your cool end sounds find and you might consider bumping up your warm end a bit. I try to establish a thermal gradient of 80-82 degrees F on the cool end and a basking area that reaches the upper 90's (and sometimes even reaches 100) on the warm end. I have noticed that on those rare occasions where they may have a little respiratory problem (despite our optimal temps this is the Chicago area), they will seek out the warmest places in their cages and bask for long periods of time. Even w/out treatment, they have recovered and the warm basking temps probably help quite a bit. but, the importantn thing here is that you provide optimal temps but a chance to cool off if need be.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
>>My 3 y.o. 13 foot 100 Pound Burm died tonight and I do not know why. I came home to find her with her lying on her side with her mouth open. The Temp in the cage was checked frequently on the cool side of the cage is where she spent most of her time and the ground temp was 82 degrees. The warm side ground temp was 90.
>>
>>She stopped eating a couple months ago. I moved my heat panel to the side rather than the middle to give a more gradient temp a few weeks ago.
>>
>>I squeezed her head to look for mucuous bubbles just a couple days ago and there were none.
>>
>>I hope she did not die due to a respitory infection due to temp. Please let me know what you think.
>>
>>Thanks for any help
>>-----
>>0.2 Rotts
>>1.0 Super Tiger
>>0.1 Green Burm
>>0.1 Ball Python
>>0.1 Red Tail
>>0.1 Blood Python
>>1.0 Green Ananconda
>>1.0 Emerald Tree Boa
-----
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I thought that to, but then everything I read, says those are the temps they should be at. I use to keep my snakes on the higher end of the temp grade but stopped based off of what I was seeing.
Again I just hope it was not my fault that she passed away. I hope you are correct in what you said that they would seek out the warm side and take care of it themselves but snakes are weird and some would rather freeze then to get warm.

Thank you for everyone who has sent me e-mails or posted a message.
-----
0.2 Rotts
1.0 Super Tiger
0.1 Green Burm
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Red Tail
0.1 Blood Python
1.0 Green Ananconda
1.0 Emerald Tree Boa

The reason some snakes would 'rather' freeze than warm up is because they don't feel secure in the warm area of the enclosure. Let's face it, a snakes primary instinct is to hide and avoid being eaten...regardless of how large it is. Avoiding being seen by prey is also a good reason. I bet that if you put a tight fitting hide box in your enclosure, your snake would use it, and it probably wouldn't matter where you put it. They like security. The less a snake is visible, the less likely it will be eaten (at least that's the way they seem to think).

that being said, higher basking temps aren't a bad thing either. As was already said, higher temperatures allow reptiles to recover more quickly (as their bodies work more efficiently). It also helps them to digest prey efficiently so they don't develop too much fat.

The tough part is giving the animal the right resources though. A snake shouldn't have to choose between being Hot or cold. It should have ways of finding what specific temperature it wants when it needs to, while feeling secure. The problem is that it is difficult to provide this in captivity with such a large snake.

Just some food for thought. Sorry about the unfortunate death.