Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those of you who keep your snakes on aspen, do your snakes sneeze every now and then? Mine's been doing it off and on. There is no discharge and his appetite is fine.

Yes, I used aspen. A while back I noticed Belle was sneezing. I took her to a vet because I was afraid she might have an R.I., and the vet told me she didn't, but that the aspen might be causing some irritation. So I switched from aspen to that anti-allergenic CareFresh and used it for quite a while. But she still sneezes occasionally on the CareFresh, so I figured it was just what she did and I switched back to aspen because I like the looks of it better and my snakes like to burrow in it better.

It took me a while to really determine a pattern, but finally realized that she largely just sneezed soon after a meal or a big drink of water. I don't know what that means but it made it easier for me to not worry about it and switch back to aspen.

Not sure if any of that helped.

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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

You bet that can happen. And to prove or disprove for your snake, switch to newspaper and see what happens.

I've had a few snakes sneeze alot on aspen and other wood particle substrates, only to stop once moved to a no dust substrate, like coir fiber (aka Bed-a-Beast, etc), tile, newspaper, etc.

Most snakes do not seem to be sensistive to aspen, but some can be to any fine wood-derived dust. Just like some people are more sensitive to dust than others. Do what you need for those individuals.
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Mark

He doesn't do it a lot. Maybe once or twice per day. No discharge of any kind. I think it's just the dust from the aspen. I'll probably keep him on it as long as he doesn't show any signs of a RI.

Although snakes do sometimes seem like they're "sneezing" in response to fine particulates, like humans would, I don't really think it's too big a deal. I think it's just a routine clearing of the nostril openings once in a while as they would SURELY be doing in nature. As snakes would NO DOUBT be burrowing into all kinds of fine substrates(fine dusty sand, etc..) and be getting their noses full of different things on an almost daily basis unless coiled in one place and not moving anywhere for a while.

Take for instance when a snake sheds, I have seen MANY snakes shedding outside and plowing their snouts right through stuff like a bulldozer, coming up with a big heap of dirt, etc... on their heads after doing so. So basically, if a snake "sneezes" once in a while, so be it, it's a natural degradable substance, and in minute particulate form, I don't think it does any harm to them at all. I've been using nothing but wood substrates for four decades, and I haven't really noticed much in the way of this happening very often at all, but again, if it does once in a great while, so be it, I've never had a problem whatsoever.

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thanks, Doug. That's all I thought it was, but I thought I'd check around.

Aspen for the most part in all of my other enclosures, just to clarify I DO use mostly Aspen.

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I got a adult male blaze through the classifieds and it came in with a resp infection. First thing I did was quarentine, and I usually keep my snakes on paper towels....in the other room I keep them in rubbermaids with aspen....
Well I was heat treating the resp infection and came home to find the snake passed away....I have seen this before, a seemingly otherwise healthy snake dead biting itself. My necropsy found a swollen glottis, but more than that, the swelling had INGESTED aspen INTO THE GLOTTIS and killed the snake. After this I will no longer keep any snake with any kind of resp problem on anything but paper towels.

Jeff,....

If the snake was gaping from the evident respiratory infection, I can definitely see how that would happen. Also, it might be possible the snake was writhing around just before dying from the R.I. and the substrate stuck to the entire mucus coated mouth, including the glottis opening.

In any case, that sucks man, I hate when things like that happen. Many years ago, I had a perfectly healthy hatchling thayeri die in the middle of eating a good sized anole!, I can only guess that his glottis was not able to shift properly as usual, and it suffocated. Talk about bummed!!!, it was a nice "peach" milksnake phase that was very uncommon back then, not to mention pretty expensive..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thus far, I haven't observed chronic gaping or anything that would indicate that my snake has an RI. His activity level is normal (In other words, he's a lazy bum ).