Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 3 year old female ball python that I have owned for 2.5 years. Recently I was told she was getting a bit overweight and that I should try to lean her out a bit. I have put her on a more regular feeding cycle and have tried to give her areas to move around in when I have her out of the enclosure more often. She was doing well for a couple months with this. Last night I noticed my male (in a separate cage in the same room) was enter a shed cycle, so I put on the humidifier to add a little humidity to the room. This morning my female has been lifted up with her head held in the "searching" position for several hours. She has also been rubbing against her water dish as if she had an itch or was shedding. It concerned me slightly when I noticed she was breathing more heavily then normal. Is this behavior normal? Is she just hungry and looking for food? Each snake is in a 45gallon breeder with a ceramic heat lamp and an undertank heater. Temps are 90 on the hotspot with the cool side around 80. The humidity averages 55% with the humidifier on they go to 70%.
-----
1.0 100% het albino ball python
0.1 normal Ball python
0.0.1 uromastyx (Styx)...he is a rescue

When holding her do you hear any kind of noises? Is there anything coming out of her nose? She may have a upper respitory infection. I would maybe keep the humidifier away from her and up the temps a bit. If you are hearing noises she will need to go to a vet for meds.

no she is not making noises, or displaying anything that would make me think URI. I have seen and dealt with that before in petshop snakes. I offered food and she readily accepted. She laid still for 10-12 hours and then went back to searching. I was thinking and was wondering, each snake is in an open top cage... is it possible that since they are both at breeding age that she is searching for him to mate because she smells him?
-----
1.0 100% het albino ball python
0.1 normal Ball python
0.0.1 uromastyx (Styx)...he is a rescue

I guess anything is possible.. Maybe she had a little peace of bedding stuck in her mouth.

I think you are confused. How do you get the idea she had bedding in her mouth? besides the fact that she has paper bedding, she didn't exhibit any signs of mouth problems or breathing issues. The part of her head she rubbed against the bowl was the top part, between her eyes.
-----
1.0 100% het albino ball python
0.1 normal Ball python
0.0.1 uromastyx (Styx)...he is a rescue

Sorry about that I think I confused another post. I do have a question thou what makes your snake overweight?

she has thick ripples (not like a dehydrated snake) in her curves when she bends her body. she also shows more skin between her scales when she bends then I like. She was malnourished and sick when I got her, and ever since then she has never refused a feeding.
-----
1.0 100% het albino ball python
0.1 normal Ball python
0.0.1 uromastyx (Styx)...he is a rescue

Glad you got her than, it is sad that she was not taken care of the right way before you got her. I have a female that looks like that to when she is laying but when you take her out she is solid. Feed he r when she is hungry take her out so she can move around.I am sure she is fine.

the only reason I was concerned is because a friend of mine had a garter snake that started with a similar activity and then its eye turned black and it couldn't see and then it slowly got mentally worse until finally we had it put down because it couldnt feed itself.
-----
1.0 100% het albino ball python
0.1 normal Ball python
0.0.1 uromastyx (Styx)...he is a rescue

sometimes my female BP will ''search'' as well for brief periods of time....she recently had a checkup and has no health issues... I think this is a behavior they all do at some point...either to stretch or because they're trying to smell another snake...I have 2 other male snakes, although they're not BP's I think she still smells them at times..

she very well could be wanting a mate....My male northern pine snake was my only snake for a long time, then one day I added a male bullsnake, who was housed in the cage on the shelf above my pine snake.....the pine snake started going crazy and doing all kinds of things he'd never done in the 7 years I've owened him!!

it could be a number of things, but if she has no other health issues, i'm sure it's normal!
-----
MY SNAKES
1.0 Northern Pine (Oshy)
1.0 Hypo Bull (Irwin)
0.1 Ball Python (Nagini)

MY OTHER CRITTERS
1.0 Belgian Draft/Paint (Sherlock)
1.0 large standard donkey (Cleatis Jack)
3.0 alley cats (Caesar, Boomer, Phoenix)
1.0 Siamese (Pharoh)
1.0 Betta (Lewis)