Reptile & Amphibian Forums

today i cleaned my blizzard hatchlings water, and i put her in it to show her where it was. she submerged her whole head and started drinking, she drank so much she started moving around like a submarine. she drank under water like that for at least 30 seconds and she wasnt blowing bubbles or anything. it was so cute!

how long could she have stayed under? is it possible she didnt know to come up for air?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

Snakes can hold their breath quite a bit. They also don't need nearly as much oxygen as, say, a mammal like humans. I recall someone doing an experiment where they took a hatchling cornsnake and put it in a standard deli cup with NO airholes. After 1 day the snake was still perfectly fine. The same person left it in there for another day, and after a total of 2 days in a deli cup with no fresh air, it was still fine. (The experiment was done, IIRC, to prove a point about packaging snakes for shipping.)

So... it's not that she 'forgot' to breathe, it's just that snakes have a very low respiration rate and a low rate of oxygen consumption.

-Kat
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"You keep WHAT in your freezer?"
"Mice. And rats. If that bothers you, I can call them 'cows' instead."

interesting
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

I've seen Kula do this twice now, first time i was freaking out as he kept his head under for over 30 seconds. I was just taking the lid off when he finally poked his head out. I stood there and watched him do it on and off for the next five minutes.

A few weeks later i walked in to check on the snakes and he was underwater not moving then poked his head out, guess i startled him and he froze for a few seconds.

Wayne

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0.0.1 03 Normal Corn Snake - Kula
0.0.1 05 CB Normal Ball Python - Smeagol

1.0 Boston Terrier - Blaze
0.1 Long Coat Chihuahua/ Papillion Mix - Taz