Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend of mine from work bought his son a ball python 1 month ago. They got it from PetCo, it was about 12 inches in length and petco had been feeding it forzen/thawed. I don't know a lot about ball pythons, I keep morelia's, but they followed online guidelines for cage setup, temperature gradients and moisture, so I don't believe there was any cause for the snakes death within those parameters. They are not the types to lack in taking care of their snake, and I know the son was very interested and caring towards the animal.

They had been trying to get it to eat f/t since they purchased it with no success, however the day before it died they decided to try live feeding and used a small mouse purchased from petco. The snake ate it without any hesitation, and the next day they found it dead.

My question is what kills a ball python? Do they suffer from, or not specifically handle certain circumstances other snakes do well with? Might this have been a feeding issue? I know reptiles can die from various minute causes, but I'm just looking for anything I can let my friend know for the the sake of his son who just lost his first pet, and to hopefully not sour them on the experience.

I know you said they covered all their bases, but the most common reason I have found that a snake will die that soon after eating is temperature. Did they have a thermometer on the hot side of the cage to be *sure* they were giving the baby enough heat? Unless they use a probed thermometer placed inside the hide on the warm end the snake should use, they cannot be sure they are giving it enough heat where it counts. Too cold and the food item may putrefy.

Once I have seen a snake die after eating that I believe may have been due to stress. The snake had lost a LOT of condition. When it was finally fed it appeared to be doing fine, but the effort of digestion must have sapped the last of its strength. Depending on how much weight this baby lost, that could have been it, but I'd think that would be a pretty rare case in Balls.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.1 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

petco states that they are "feeding" f/t, but not that the snake is actually taking it, so it might not have eaten for a long time and just starved to death. Like the previous post states, the digestion of the live mouse might have zapped the last bit of energy it had. I think that their "no live feeding" policy sucks ass, and I don't buy anything from them if I can avoid it!!

One word....Petco.

I am so sorry for your friends loss=( Unfortunately, every time i have gone into Petco and taken a look at their Ball Pythons, they have had retained sheds still attached to them, look very thin, and also dehydrated. I sincerely hope this hasn't dampened your friends son from acquiring another snake, if he wants one. There is nothing better than raising a neonate or juvenile snake into a healthy adult

Chrissy

I hope they still have a solid interest in caring for snakes, and I am pretty sure they do. I sold them a juvenile carpet with a cage and heat lamp setup shortly after they purchased the ball.

I know they were doing everything they could to give the ball python a health environment, and i know my carpet is being well cared for. I'm sure they could have made a mistake but from the reports i was getting about the ball she sounded a little malnourished from the get go and wasn't taking anything they offered until i suggested the live mouse.

I appreciate everyones responses, I don't want to be down on petco, because they do offer a lot of food services to the animal community, but i do all of my reptile business at mom and pot stores, even though i have to drive an hour to get to the nearest.

"good" services. Not "food" services, but i guess that fits, too. It's almost 2am, excuse my typos

A better word- Husbandry.

Whether on the part of the Petco, or the new owner, proper husbandry would address 98% of issues. Combine two care providers that are both ignorant of proper husbandry, and you get a dead snake. Unfortunate, but much too common.

Snakes and reptiles are not puppies, you can't just bring them home, provide table scraps, and call it a night.
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robyn@proexotics.com

ShipYourReptiles.com
Pro Exotics Reptiles

Whoops, I misread that a bit, I thought the new owner did NOT know any husbandry info. Perhaps it is still husbandry related?

Sharing specific husbandry details, as reguested below by Payne, would be insightful.
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robyn@proexotics.com

ShipYourReptiles.com
Pro Exotics Reptiles

they go so long without food that when they finally get food the whole system cannot handle it and overloads...crash and burn....(dies)...

....all we know from this....

it happens....
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I was at PETCO with my wife last week looking at some fish and I looked at the ball python they had. Very thin. Looked like a hatchling that hadn't eaten yet.

Many pet stores get their ball pythons from captive hatched wholesellers. These hatchlings are often never fed from the time they hatch to when they arrive at pet stores. Once in pet stores, depending on the knowledge of the manager/workers who knows what conditions they are kept in.

There is also the risks of parasites, internal and external, pathogens and other health issues caused by stress, over crowding and poor conditions. Not to mention not knowing the exact setup/temps etc your friend was keeping the snake in.

There is no history on this snake, unfortunately so very difficult to even guess what caused the snake to die. Not to mention anything unusual happening in the environment (ie some toxin entered the snake's cage that wasn't there the day before?)

The only good way to find out why it died, would be to have a necropsy done by a qualified vet. The things that can kill a ball python...would fill a book.

What information that would work better to let us give an assessment than where the snake was bought would be the following:

Age
Weight (at purchase, and as close to time of death as possible)
Last time it went for a poop and ate.
Temps (warm and cool side) and method of measuring temps.
Cage size/type.
Heat source:
Substrate:

Snake's activity/behavior. Does it explore its cage regularly? How does it react to being handled? Does it feel like it has good muscle tone etc.

Any signs of mites or other external parasites? Has it been brought to a vet at all for a checkup and fecal?

How often was it handled and for how long?
Any changes to its environment? Is the cage near heat vents or windows? Was there any pesticides sprayed in the house or on a cat/dog in the house? Any source of fumes near the cage (ie furnace air conditioner vents, faulty heaters etc that could be emitting harmful gases or fumes (ie CO2). Use of air fresheners etc.
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PHLdyPayne