Help!

[samwise]

Yesterday I noticed something very worrisome about my 3 year old pastel ball, Banana (Banana S'mores to be exact). You know how balls have those fat parts toward the backs of their heads? Well, his are GONE. It's sort of squishy and now I am really worried about him. His weight is fine, he hasn't been losing drastic amounts (he's been fasting for the winter so he obviously hasn't been gaining any). There are loose parts of the skin where the fatter parts used to be on his head and there aren't any other areas on his body with loose skin. I have emailed the reptile vet I know with the pictures I'm going to attach to this but I wanted to know if anyone has experienced this with their ball??

Please help!

PS, his humidity is fine, as well as his tank... nothing has changed so I don't know what's going on with him!

PSS, sorry the pictures are kind of blurry... if you look hard enough you can see where it looks sunken in

[Jenn]

Hard to tell but that snake looks VERY hungry to me. When did he last eat?

[samwise]

End of December, about the third week. I've been monitoring his weight and it is stable, which is why I'm confused. I was planning on feeding him this week anyways since that's a good fasting period but I just don't understand where this is coming from. Last year he fasted for roughly 7 months so I don't think it could be the time he's gone without food....

The rest of his body is pretty round, it shows in my avatar picture (which was taken beginning of March)..

[Jenn]

I hope someone else chimes in here. A seven month fast is not unheard of but... Are you offering prey every week? How about fresh water? Is he drinking?

[STORMS]

Have you been offering food weekly during his "fast?"

Also, you say humidity ect. is fine, can you be a bit more specific?

Warm side? Cool side? Ambient? What are you using to measure temps & humidity?

[samwise]

Yes to fresh water and I see him drinking.. I offered food a few more times after he stopped eating around end of December (so I offered it around beginning of January) but have not through February or any in March. I am planning on getting a rat for him tonight, so we will see how that goes. I am just confused on what would cause his head to look like this.. It's almost like the muscle mass was lost but none of his muscle in his body has had atrophy or anything.

Blah, I am at a loss as to what to do. Still waiting to hear from the reptile vet..


(didn't see the humidity part til now) I have a cool and warm hide box for him and I have a temp/humidity gauge in his tank. I try to keep the humidity between 40 and 60%.

[littleindiangirl]

Why didn't you just offer food weekly? Can you give us a detailed description of your set up? How you heat it, how you measure heat, what he is being kept in... all the details please.

[samwise]

Have either of you heard of this happening before? (Or seen it?)

[Jenn]

I think you may have hit it on the head. Those are the muscles used to eat. If he has only eaten a few times in the past few years those muscles would atrophy. I would get a live mouse or two and insist that guy ate for me pronto. Prescent, dark room, and leave him alone for a few minutes. I'll bet he will eat right away.

[Jenn]

And we all need to keep in mind that it is not up to us to determine an "appropriate fasting period" for a python. Our responsibility is to offer prey each week and let the snake decide when to fast and when to eat.