Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm relatively new to ball pythons (3 years) and I've never really had any problems with any of my snakes until I went to take some pictures today.

I have a 2005 Het Pied that I adopted last year snake has been feeding well but on live mice (2-3 adult live mice every 7-10 days) and I have never been able to get him to switch to FK or FT.

Today when I took him out I noticed his head looked "weird" a bit swollen on the right side. I turned him over and noticed that the upper right inside of his jaw was red and inflamed to the point I could see the inflamation over his lower jaw. He obviously did not want me messing around with his head and began wheezing/whistlinh a bit....however I do not THINK (remember I've never had any problems with my snakes) it's respritory but rather the swelling might be causing his nasal cavity on the swollen side to whistle/wheeze. This went away once he settled back in his cage and hide. I've separated him from the others..but this is a short term solution for me.

Any thoughts?

We just moved here from TX and I had a good shop that would be willing to take a look whenever "daddy" had a concern...but not sure if the same could be said of the shops around here....

Anyone in the Edina, Mn area willing to take a look?? I don;t want to shell out $$$ to take him to a vet unless I NEED to. I'd pay for gas if you were driving any distance.....or I could bring him to you.

Anyone recommend a good Reptile Vet in the area????

I have a poor picture but I'm not sure how to upload it here....

from the description alone i say take it to a vet and shell out some money. It sounds like it was bit or otherwise injured on the head and it has now become infected. You will need a vet to diagnosis it, clean out infection if it is infection and prescribe antibotics.

as for posting pictures, just uploaded to a photo web service (or kingsnake.com's photo area, see tabs top of the page). If you use an outside photo hosting service (ie photobucket, flickr, etc) you can just copy and paste the URL of your image in the message box. Be sure to enclose it with img and /img (using [] around each part. See 'tools and toys' link lower right corner of the message window you type in to post) Some photo hosting sites include the URL and HTML code for you to just cut and paste.

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PHLdyPayne

" I've separated him from the others..but this is a short term solution for me."

Seperated from what others?
Do you house multiple Balls per cage?

Yes I have 3 balls in a 40 gal tank...well two now and one in a 55 gallon (which I normally feed in). And two Pin babies in a 20 gallon. I'm guessing there is some problem with this?

oh btw found a vet that has experience with Herps appt tomorrow.

You might get better responses from others.
But keeping more then one ball python in a cage is a no-no.
They are solitary animals.
I keep my adult ball in a 40g size enclosure all for her self...
3 balls in one cage... stress them out?

Feeding live is most likely your problem right now it seems.
There was a posting some time ago,
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1722282,1722282
you can see what his rat did to his snake, and how it healed up nicely.
One of my balls does not do frozen thawed or fresh killed.
So I feed him, STUNNED rats.
Smack the rat real good upside the head, not enough to kill it, but enough to daze it.
When I do this, they tend to twitch, so I put them infront of my snakes hide, and he will come out and attack the twitcher pretty fast.
After seeing the ball that had been bitten, all my snakes are on F/K or Stunned.

I would seperate your balls still, good luck.

Yeah my others all eat FK or stunned (still twitchig) (tried F/T but wasted 6 mice)but this guy I "rescued" from a lady as an adult last year and he never would take FK/FT just live AND they had to be running around haven't been able to get him to switch to anything else.

I've read other things about having them in the same tank (even here on KS BP care sheet..that it's fine as long as they have separate hides (they do but they prefer the SAME hide 99% of the time), that it's fine period, and to keep them separate...who's a newbie to believe?

I think the best way to explain it is that you *can* keep more than one BP in a large enough tank, but problems can arise from having them together.

Larger, more dominant males can cause a smaller male to stop eating or exploring due to stress. Even if the two males are from the same clutch, eventually one will win out.

If you have mixed sexes you can end up with unwanted breeding, inappropriate breeding (female to small, male-female combo shouldn't be done, etc), and having the males and females go off feeding more often then you would like because they are being stimulated by the pheromones of the other sex.

When you find a poop or a shed or a regurgitated meal you won't always know which animal it came from. How will you know which ones are sick and healthy?

