First post, first question

Hi all,

My names Rob and I have had a lovely female Royal since Oct 2004. No problems except being a very irregular feeder, but that is par for the course.

I consider myself to know quite a bit about the species, but something had me slightly puzzled last night.

Mia was laying in the middle of her viv. I opened it and stroked her. She moved very quickly (I think she was asleep), and then started to dart about the viv. I could hear a wheezing noise when she exhaled. I immediately thought RI, but there was no gunk. I took her out and after a few seconds, it stopped and she went back to her usual self.

Left her overnight. Fine this morning. No wheezing, no gunk around the nose & mouth and gulped down a rat for the first time in 8 weeks.

Anyone got any idea what it could have been last night?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pickwick

Hi all,

My names Rob and I have had a lovely female Royal since Oct 2004. No problems except being a very irregular feeder, but that is par for the course.

I consider myself to know quite a bit about the species, but something had me slightly puzzled last night.

Mia was laying in the middle of her viv. I opened it and stroked her. She moved very quickly (I think she was asleep), and then started to dart about the viv. I could hear a wheezing noise when she exhaled. I immediately thought RI, but there was no gunk. I took her out and after a few seconds, it stopped and she went back to her usual self.

Left her overnight. Fine this morning. No wheezing, no gunk around the nose & mouth and gulped down a rat for the first time in 8 weeks.

Anyone got any idea what it could have been last night?

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is she going into shed?

or, it could be the starts or RI.

but if she is going into shed, somtimes the skin in the vents and mouth area loosen before they accually shed, and they can make a whistleing noise.


or, maybe she was "hissing"
or out of breath....

Yeah I am willing to bet It was hissing. If you did startle her, that was probably her first reaction. To hiss. If you do see her posture her head upward against something in her cage and you hear bubbling, popping, wheezing sounds, then you should worry. Trust me, I know a lot about RI's, I have two snakes with RI's currently. Hope this helps.

No, there's no stargazing at all. All the temps are spot on. I use an infra red thermometer and my heating is done by an AHS Microclimate, which is a fantastic all in one pp heater that is sold in the UK. As I said it is not happening any more, there is no gunk and she bolted down a rat.

I reckon it was hissing. She has never hissed at me before so I dont really know what it sounds like.

Do Royals give off the classic loud hiss or is it more subtle?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pickwick

No, there's no stargazing at all. All the temps are spot on. I use an infra red thermometer and my heating is done by an AHS Microclimate, which is a fantastic all in one pp heater that is sold in the UK. As I said it is not happening any more, there is no gunk and she bolted down a rat.

I reckon it was hissing. She has never hissed at me before so I dont really know what it sounds like.

Do Royals give off the classic loud hiss or is it more subtle?

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Depends I've heard very loud and very soft hisses come from a few of mine.

I've heard similar sounds whenever there's a piece of stuck shed.

She had a perfect shed 4 weeks ago. I always thoroughly check the head area after a shed and there was no stuck skin.

My Het Albino male is a major hisser. He hates being touched (so he is the one snake here that doesn't get handled) and makes it known whenever you do so by hissing. His hiss is mostly a soft, long sound like emptying an air mattress. :)

My two adult girls also whistle their breath whenever they are excited, like when they have just been picked up, but never any other time. There's no other signs of RI, but I keep my eyes and ears on them JIC since they came to me with the bare bones beginnings of RIs and I still can't seem to get the humidity in those darn tubs to go low enough.