Can BPs have allergies?

I've noticed an interesting thing lately: when I hold Ava, she starts exhaling as if she has an RI or something of the sort (or "sneezing", whatever you'd like to call it), though I know she's healthy, has no mucous anywhere, inside of the mouth is fine...I've even recorded the inside of her tank and played it back to make sure she wasn't breathing heavily or making that sound in her tank: negative. 6 hour recording with a sensitive mic without a single sound. She makes that sound only occasionally: maybe 3-4 times in the hour that I usually hold her, usually when she's near my hair (which I assume tickles her nose and she responds accordingly). But the last few nights I've noticed that she makes that sound while she's nowhere near my hair, as if she's allergic to something I am wearing (got a new hoodie a couple days ago, freshly washed) or perhaps something in the air or my hands. The husbandry is fine: I've managed to maintain a 92º hot side and a 78-81º cool side, with a constant 60% humidity (got a hygrotherm hooked up to a Zoomed Reptifogger).

In the morning, I mist her tank heavily until the humidity reads to be 88-90% and the HygroTherm takes over in the middle of the day when the humidity drops below 60%. In the last few days, I've turned off the ReptiFogger because I was thinking that maybe the ultrasonic fog was making it difficult to breathe for her, for whatever reason. She eats every 4 days like clockwork, spends most of her time in the hot side hide.

Anyways, my question is this: does anyone else have this problem, where their BP "sneezes" yet shows no signs of an RI or illness? Has anyone's snakes displayed allergic-type respiratory reactions like this?

I don't see a reason to take her to the vet because she behaves normally and doesn't "sneeze" in her tank and there is no mucous or anything...she seems perfectly healthy to me. Should I worry? Stop handling her for a while? I am completely lost as to why she is doing this and online research revealed nothing like this. Any help or insight would be appreciated, thanks.

It's a stress behavior. She's breathing heavy sort of like a sigh. She's just forcing air out of her nostrils. Nothing to worry about.


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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

It's a stress behavior. She's breathing heavy sort of like a sigh. She's just forcing air out of her nostrils. Nothing to worry about.


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When you say "stress" behavior, does it have something to do with weight? Or is it just a handling response? Because I only handle her about 3-4 times a week, usually two days after her feed. In addition, this is only recently that she started doing this.

Thanks for the response.

To me it sounds like she's puffing up to let you know that she's annoyed by being picked up. I have a few who will do the same thing when I first take them out. They puff up and try to act like a giant killer python. It's quite comical...

A stress behavior as she's annoyed with you.


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I agree. Sounds like a stress sigh/puff to me.

Anything I can do to un-annoy her? Maybe I've made her too lazy to want to be handled? >.>

Some snakes just don't like to be handled. Make sure you let your snake slither on you, don't grab/hold your snake. Maybe try halselibg your snake less. If it isn't effecting eating or shedding I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

Some snakes just don't like to be handled. Make sure you let your snake slither on you, don't grab/hold your snake. Maybe try halselibg your snake less. If it isn't effecting eating or shedding I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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Yes, I do usually limit her crawling to just my hands/chest and nowhere else. Maybe I'll try letting her roam instead of always touching her and redirecting her elsewhere...she has started doing this recently, so maybe she's just fed up at being handled in the same place?

My my, BPs are the simplest yet most complicated reptiles...

I usually let my bp crawl around on my bed more than me. That way he has a larger space to crawl around and I don't have to actually handle or redirect him as often (only when he's doing a suicide maneuver off the edge of the bed). :)