Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an northern and a souther copperheads. Both have individual cages. I just caught the southern about a mounth ago. I noticed last night that the southern was riseing his body half way up in the middle of the cage. I have never seen my northern display this behavor befor so it has me kind of worried. I have the both housed in 250 gal tanks, with repti-bark bedding, a hide box, large water bowl, and transfer box. I was woundering if anyone would know why the southern would be doing this. He has fedd 3x in the last mounth since i have had him.

That is perfectly normal for a snake to do. He may be responding to a change in air pressure which he has interpreted as a storm and is looking for higher ground, or he may just be exploring.

The only real exception to this, is if the snake is puffing his throat out at the same time or is leaking a bubbly froth from it's mouth and then you have a respiratory problem. Best thing is to keep and eye on him and see if there are any symptoms.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Thank You Frank, i have had many different snakes in my life and have noticed this behavor befor but i have only kept hots for about 6mths now. I when through a 2 year trial period with 3 different coachwhips to see if i would be able to handle hots safely. All but these 2 copperheads i havi have bought at reptile shows. I collected both of my copperheads in the wild so i am still a little new to how the "wild caught" snake act. Thank you for the reasureing words.

I look forward to many more helpfull talks on this subject.

C. Stutz