Bought a pair of bp's on craigslist....might be sick....

[jsharpie77]

Hi -
I'm semi-new to ball pythons, and I found a pastel male and a regular female on craigslist last night. i checked them out for mites and mucous, and they seemed fine. they were a little too young to be breeding, but they were kept in the same tank, so i'm pretty certain the female is pregnant. she is post-og shed right now, but this morning i heard her hissing a lot, and making sounds like a cat.....

i have her quarantined from my other snakes, and i still don't see any mucous, but i'm worried she might have an infection or pneumonia. they are both dehydrated, and the male is a bit malnourished, so i'm keeping humidity high and soaking them occassionally....

how do i know if she's sick? what do i do about it if she is? and if they were dehydrated and a bit malnourished, is there any way to supplement the females diet to try to make up for this?

thanks......

jeff
3 regular females
1 pied female
1 pastel male

[LadyOhh]

Take them to a qualified reptile vet for a checkup.

Give them plenty of water and try and feed them in a week.

Then, see what the Vet says... and do it.

[Kaorte]

Echoing what Heather said, it is time to go to the vet.

From your description, it sounds like she is just pissed off.

[jsharpie77]

thx guys -
i will take her in and let you know.

[grim reaper in NY]

If she is hissing and she has obvious signs of being pregnant, she might be getting ready to lay her eggs as well. One thing to keep in mind and is VERY important. if your snake is not big enough to lay her eggs, this could result in the eggs becoming impacted inside your snake. This requires immediate veterinary intervention or it will kill your snake.
Ironically, I just got a male and female Ball Python from a Craigslist ad and the female had this happen to her. Over $700 later in vet bills and the eggs were removed and the snake made a full recovery. However, after this episode, I doubt VERY much that I will try to breed her. It's simply not worth the risk to me and I would feel horrible if something happened to her because I tried to breed her. Just thought I'd toss that out there for you to consider.

[Muze]

You should take her to the vet. Those sounds could be an RI.

[DrEwTiMe]

I would say that she is probally a combination of pisssed cause of possibly being pregnent. Or that she just needs time to aclimate to the new envirnment. BP's are generally easy to stress by being uprooted and brought to a new plance with a new setup. If her temperment doesn't go away after a week or so then i would agree with the others and say she is pregnent. But it would be wise to check with a reptile vet anyway.