How many hot spots do you have in the tank? Cool spots? How many water bowls? What if more than one snake needs a drink or to soak? What if both or all three snakes tries to pack into one warm hide and get stuck?

It would be different if ball pythons were like anoles, rats, dogs, cats, or people where they develop social protocols to deal with the things above. But a ball python's solution to stress is almost always to stop eating and hide.

I would recommend separating them out into separate tanks or a rack system.
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3.4 ball pythons
1.1 kingsnakes
0.1 crazy cat
?!.?! ASFs
1.0 husband

More than one ball per cage is a big no-no. Unless you are breeding a pair, or with a brand new hatchling many breeders keep them togeather until their first shed. It just leads to way too many problems. What if your snake does have RI? That means your other two snakes are going to have it. That along with all the other issues everyone else has said is more than enough reasons for me to have them all in seperate cages, and it isn't easy trust me. My eyes are always bigger than my snake room is and I don't get to buy nearly as many balls as I want... Oh well... Now I just need to buy a house first. ... By the way, good luck with your snake and its good to see another fellow MN Herper. I'm down in Rochester, MN. There is alot of good keepers around here.
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Coolluigi

"You can never have too many hets" - Jim S

0.1 Pastel Pos Het Hypo
1.1 Pastel
1.0 Mojave Pos Het Hypo
1.0 Yellowbelly
1.0 100 % Het Pied
0.8 50% Het Pied
1.7 Normal
0.2 100% Het Hypo (Orange Ghost)
0.2 Spider
1.2 100% Het VPI Axanthic
and soon to be more. *fingers crossed*

No matter what info you find on any website ball pythons are solitary animals EXCEPT during breeding season and that coupling only lasts till the male is done (no smonking cigs or cuddling afterwords) he just goes his own way. I don't keep any balls together unless like bolito said they are being bred or a clutch of babies till they shed. As for your swelling I bet its a piece of stuck bedding in his mouth from grabbibg such small prey, not likely that a mouse bit an adult ball python, they usually cover the whole mouse and get some bedding in there too. If your feeding on loose bedding I would stop and put cage carpet in the "feeding" tank.

Good luck with your little guy!
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1.0 Sunrise (sshhh)
1.0 orange ghost mojave
1.0 Het pied
1.0 Hypo
1.0 Spider Het Hypo
0.1 orange ghost mojave
0.1 mojave (best looking one ever! thanks Jeff Luman)
0.1 Pastel Het ghost
0.1 Hypo
0.1 mojave
0.4 Het nerd Orange Hypo
0.2 poss Het nerd Orange Hypo
0.1 poss Het albino
0.1 het pied
0.1 Bell Jungle
0.6 normal breeders
0.1 black pastel (unproven)
0.1 Tiger ball (unproven)
0.1 genetic reduced pattern
0.1 black back
0.1 mojave (best looking one ever! thanks Jeff Luman)
0.1 Pastel Het ghost
1.0 posslble salmon boa
0.1 BCI 8.5 ft
1.0 (creamcicle?) (okatee?) digging in to his genetics . . .
1.0 snow corn
1.0 anery motley
0.1 anery motley
0.1 ghost motley corn
0.1 lavendar het hypo
0.1 miami het hypo
0.1 coral snow
0.1 miami
0.1 sunglow
0.1 candy cane
0.1 love line okatee
0.1 blue tail monitor
2.2 felines aka boa food ;o
And I am not gonna count all those rats . . .

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Thanks for the info! and nice to meet a fellow MN herper. We just moved here from TX In June and I'm LOVING the weather!!!

>>oh btw found a vet that has experience with Herps appt tomorrow.

I'm just curious to hear how your visit went. There are a number of vets in the area here that say they see exotics, but don't know much. I know Inver Grove Heights A.H. and Como Park A.H. both have doctors with reptile experience and I feel comfortable recommending them. Good luck!

Also, I do hope you take other's recommendations for housing into account.

Went to Greenbrier Animal Hospital on a rec. from someone working at TCR.

He's on 1 shot of Baytril every other day and cleaning his mouth with Chlorhexidine 3x a day. "just" some mouth rot. No respritory infection!!!!