Very Worried!

[tmartin2347]

Ok so I'm wondering if anyone has seen or heard of this happening.

I have done a lot of research on aspen bedding because I wanted to switch over for the winter. Well after some research to make sure it would be ok for my snakes I picked some up yesterday morning and switched them over from newspaper to aspen that morning.
Well I fed all my snakes last night and everything went over well as usual. But this morning I woke up before work and noticed my male spider up front and almost rolled over onto his back which I thought was weird but didn't think too much and just picked him up gently with his full stomach and flopped him back over and got him in his hide over the heat tape.
So when I got home from work and lifting there he was again, with his tail in his hide and the rest of him sprawled out up to the front of his tub totally on his back and then his neck curled up around almost as if he was laying on his back trying to watch tv.
I quickly made sure he was still alive and he is thank god. He would move his head and respond to you.
So I don't know if he ingested one of the rats awkwardly or if he ingested aspen. The first rat was definately nothing that he hasn't seen before for size I actually could go a little bigger but they are comfortable with eating what they are right now. Then I gave him a really small rat pup that one of my smaller snakes didn't want rather than throwing it away.


Has anyone had something like this happen to them or heard of it? And how worried should I be cause I'm freaking out. I won't be able to stand him dying.

[tmartin2347]

do you think he just has a stomach ache? I know that sounds funny but you never know.

[dsirkle]

Spiders assume all sorts of weird contorted positions. Why do you suspect that he has eaten aspen? Even if he did he would likely pass it without incident. It sounds to me that he is just acting like a spider. I wouldn't worry , unless there is more to the story.

[tmartin2347]

There's certainly nothing else that I'm leaving out. I've had him for almost 1 year and have never seem him or any of my other snakes lay like that.

[Tosha_Mc]

If you have a temp gun check the temperature in his hide -- it's possible that without the newspaper more heat is coming up and collecting in the hide and he could be too hot. Just a thought.

[ilovemylizard]

Has he ever been on aspen before?

I recently got some adult boas that had been housed by the breeder on flat newspaper their entire lives...since they were babies...

I use aspen/shredded paper, and for the first few days they were completely freaked out by the bedding...laying weird, jerking back whenever they rubbed against the larger aspen pieces...they just didn't know what to make of it...

[tmartin2347]

This is actually the first time he's been on aspen since Ive had him and I got home no more than 4 months old from Adam. Which I'm not sure if he uses aspen I feel he uses paper for babies. So it most likely could just be that.

[whitewolf]

That would be interesting if it definatley was the aspen that was making him lay awkwardly. When I read this, it reminded me of some dogs that hate the feeling of grass or snow on their paws and they lift their paws awkwardly. Let us know if you find out (for the most part) if it was that or not.

[tmartin2347]

I woke up this morning and checked on him to find he was curled up like a baby in his hide
Then came home tonight from work and he's back to normal

So I'm not sure what it was maybe it really was the aspen and with him being very full from just eating. Who knows...


Well thanks for helping everyone.

[ilovemylizard]

Good to hear he is doing ok