Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I always debate whether or not to post my snake health concerns here, because they are almost always unwarranted. But I saw something today I've never seen before.

Belle does this thing where, seemingly, she sneezes from time to time. Predictably right after meals and sometimes after a big drink of water.

But I have yet to find a resource that acknowledges that snakes sneeze at all, so I don't know that's what she's doing. But it sounds like an expulsion of air and it is accompanied by a spasm. In short, it looks and sounds like she's sneezing.

But today, shortly after eating two jumbo mice, I was watching her and she did the sneeze thing, but it was immediately followed by a distinct shaking of her head for a few seconds. Much like you might see from a non-rattlesnake snake who is shaking their tail when threatened, except this was her head. But that sort of twitching side to side in like the front four inches or so.

I would be more concerned if this shaking wasn't clearly linked to the 'sneeze,' and if the 'sneeze' wasn't clearly linked to eating and/or drinking. But I've just never seen it before and didn't know if I was being irresponsible by not at least sharing it here and seeing if anyone has had a similar experience.

A final note, this snake appears in every other measurable and observable way, to be perfectly healthy.

Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance for any opinions.

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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

Years ago I had a newborn male Corn Snake that would actually go through small tremors after it ate. This continued until it was a sub-adult and then it eventually outgrew it. It eventually grew into a very large adult, with no health problems. Most
"sneezing" episodes can be a symptom of a gastro-intestinal bacteria infection that has spread to the lungs, otherwise known as a respitory infection or R.I. Your snakes symptoms do not sound like R.I. though. I would keep a close eye on it though to make sure that this sneezing doesn't accur at other times, such as when your holding the snake. I would also check to see if you here any weezing when it breathes. If you do it may have a R.I.
Most snakes will not eat if they have a R.I. though.
I'm not sure if I was much help, but that's my buck and a quarter.
-Phil
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Work is the curse
of the drinking class!

Months ago I took her to a vet because I was afraid she had an RI. The vet said she did not, and it wasn't until some time later that I made the connection between seeing her sneeze and having recently eaten or gotten a big drink of water.

She has done it once or twice while I was holding her, but I handle her a lot so those instances were rare and, although it's been a while, probably were within a day or so of having eaten as well.

I always do keep an eye on her, but this was so new and a little alarming that I had to post it. She seems fine this evening.

Thanks.
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

A couple of things, first, I think Pattons post is misleading and in error(slightly).

Reptiles of many types sneeze, they do so for the same reasons other animals do, us for instance. In many cases its salt/calicum blocking the nasal opening. Or thick skin, or thickened skin(pre-shed), or simply built up skin from the rigors of winter, that causes harmless sneezing. Dust and or dust mites also causes sneezing. Again, just like with other animals. Again, harmless sneezing is common.

In this case, all you need to do is look at the nasal opening to see if there is something blocking or disturbing it.

Slight colds, thickened mucus can cause sneezing, this often occurs because of slightly poor temp choices. This is common in the spring. And will go away as soon as temps stabilize.

Of course colds can lead to upper R.I. problems, and upper R.I. problems can lead to lower R.I problems(lungs) So this should be monitored or addressed.

In most cases, a decent hotspot will quickly clear all but the worse cases.

But as mentioned, if your snake is feeding well, the problem is most likely very minor, so get a magnifying glass and have a look and see if you can learn for this apparently slight problem. To me, thats the fun of keeping these wonderful snakes. Cheers

Thanks everyone.

I forgot to mention, regarding substrate. When I first took her to the vet and no sign of a RI was present, the vet suggested I switch to the hypo allergenic CareFresh. I did this for a few months, and the sneezing behavior didn't change. So, I felt like I eliminated the aspen as a cause, and eventually switched back to it because the snakes seem to like burrowing in it better, and it looks WAY better.

Another clarification. I'm not so worried about the occasional sneezing because I've identified that pattern of when it occurs. But it was the head shaking that really took me by surprise.

Thanks again.
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

Eddie,......

A snake will do this sometimes, just as a person would clear their throat once in a while.
The only way for a snake to get air to it's lungs when it's mouth is closed, is from the nostril openings, down to what's known as the "glottis" at the bottom of the mouth. This is a soft maneuverable "air-pipe" that the snake also uses to breathe when it's mouth is stuffed with prey.

Sometimes when a snake drinks, some excess water will remain in the mouth near where the nostril opening in the roof of the mouth meats the glottis opening, this is one reason snake's will "sneeze" from time to time.

Also, snake's many times will submerge their entire heads underwater when drinking, so you can imagine they can get a small amount of water in the nasal passages during this process.

In conjunction with the actual expulsion of air and/or water, a "shuddering" motion is many times accompanied with this, it's sort of like a human sneezing, as you know, this can be fairly violent, and involuntary.

Below is a photo of the glottis that a snake uses to breathe, you can easily picture it getting obstructed with a little drinking water, and working up a "sneeze" from time to time.

best regards, ~Doug

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

Excellent explanation of that part of the snake anatomy, Doug, thank you. Even as docile as she is, it's hard to really get a chance to study those kinds of features up close.

And she does indeed sometimes have her entire head underwater while drinking!
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

Snake can and do sneeze for the same reasons you do. Either they are clearing dust or water from their nose or they are sick and are clearing mucous from their nose.

Many snakes sneeze after drinking or while being soaked. After feeding is weird. Let me ask - do you defrost your rodents in water - IE are they wet when fed?

What kind of substrate are you using? Is it very dusty?

It doesn't sound like a URI to me.

Well I use to have a garter snake that did this exact same thing. Everytime after he drunk water in the morning, he would sneeze. At first I was a little worried, but eventually he stopped doing this after a few months. It could just be a temporary thing. Don't stress it...

Mice are thawed in baggies in hot water so they are not wet. BUT, she always drinks a lot of water after she eats, so maybe it's not the feeding per se, but the drinking she does afterwords...
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1.1 Florida Kingsnake
1.0 Kisatchie Cornsnake

I have a Goins who sneezes also after drinking. I keep her on newspaper and in the same rack as my other 15 snakes, who I rarely hear sneezing. However this Goins catches colds on a regular basis, usually twice a year no matter what I do to try and avoid it, and drinks like I've never seen a snake drink. I have never deemed occasional sneezing an issue with snakes, unless it is associated with other symptoms that could mean an RI or other problem.

The shaky head thing I have seen in a couple of Bairds rats which I rehomed last autumn. They were fine with me for a few months and I moved one on to another home. The remaining one caught a cold, and did the shaky head thing any time he was disturbed. I upped his temps slightly and he recovered well. I was informed that the 2nd snake had something similar a few weeks later including the shaky head, and after the new owner upped the temps as I did, the snake also recovered and neither Bairds has done this since.

If you're unsure about it, get a number of different vet opinions just incase one misses something.