Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my blood is still not eating, its been 2 weeks, im not stressing over the length cause i know they can go awhile without eating. he is also about to shed which i thought was what was stopping him from eating....but today i got him out and noticed a great deal of substrate (eco earth coconut bark) jammed in his mouth on the left side forcing his lower jaw to be almost open. i called the 2 best reptile vets in the stl area and got no answer so i called the st. louis(where i am) zoo. the guy said to open my snakes mouth and remove as much of the substrate as possible which i did. we will be visiting one of the vets as soon as i get ahold of them to get this taken care of. but in the meantime...

what can i do to prevent this from happening again?

does this sound like mouth rott? (i did not see any mouth rott appearance from the area of his mouth)

a quick run down of the set up: 30 gallon tank(soon to be larger), screen mesh top, roughly 90 degrees, large water bowl, hides, and eco earth substrate)

my snake is not quite a year old and is about 2 feet long.

what is happening to him?

Bloods will instinctively burrow to avoid high temps and low humidity. A screen top and 90 degrees will likely cause this to happen as that is too high in the temp range and the open top will result in very low humidity at 90 degrees. The mouth impaction could easily be the result of the burrowing attempts. Day temps in the mid 80's and a major reduction in the area of the open top should help the situation. I keep everything on newspaper, but I know many others like the more natural look. If the mouth looked clear after the material was removed and flushed, you are probably alright. If you have doubts, make sure to see the vet.

Kelly

i think you may be correct i removed all of the dirt and it looks fine and i did replace the bulb but still think its too hot with too low humidity.

is this something normal that happens to pythons when they burrow though or is it something i should not be concerned about? i do like the eco earth substrate and think it suits him quite well but if it is going to cause this to happen frequently i would not use it unless it is okay for this to happen.

hm.

thanks for the advice : )

I agree with Kelly that you probably have humidity problems, which could lead to the dry substrate getting caught around your snake's mouth, but I don't believe that's why your snake isn't eating in the first place. I think it's probably stressed, and baby bloods won't eat when they feel stressed, because a feeding snake is a vulnerable snake. Rather than trying to upgrade it to a larger cage right now, try putting it in something smaller. I'm keeping my baby bloods in clear 16-qt Rubbermaid boxes with an overturned flower pot saucer and a water bowl that's molded so it conveniently doubles as a hide around the actual bowl part. Together, these items cover almost the entire floor area of the cage. I do have these particular snakes on coconut fiber substrate, but I haven't had any problems with it getting caught around the snakes' mouths, and my snakes have done some burrowing. Also try lowering your cage temperature to 80-84 F without a hot spot, and get a digital hygrometer so you can measure the humidity; my snakes do well with humidity from the high 50s to low 70s.

and....good luck