Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys,

I am going to post this again to see if I get more feed back. I put the male back in with her and it stopped for a while. I think he is still to small to breed though. After a few days she started doing it again. But again she took a large rat yesterday without any problems. Got a vet check for next week but wanted to know if anyone had any ideas.

Thanks,

Scott

I am stumped on this one. My female Borneo has been exhibiting some strange behavior lately. I have had her for 7 years and she has been in good health. Let me first preface this by saying that she seems otherwise healthy and eats a large rat a week without a problem.
A couple of weeks ago I moved her and the male into smaller seperate enclosures for the winter. The room temp is about 80-85 degrees. Afew days after being in hwer new enclosure she started having what I would call Spasms. Her whole body will jerk and her tail will rattle back and forth. it may happen every 5 minutes for a few hours than not at all for a few hours. I thought at first she may being impacted so I soaked her for a few days. She does not have the spasms when she is in the tub or when I let her out of the cage. I have cleaned the cage thouroughly with bleach and rinsed it out well but everytime I put her back in it happens again. My male bornoe and my female ball are in the same divided enclousure and they are fine. She seems to be clear of any external parasites. DOES ANYONE HAVE AN IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you have already ruled this out, apologies in advance. The spasms you describe could (and someone more knowledgable then me will have to corroberate or discard this theory) be involuntary muscle contractions to produce heat. Since these began only after you moved her, it is possible that her present enclosure is too cold. You say that the temps are between 80 and 85 in the room- where in the room? is her enclosure near a wall? a window? on the floor? If that is the case, and whatever supplemental heat you have is inadequate, the temps may be a little too low. I'm thinking of the "spasms" some female boids utilize when nesting to increase their body temperature and thus the incubation temperature.
I don't know, maybe?

I am not a pro at all, but if it was my snake the first thing I would do is move her to another pin and see if she is still doing that. Also I would check to make sure that there is no chance of any cleaning chemical residues left behind in her pin (even bleach can cause problems to some animals over time). The next thing I would do is make sure she has a nice big tub to soak in (warm water) and make sure she has a heat pad under her pin. This may sound silly, but I had a borneo that acted like she was real sick one time so I took her to the vet here in Houston and was told that she most likely had IBD or whatever it's called. I bought her home, called Dave Barker up crying like a baby. To make a long story short, whatever the problem was she is here 6 years later and has made a great breeder. I kept her warm, treated her with great respect, made sure there were no chemicals around, gave her warm soaks and even gave her massages down her spine real lightly to help loosen her up. All this may have had nothing to do with her healing, but she is still here nonetheless. I hope yours is fine and just showing a new not so funny behavior. Best of luck with her and please let us know how she does. Jody

Opps,,,, sorry I forgot one other thing. I wouldn't put the male with that female until you know for sure what is going on. Not so much for fear of him catching anything as much as there is nothing more stressful than having a male climbing all over her if she isn't feeling good. Peace and Quiet as my son would say Good Luck