Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have a 17 month old "snow" bull who seems to be going blind... We usually feed F/T but once in awhile we'll throw a live mouse in to vary the routine. The last couple times she seemed to have an almost impossible time of catching the mouse and this last time must have struck 10 times before finally catching a tail. I'm now pretty committed to only feeding her F/T (she got bit by the tailed mouse this last time with live) but I'm wondering if I should be worried about her apparantly bad eyesight.
Also, figured I'd post a pic of her... She's less than 17 months old and already 4 1/2 feet long.

-----
Amor et Lux,
Ron

"The gods tolerate the human race for no other reason than our talent for bullsh1t. It's the only thing about us that doesn't bore them to tears" Tom Robbins "Villa Incognito"

Albino snakes in general are just about blind to begin with. From what I know..the blood is flowing through the capillaries of their eyes, producing what you generally see as red eyes. That result is their eyesight being nowhere near what a non-albino snake's eyesight would be.

I have seen exactly the same thing with some of my albino snakes' as far as feeding responses and accuracy in grasping their food. There is nothing to worry about my friend!

Take care!
Billy
-----
Genesis 1:1

A

. . .we had an albino cal king who behaved in much the same way in terms of feeding responses. The day I brought him home as an adult, I took him out of the snake bag and he almost immediately struck at my onyx dangly earring. I ended up with him latched onto my neck for the next twenty minutes. What was worse was the teasing from coworkers about the origin of the red mark--no one wanted to believe it was from a kingsnake! Needless to say I kept him at arm's length from then on!
regards,
althea

Hmm, now that you mention it, my snow bull and albino bull are less responsive to motion of prey items(I feed pre-killed anyway, but sometimes move it about) than others I have. However, this is definitely NOT true of my albino Southerns or albino Sonorans, which are very responsive to motion. Many amel Sonorans have a tinge of dark pigment on the front of the eye; I wonder if this has anything to do with it, although the Southerns do not have this.

BTW, the snow Bulls are very cool. Mine is an '03 and isn't quite as big as yours, but well over 3'. I was just looking at a pic of her from last year and it's neat to see the difference since then. When I get some newer pics of her, I'll have to post the two for comparison.