is my snake sick :(

I would recomend you to make an appointment with an herp vet here is how to find one http://www.arav.org/USMembers.htm

While a possible health problem could explain the change in behavior there could also be other factors.

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Originally Posted by babygerl3094

the temp and everything is fine :(

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Could you also elaborate.

How big is your snake (length, weight)?
What type of enclosure do you use?
How big is your enclosure?
Is your enclosure in a low traffic area?
What are your temps (cool & warm side)?
What is your humidity?
What type of thermometer/hygrometer do you use (dial,stick,or digital)?
What kind of hides do you provide (log, homemade, cubbyholes etc) and how many do you have?
Are your hides tight (all side touching your BP's body) and identical?

Do you not take your snake out to play with it? If it is associating being taken out of the cage with feeding time, then there is obviously no other interaction with the snake. How sad! :(

hes about 20 inc. long now he lives in a 20 gal tank.. he has a heatin pad under his tank so it stays between 85-90...cold side 75-80..humidity is like 50..and we have the stick on thermometer... he has a tree on his cool side and he has an rock he hinds in...he only has one

i wish that i did take a pic of them... but they were very very small... and brown... so im not to sure what maggots look like besides the white ones

and we have always taken him out durin the evenin..everyday... so please dont judge..and make sure u read the whole thing before u make a comment like that..

Definitely worth a vet visit. Were you able to save any of the worms for the vet to check out?

There was another thread somewhere about a snake that had gotten a burn and went from calm and docile to aggressive and bitey. It could be that the worms are putting him out of sorts and he doesn't want to be handled until he feels better. Or there could be something else - a burn, an upcoming shed, hunger, etc. that is making him feel off.

What do you feed him and how often?

Good luck!!

we feed him twice a week... we feed him pups on sundays and hoppers on weds... we just started to feed him the pups on sunday... but before we normally gave him 2 hopers on sunday and one on weds... so i dont think he could be hungry....

Last night, after I got into bed, I started thinking about this and how it sounds so much like the other thread I mentioned. Then I remembered that you said you have newspaper as substrate. Also, I am not sure where you live, but it's been warmer here recently, meaning heat won't get pulled as fast from the tank. I also saw a thread about UTH's being vulnerable to spikes in electricity - one even got so hot it cracked the glass on the bottom of one person's tank.

I am very concerned that he actually could have a burn. Newspaper is very thin and UTH's get hotter than we think. When we got Mr. Snake, we found that his substrate (fir bark) got very warm and the glass underneath got hot from the UTH. The package also said to turn the UTH off if the household temperature gets to be 85 degrees. My husband is handy with electrical work and spliced in a dimmer so we could turn the UTH down. We were worried about burns, especially if the fir bark got moved.

Do you think that is possible to get a dimmer for the UTH? Do you think he might have a burn? That might explain his sudden change in behavior. It's no fun to be in pain.

Either way, it's still worth a very good reptile vet visit. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by brelea79

Do you not take your snake out to play with it? If it is associating being taken out of the cage with feeding time, then there is obviously no other interaction with the snake. How sad! :(

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I'm not sure what's sad with minimal interaction? Handling is for our pleasure, not theirs.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I'm not sure what's sad with minimal interaction? Handling is for our pleasure, not theirs.

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Agreed. Were you able to save the worms to take to the vet?

no i didnt save them.. i never thought about savin them

You're feeding him way too much, way too often. He only needs one prey item about as big around as his widest point every 5 to 7 days. And he should not be handled for 24 to 48 hours after eating.

Is his skin looking dull? Are his eyes cloudy? He could be going into a shed cycle. They often become aggressive and want to avoid being handled when they're ready to shed, because they can't see well. (Plus, handling them at this time could damage the underlying skin, so should be avoided).