Mild Head wobble?

[Auntie_Moe]

We recently added a new girl (Phobia) to our collection, she is a Super Pastel Butter G-stripe, pic is my avatar..

When she is on the floor she seems fine, when we hold her she can't seem to get her barings when she looks down at the floor and then tries to come back up. She will twist herself backwards trying to get back to my arm. Once she is up she is fine. Looks very similar to some of the videos I have seen of spiders with a wobble.. Based on her morph I don't believe she has any genes that would cause a wobble. I could be wrong I don't know much about the genetics and morphs.. I'm wondering is this a wobble? My daughter seems to think it is..

Other than that she acts fine, eats fine, loves to pee on my son. If I didn't have other snakes I would never question it..

She came from a breeder that came highly recommended, has excellent reviews. Before I bought her I asked all kinds of questions and was told she has no issues. She was shipped over night held at the fed ex hub, temps were in the 80's from shipping area in the low 70's here.. I've tried reaching out to find out what her parents are but have not had any luck getting a response. Could she have this issue from possibly overheating in a vehicle during transport?

Sorry for being all over the place in this post.. Other than this she is seems happy and healthy.

[Lord Sorril]

Congrats on the new snake. She is beautiful!

I know there is a lot of concern for new owners whether or not their ball python 'wobbles'.
I think a lot of new snakes are spatially disorientated/panicked in new environments and in their confusion are often clumsy and prone to odd movements (especially when climbing up/down a foreign object).

There are a lot of videos on YouTube showing 'Spider Wobble'. I have dozens of Spider ball pythons. Below is a video of me holding my worst wobbler (outside feeding time) for comparison. You can see the left-right head shake because he is stressed.



Note: I don't antagonize him in the video because he hates handling and will definitely bite me.

[nikkubus]

None of the genes in there are known for wobble. I have a bp that also has none of those genes (Enchi Pastel Yellowbelly), and early on in getting her, she would have slight wobble with feeding, nothing to prevent her eating, it was just noticeable sort off balance head and slight jittery movement. Eventually it went away as she became more confident with her new environment. This is also the same experience I've had with actual spider and hidden gene woma morphs. I wouldn't worry too much about it if it isn't causing problems. I think it's pretty rare with the correct husbandry for it to get worse to the point it is a problem.

Not sure how long you have had her, but I wouldn't be handling her at all if you haven't had her long enough to have 3 meals in a row without refusing, and even then I would make sure to take it slow. Not providing her time to settle in can induce great amounts of stress and aggravate problems like this and more.

[Auntie_Moe]

Thank you so much for your responses!

I have only had her a few weeks so I'm going with the new environment is causing the confusion/wobble. I told the family we need to leave her alone for a few more weeks, other than to change her water/feed and spot clean her tank. Let her get more acclimated to her new home.. Kinda funny last night when I went to bed she was out and just watching us. As if to say "hey you didn't take me out what gives???"

[Bogertophis]

... Kinda funny last night when I went to bed she was out and just watching us. As if to say "hey you didn't take me out what gives???"

That's what I love about snakes- that many of them watch us back with a curious, questioning look. It doesn't always translate to confidence on their part though. One of my young (nearly 2 year old) rat snakes is great at watching me, but when I actually pick her up, she tries to blast off out of my hands, not calming down very quickly for a snake her age. She's the most nervous one of the 3 sisters, & acts like a racer until I calm her down- she makes me work at it, lol. But I don't give up easily either & I've succeeded in holding her (one time peeking out of my long sleeve while I rubbed her head very lightly for over an hour!). It takes time for most snakes to warm up to handling & figure out that we're "harmless", & a very good feeling when they finally do. BTW, her 2 sisters are very easy to handle- she's the "wild thing" of the group & demands that I work at it. LOL