Hi guys :D have a general question about hissing

Hi i'm jeremy. i've had my ball python for a few months. His name is Simon Ssssnake :P now from what i can tell he is very happy, healthy, and active.

He is in a nice sized aquarium (not overly big), nicely heated (well misted), undisturbed (he is single), and in an area lit by red christmas lights. He has a big water bowl to lay in if he wants and he lives inside a spacious basket turned upside down with peeking holes so he can poke his head out :)

i have noticed that from time to time i will hear what sounds like a small hiss coming from his cage. It is really random and usually at night when i am on my comp. Noone is allowed to touch him or bother him. He lives a very peaceful life. It doesnt happen often but I have heard it enough in the last few months to ask because i think i know him pretty well. He responds to the vibrations in my voice and comes out to meet me :D He is not being bothered or aggravated by anyone or anything.

i know i have read 10,000 articles saying that snakes hiss when they are aggravated but that simply does not apply to me. so i'm hoping that sometimes snakes just hiss cause they are snakes HAHA.

That is what I thought about my snake. It turned out to be a respiratory infection.

Yes is it a hiss or a wheeze. I've never seen an undisturbed ball hiss for no reason. It just shouldn't happen. What are the temps, hotspot cool spot and ambient? Do you have a thermostat, what type of heat do you use? They shouldn't just randomly hiss, and if it has recently started it very well could be the beginning of an RI.

hi :D thanks for replying. i have a thermostat on his cool end and it registers between 87-92. the other end is where i have his heating pad. it rests under the aquarium and i put the basket upside down over it. to the touch the glass is warm. i used to put a little bedding over it so he wouldnt get burned. but every time i do he sweeps it to one corner lol.

i try to make sure that his cage stays "humid". usually after i spray the tank you can actually feel the heat from the cage so i figured that was good. his hissing has been goin on for about 3 months. i do wanna say though that this hissing is not constant and he doesnt do it more than once. wat i mean is he doesnt his all day long. he will hiss then nothing will happen for a few days. then i'll hear it again one time. i thought it was his way of farting or something or just letting air out :P he is very active when he is not shedding and doesn't have any foam around his mouth.

i take him out regularly when he isnt shedding and he gets about fifteen or twenty minutes of exercise when he is out. i read that can help break up mucus if he had an RI.

he isnt mean and he has never snapped at me. he doesnt have any signs where he opens his mouth to breathe. i've seen him yawn twice since i've had him :) he drinks his water at night and eats fine.

i just fed him two mice for the first time a week ago and he went right into a shed after that. hope this info helps a little more :D

Just a quick q is it a thermostat or a thermometer? Both are very different things. A thermom tells you the temps where as a thermostat regulates the temps. It turns your heat appliance on and off so It doesnt burn your animal or
Overheat him. If your cold side
Tops at 92.f you have the hotside
Way way too hot. And if you are using a heat pad with out a tstat this is why. My zillas top out at like 140.f uncontrolled you don't want temps like that on your snake. Controlled my hotside are 90-92.f. My coolsides are 78-80. This is something you should fix asap.
If he's not doing the hiss all the time then I'd say he's probably expelling air and it's not anything you should worry about.
Btw, handling an animal With a potential RI or with an RI will
Only make it worse.

Please tell me you have a thermostat on his heat mat, and not just a thermometer to tell you the temps.

An unregulated heat mat can and will severely burn a snake, to the point of infection and even death.

If he only makes the noise every now and then, it is probably nothing to worry about, but I have heard that a low grade RI can take weeks to present full blown.

Double and triple check his enclosure, read up on the Caresheets here and fix any problems you may have, if it continues but doesn't get any worse it should be normal breathing.

Gale

I'm actually more curious about the humidity than the temps.

Most of the time, when people talk about spraying, they mention something like "I keep it around 50-60%" or whatever number the tank is getting to. Using "humid" to describe it sounds like there's no humidity gauge.

Too much humidity is a big factor in causing RI's. Soaked bedding and high temps = breeding grounds for bacteria.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jg45042

he is very active when he is not shedding

---

Usually, an active bp means he is stressed out. How big is your tank? How big is your ball? The cool side should be more like 80. and the hot side more like 90.

I only see my balls a few days before feeding day, and only at night. They are rarely ever roaming around their tubs. Next time you have him out, put his mouth up to your ear, and see if you hear any sound. It seems to often to be farting. But they do fart. A respiratory infection is very dangerous, and if there is even the slightest chance he may have it, he needs to be seen by a vet.

When my gtp had it, he didn't have any mucous. The only way I new he had it was I could hear a popping sound if I listened to his breathing. Mucous, is usually a very advanced stage of RI.