Need opinion...young female blind in one eye...genetic?

Hey everyone, so I got a young pastel from a kid who is going to college, she's about 200 grams and was finishing a shed but hadn't shed on her head yet. Didn't think anything of it so I brought her home, let her soak in a warm washcloth and then when she wiggled out of it her shed came off including her eye cap....I went to feed her as he said she hadn't eaten in over a week and she missed the mouse twice. I thought it was odd, but she got it the 3rd time. I went to give her another one and she missed again. I feed F/T so I was wiggling it a little so I thought perhaps I was wiggling it too much...so I held it still and she got it, however she didn't really 'nail it' like my others do, she just kinda took a bite.

I looked closely at her eyes thinking perhaps I was wrong and she still had eye caps and then noticed one eye is smaller than the other. Has anyone ever had a snake with this problem? It seems she is blind in that smaller eye. :( I called the guy I got her from and he is agreeing to take her back. I feel aweful because I am Miss. "Gotta save everything".....but I really don't want to take on a problem animal right now (I have enough rescues running around my house!) and the only reason I got her was to breed her eventually and as a responsible breeder I don't feel that breeding a snake with a possible genetic defect would be the right thing to do.

But before I take her back tomorrow I thought I'd check with you all. She is a beautiful pastel female...sweet as can be...I know some breeders would probably breed her anyway and hope for the best. I guess I just want to check and see if anyone of you might say 'oh yes a smaller eye is due to ______ when they were young and it's not a genetic problem'.

Perhaps wishful thinking......:(

It's doubtful it's genetic. It's likely it's from an incubation mishap.

I know a few people with bp's that are blind in one eye, and have never had a problem with them. They have breed them and had no problems what so ever....

As was said, it's possible that it's genetic but it's more than likely an incubation related issue than anything else. Of course, if the snake is missing the mouse it could just be having an off day. My male has fine vision (from what I can tell) and loves the food, but last time I fed him he missed twice, and got it the third time.

Some ball pythons will realize that it's F/T too, and don't constrict, though most of them do. So it isn't necessarily that weird, just... funny :P

Hi,

You could try increasing the temp of the head of the F/T?

The heatpits seem to be more important in the actual strike than the eyes I think.

Do you know where the seller got it? Maybe the original breeder could give some reassurance on whether it was an incubation problem or not.


dr del