Reptile & Amphibian Forums

last sunday fed my bp a pretty big F/T mouse, she got it down ok, but ever since she hasn't been acting normal. she just goes from cool hide to hot hide, and back. none of her usual nocturnal activities. yesterday i picked her up and she looked normal, no swelling or indications of infection but she wrapped around my arm and kind of just stayed there, not usual behavior for her. usually she is very inquisitive and always moving and checking things out. her eyes were clear, and she had a firm grip, tongue flicking like normal, put her back in cage and she went right back into hide. any ideas?
thanks
Mike

np

If I recall right you haven't had her long have you? She is settling in, she has gotten used to her inviroment and now she is doing what ball pythons do, hide. A healthy ball will spend MUCH of their time in their hides, under their water bowl, ect. As long as she is eating and all your temps and humidity is right she is ok.
Link

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Sounds full, sounds healthy, sounds happy.

A happy, healthy ball python is one you almost never see. You see a happy, healthy ball python when it is hungry and looking for food, when it comes out to drink (and you will probably be asleep when it does that anyway), and... and that's it.

Going from the warm side to the cool side and back again is thermoregulating. That's exactly what you want her to do, and exactly why you set up a warm and cool side.

Congratz, she sounds like she's doing well. How's the other one? I can't remember if it's been a week yet since you tried feeding the first time. If so, did it eat?

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

well last time she ate it was one of those awful f/t mice took her a minute to adjust to being in the feeding container, but she hit the mouse like lightning (after the tail fell off ugh ) and it took the a while to get it down ( i almost thought she would give up it looked so big... ), she spent a few minutes readjusting her jaw, and i had to rinse the mouse goo off her. gently put her back in the tank where she made her rounds inspecting the cage (just in case any intruders moved in while she was away. then settled in for a two day snooze. i let her have an extra day cause the mouse was so big, and i think that might have had something to do with it (probably not) i handle her every day except for the 48 hours after feeding, this time it was 72 maybe 96 and she was a bit cool to me, so to speak. tonight after i wrote the post i handled her again and she was back to her old self, checking things out, looking around, curious, etc. when she went into the tank the went into her hide for a bit, but is now basking on a tree limb under the moonglow bulb. so basically back to normal (for her. but thanks for he posts, i guess there can be several kinds of normal, for any given snake.
thanks

my milksnake on the other hand...well that is another hair pulling frustrating post. for something with such a small brain i can't believe how devious such a creature can be.....
thanks again
Mike

At least it was a dead mouse and not a live one - I had that happen to me once. That was pretty awful.

Sounds like what she was doing was thermoregulating to digest, then.

Glad she's back to normal!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire