Slightly odd behavior...

[CarrieAnnx3]

Riley has been fine all day. He's been well behaved and active when I took him out to the pet store to pick up some extra things for his tank.

Ever since we got home, he's been acting a bit funny. He's laying with his head held up, but he has it turned, so it is upside down. He's also been very disinterested in much movement since we got back.

could the trip to the store and back have stressed him out too much?
or is he just being a snake?

[Tarzan152]

How cold or hot was it outside? How long did you have him out? Have you ever taken him out like this before? What type of snake? How old is he?

Give as much detail as you can and post pics if you can. I'm sure there are other questions other members may ask you to get a better gauge as to what happened or what to suggest. From the info you gave, I can't think of what might be the problem (if there is one). I take my BP out with me at times but haven't noticed any unusual behavior afterwards.

Good luck. Please keep us posted.



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[CarrieAnnx3]

He's a fairly young ball python. The only to move taken him out was when I brought him home but it was much colder that night that it is today. It was roughly 55 outside, but he was kept warm, sitting in my shirt, with my coat zipped up if we were outdoors. We were only for about an hour and, most of the time, when not in my shirt, he was curled up on my wrist, under the sleeve of my coat.

My phone isn't letting me post pictures, or I would. It's been acting really funny the last few days.

[CarrieAnnx3]

Right now, it's almost like he's trying to tie himself in a knot, contorting himself, and rubbing his face against my hand.

[CarrieAnnx3]

This is how he was laying a bit ago. If you put him down, he refuses to move from whatever position he's in until you pick him back up. I left him alone for about an hour and he refused to stop laying like this. So, I picked him up and he was back to being himself.

[Pythonfriend]

head upside down?

is it a spider?

normally BPs never tilt their head sideways. except for spiders, champagnes, womas, and some others.

what you describe is not normal for a classic / non-morph BP, and the contortions you describe seem a bit excessive even for a spider. i mean, of course they may twist and turn when climbing something, but the head should be horizontal. maybe looking up or down, but not tilting sideways. and on a flat surface they should quickly orient their belly downwards and their head should assume a horizontal position even faster.

do you have a PC? or a laptop? posting images or videos to this forum gets really easy when you have full access to the internet. i mean, you still need to put the videos and images somewhere where they can be accessed online so that you can link/embed them here. i dont have much experience with smartphones, but uploading a specific file to a specific website and then retrieving the link seems rather difficult to do on these things. for videos, i recommend youtube, for images the choices are too diverse, any filehoster or webspace will do.


EDIT: i am too late, my post got outdated before i posted it in the picture i see that its quite extreme, and it looks like a normal, and it is VERY THIN. like, extremely thin. thin to the degree that it may cause permanent damage. about the strange head movement, that is extreme as well, maybe it gets better after a few meals. anyway, this is not a healthy ball python, he/she needs to gain weight, maybe the neurological problem will go away then. maybe not. anyway, first things first: get this pencil of a BP in shape, which means more weight, which means food.

[CarrieAnnx3]

I'm relatively certain that he's a non-morph BP. I snapped a picture of his back, just to be sure. He's my first and I'm still learning about morph's and such.

He has little to no interest in moving, unless he's picked up... Then he just corkscrews his head all over the place and rubs it on my hand, almost like he wants to cuddle.


His temps and humidity are perfect, based off the research I've done, cool side being anywhere from 79-83 and the warmer side being 89-91, humidity fluctuates between 50 - 65%.

He won't wrap his tail around me, unless I'm trying to put him in his tank, he just wants to hang off my hand and do acrobatics.

When I put him down, he puts his head in weird positions like the shot below.

[CarrieAnnx3]

I was told by the breeder not to feed him for a week or so, to let him adjust to his new surroundings. Should I feed him anyway? and let him start gaining weight?

[bcr229]

How long have you had him? That snake is incredibly thin. What are you feeding him?

I wouldn't take him out anywhere any more, especially a pet shop. You don't want him exposed to anything the other snakes may be carrying.

[Pythonfriend]

addendum, because i ran out of editing time: the store really sold you a BP that is dangerously underweight. i guess its a hatchling that had 1 shed and has never eaten, and it lost a lot of weight since it hatched.

two things are in order: rest and food. dont waste his/her energy with any handling right now. leave it alone, except for feeding atempts. of course the BP needs access to water and humidity and temperature need to be right. but this poor creature is quite literally running low on energy. so when there is a water bowl and humidity and temperature are agreeable, rest and food it is.


EDIT: the thread was faster than me, again. maybe its older, in the first pic it looked like a hatchling, now it looks bigger. so i retract my assessment that it has never eaten, instead i say: its really underweight. and it seems to be going into shed, which is of no concern right now.