Wobble

Hey everyone.
I picked up a spider female a couple weeks ago. She's pushing 2000 grams and is absolutely gorgeous. Also has a great appetite so far. Unfortunately, she has a pretty significant wobble. It doesn't stop her from eating at all and I only notice it when she's doing laps in her bin.

Ive read differing views on the offspring of a wobbly spider. Some say it's diff w/ every snake. Others say there's a definite link between the wobble in a parent and that of the hatchlings.

My question is if it's a good idea to breed her and risk her babies having bad wobbles. It doesn't seem right to handicap the hatchlings, but from what I've read the babies may not be affected by it. Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by ginja ninja

Hey everyone.
I picked up a spider female a couple weeks ago. She's pushing 2000 grams and is absolutely gorgeous. Also has a great appetite so far. Unfortunately, she has a pretty significant wobble. It doesn't stop her from eating at all and I only notice it when she's doing laps in her bin.

Ive read differing views on the offspring of a wobbly spider. Some say it's diff w/ every snake. Others say there's a definite link between the wobble in a parent and that of the hatchlings.

My question is if it's a good idea to breed her and risk her babies having bad wobbles. It doesn't seem right to handicap the hatchlings, but from what I've read the babies may not be affected by it. Thoughts?

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Short answer is the wobble is genetic, the degree of wobble is not. I am personally of the belief that the degree of wobble is stress induced but it is just a theory.

Read this derailed thread from yesterday and it should answer a lot of questions for you.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ommon-practice

Severe wobbler can produce mild wobbler and vice versa.

Now the degree is from very mild (hardly noticeable to the untrained eye) to severe, it can be severe as hatchling and lessen as they grow, or the opposite, other things may increase or lessen the severity as well such as stress, temperatures...

Wow I totally missed that thread lol. I feel like the wobble was the most obvious when I was opening drawers in the rack and putting rats in. Maybe that was stressing her out or she smelled the food? She also may just be settling in. Like I said it's only been a few weeks so she may not be 100% comfortable yet.

it would make sense that any form of stimuli(food, opening the tub) that excites her in any way would cause the wobble to come out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ginja ninja

Wow I totally missed that thread lol. I feel like the wobble was the most obvious when I was opening drawers in the rack and putting rats in. Maybe that was stressing her out or she smelled the food? She also may just be settling in. Like I said it's only been a few weeks so she may not be 100% comfortable yet.

it would make sense that any form of stimuli(food, opening the tub) that excites her in any way would cause the wobble to come out.

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Stress is not the only thing that seems to increase and make the wobble more noticeable, excitement is too, so during feeding mode it is pretty normal to notice the wobble more than at other times.

Food and or being hungry will often induce symptoms. When they get too excited they will sometimes miss the strike and then really get upset. I try to let them calm down a little when they do this before offering again.

She's eaten twice and hasn't missed a strike yet. It's honestly more of a slow corkscrew around the tub as I'm getting ready to feed her. I did have a spider girl in the past that missed 75% of the time but otherwise it was undetectable. I think it's just the odd occurrences of the wobble that are throwing me off.

I should clarify, by odd occurrences I just mean odd in my limited experience with spiders in the past.