Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I picked up a young blood at a reptile swap a few weeks ago. She is docile, beautiful and an overall good snake.

I am worried that the time in the plastic tub, and the care she got prior to me was pretty poor.

I got her and she seems to sneeze a bit more than inspected. She occasionally is opening her mouth for no reason... and I am suspecting she has either mouth rot or a resp. infection.

I keep her ina 10 gal with a closed lid. Undertank heater and hide with a water dish. I got her to feed on a FT mouse last week, and she recently shed.

Regardless, I am trying to avoid the vet visit ($$ issues on this one) so what should I do to keep her well. Extra heat? Dryer conditions (she did just shed)?

Any ideas on how to combat these problems before they are fatal or require serious vet bills?

Don't bump the temps and/or dry her out, it sounds like she's too hot. Get her out of the fish tank and back in a plastic tub. Low to mid 80's ambient temps and 60-70% humidity with a hide and a large water dish.

What is the temp and humidity? When she opens her mouth does it look like she is gasping or yawning? I wouldn't worry about mouth rot too much, I feel like you would notice it (you would see nasty white cheesey looking stuff in her mouth) and she wouldn't be eating. I had a snake with a fairly bad RI last year that did spit out mucus a few times but she never missed a meal and her RI cleared up after I took great care to maintain absolutely perfect ambient conditions for a few weeks. Overall, if she is still eating, drinking, and acting normal I personally wouldn't worry too much but I would make sure I got the tank conditions corrected quickly.

I guess I will ditch the 10gal, but with the sealed wood lid I dont see much difference next to a tupperware. She is in the exact same setup that my redtail is thriving in.

I will see if it works, I really dont want her to get ill. She is going to be a very impressive snake, especially considering her good (right now) attitude.

I started out my first blood in a glass tank - he was in it for well over a year with no problems, not one wheeze, nothing. I would not use glass again, and I would always recommend plastic for adults, but I really don't see any problems with what you have her in right now. Putting a piece of plexiglass across top should be sufficient to keep the humidity in. Unless you are having a very difficult time keeping the humidity up it should be possible for you to keep her in the 10 gal until she outgrows it and then switch to a tub - if you wanted to. What is your humidity? Does she appear to be having difficulty breathing? Some of my snakes get a little rattle once in awhile that goes away within a day and doesn't really seem to bother them.