Odd movement from my new BP.

[Taric]

I recently bought my first snake four days ago, a Ball Python, and for the most part he seems healthy. He's very active between 8pm till the late hours of the morning it seems like. The person I bought the snake from couldn't tell me too much about it (like the gender) but it's 'around' 8 months old and is 2ft and an inch. It's also on a Thursday feeding schedule so I still got a couple days before I feed it for the first time.

But last night a little after midnight it was making its routine rounds around the perimeter of the terrarium when it suddenly opened its mouth as if it was yawning. It then lifted the first 3" of its neck diagonally and tilted it's head about 90° (the mouth still wide open). Then it curled the lifted portion of its body that was risen in a very unnatural shape. (It wasn't an S shape, more like a W shape if that makes sense). The snake stayed like that for 12 seconds then went back to normal like nothing happened.

Other than this occurance I haven't had any issues with the BP except for some stress still from the transition to a new home. Can anyone give me advice on what might of happened and if it's something I should be worried about? Thanks!

[JodanOrNoDan]

What morph is this animal? If you do not know please post a picture.

[usaf21stsf]

What morph is this animal? If you do not know please post a picture.

This... It sounds like it has the spider gene in it which causes some neck control issues. If that is the case it's not really anything to worry about unless it causes the snake issues during feeding (actually swallowing not missing on strikes) or seems to be causing it pain.

[Taric]

They had it labeled as a "Normal small python" but I'll take a photo of it when I get home tonight.

[Taric]

Here's a photo of it the day I bring it home.

[StillBP]

need a full back photo to see the pattern if you could to tell if its spider
from that pic I would say that it looks normal but could be a spider hard to tell def. need a better picture preferably not through glass

[StillBP]

here for comparison is a fairly typical spider form nicebalz (had to use their photos as I do not have any spiders)

[Taric]

Sorry for the delay, here are a couple better photos I snapped. What are the differences between a normal and a spider?

[usaf21stsf]

Spiders have a more reduced pattern with skinnier less uniform black lines. It does appear to have some of those traits but not extremely pronounced.

Spider picture from above:




Normal:

[Taric]

Ah thank you, I'll more than likely be taking it to a doc. just in case. Hopefully I get the same answer from him!