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Man!!! I'm having a bad night. I got home from work and my female GTP is dead. My question here is, is sudden death common in gtp's? This morning she looked great. I misted her like I do every morning, she hissed and tried to bite me. She has done this to me since day one so, to my knowledge she is healthy and doing well. She was captive born. I kept her temp at 84 all around and 87-90 at the warmer end. Humidity was kept around 65 to 70 percent. what really bugs me out is that she ate well last week and she was herself this morning. Does anyone have any knowledge of this happening to gtp's?

thanks.

A necropsy may be the best way to go to find ot what the problem was.There have been reported sudden deaths of GTPs and without warning.Hard to tell what the issue is.Sorry for your loss.
Dont let this hinder your future Chondro keeping.
Keep your head up !!

Thanks for the input. I think I'll go ahead and get that necropsy done. I wouldn't want something running through my collection. On a better note, my two other GTP'S are doing well. This will not hinder my GTP keeping just make me work harder to keep them 100% healthy and their environment perfect. Thanks again

You may want to keep the ambient temp a bit lower. I prefer a thermal gradient of 76-78 on the cool end and 86-88 on the warm end, with a hot spot of 90-ish. I've seen GTPs show signs of heat stress when kept at the temps you mentioned at all times. A night drop of 5 degrees or so is also beneficial, especially if you plan to breed them. Then when it comes time to cycle them, the night drops won't be anything new and won't cause unnecessary stress. You also want to be sure the cage isn't staying too wet and that it dries out in between mistings. Constantly wet substrate can lead to RI and other issues. I recently had a CBB yearling GTP die suddenly. I had heard of this happening, but I had never experienced it. The animal was a bit thin and dehydrated when I got it, but it showed absolutely no signs of being otherwise unhealthy- no abnormal behavior. I'm sorry for your loss. I would be interested to hear the results of the necropsy, if you would share them with us. -p-

Sorry to hear that. I woke up today and thought I killed my scrub python. I treated her for mites last night and she was sleeping with her head at a funny angle. Thankfully she was only sleeping. But I had a split second of the heartache you must have felt today. That's never fun.

At the zoo I worked at last year a copperhead died in a similar way. The keepers were commenting on how nice she looked and 20 minutes later I came in and found her dead. After a necropsy it was determined anemic, but no other signs. I had a male burm die suddenly one Easter who was in perfect health the day before.

Sorry to hear this.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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