Odd night behavior in BP? Help please!!

not much else you can do really, as you said she acts Normal the rest of the time best to not worry unless it gets worse and just treat it as part of her personality and enjoy your girl.

RaeDee I am sorry if I made you feel attacked or distressed.

Every person draws on their experience and comments upon this. I work with a large reptile rescue, personally I have placed well over 1000 reptiles to new homes. I very sadly get to see lots and lots of calamities that befall reptiles. Mite treatment poisoning is one of them that is on the increase, this year I am up to 9 reptiles (mostly snakes) that have been poisoned (⅓ more than this time last year). They are a major issue as everyone must be sent out to have a IBD biopsy done to insure it is not IBD. I have never seen a case confirmed to be IBD yet. (many of the poisonings were thought to be IBD but were not.)

Your snake has a neurological issue, there can be no doubt of that. The options are genetic, poisoning, disease, physical trauma, heat stress, and virus. It is certainly one of these, I see so many poisoning that is my number one suspect. A perfectly safe poison IMO is an oxymoron. A safe poison (insecticide) does not exist, there are less dangerous ones and safe concentrations for a given size, yes but 100% safe?

You presented a snake with a neurological issue, a poison, and I jumped to what I see most, poisoning. I never thought spider as we don't get very many rescues that are spider morphs, my personal spider has very little issues, he just over exaggerates his movements when stressed. I never think of that because I don't see wobble much (ever). The video is more severe than any spider I personally have ever had in my hands. I was the farthest thing from my mind.

Sorry, I agree poisoning effects all movements not just the way the snake moves during the night only, it doesn't start and stop it is always present with movement. It seems to be genetic which is actually quite sad as it will not leave it may change becoming worse or better but always present.

IF on the off chance that the snake does die. it seems unlikely currently, genetic is the only one that comes and goes.

I would very very strongly suggest a screen for IBD be done and a liver exam. This is quite important, as this is also one of the possibilities, it will determine IBD or poisoning, in either case the place you purchased it from should know they both are very serious. I can't speak for them, but the breeder I use, would be quite prepared under this kind of circumstance be to pay for the tests to be done, they too would need to know what the cause was.

Kitedemon, you didn't make me feel attacked or distressed or anything like that so no worries :) I do believe it is genetic and personally, as long as she doesn't worsen or hurt herself with these movements at night, I'm fine with it. Matilda is a very gentle and calm snake when being held or when I'm adjusting anything in her tank so if a genetic flaw is the only problem, I see no harm in that (of course, like i said, unless it worsens) The spray the store used was not a poisonous substance. They used Reptile Relief by Natural Chemistry. The guys at the store even showed me the bottle and assured me that they use it on every snake they sell, just to be sure they aren't sending a snake home with mites. As you said, were poisoning the case, she would be showing symptoms all the time and after 3 weeks of owning her, I feel she would have either died or been worsening by now. She ate normally yesterday as she always does and last night, she only came out to "dance" and explore (without the movements I.e. Climbing on her branch normally) for a few minutes before she went back in her hide. I do trust your judgment based on the amount of experience you have so I appreciate your informative input. But I believe I have a perfectly healthy, albeit a little odd, ball python. However, like I said before, I watch her very closely so the moment I see any sign of worsening or new symptoms, if they should arise, I'll take her straight in to the vet. Thanks again for your input and suggestions :) I really do appreciate it!

Wow, I'm away for 2 days and this becomes a 4 page thread. Dave is a very reputable breeder so I trust his opinion but a lot of the others have brought up good points as well. It sounds like possibly a minor issue as she's eating well, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it's nothing. Good luck with her.

Ok well you guys scared me into taking Matilda to the vet so I took her in just now to see one of my friend's colleagues who is a reptile vet, specializing in snakes. (Bear in mind, I'm in vet school myself so most/almost all of my friends are vets or vet techs or somehow related to the animal world) I showed him the video I posted on here and he examined her on this really cool exam table that was actually heated on one end (awesome, never seen that before). He checked her over nose to tail, looked in her mouth, checked her heat vents, looked at her eyes, her vent, pretty much every part of her. He also hung her by her tail in his hand and checked her muscles to see if she could pull herself up without aid. No problems there. He also rolled her on her back like I did (which she did not enjoy) and she again righted herself no problem. So we had a nice long talk about IBD and how he does not think that's what this is since the movement only happens at night and there are no other physiological symptoms. He also ruled out poisoning for the same reason. What he believes is that her weird night 'dancing' is just an expression of anxiety or even trying to "hunt". He was led to the hunting theory by the fact that she does not 'dance' for the first night or two after she's eaten, but that's only a theory. But he drew a blood sample anyways and is sending it away to be tested for any unusual pathogens (IBD, neurocysticercosis, etc.) and I should have the results back either tomorrow or Monday, but he said he really doesn't think it's anything to be worried about; just to make sure she's eating and not regurgitating, having normal BM's etc.) So thankfully, my nerves are finally calmed lol Of course, I await the blood results but I tend to agree with the vet. Thanks to everyone who helped by offering their input! And of course, I'll post an update in a day or two when I hear the results from the bw.

Great to hear, shes lucky to have someone so proactive... i highly doubt its ibd... everytbing ive read about that shows it being a fast and lethal killer to ball pythons, usually starting with a complete loss of appitite and bad weight loss, another early symptom is complete loss or diminishing muscle controll in the snakes tail end.... as you and your vet think its probably just a weird behavior and nothing to be worried about untill something changes but youll know 100% in a few days

So I got the results of Matilda's bloodwork back and she is IBD free! Also free of neurocysticercosis and many other things they tested for (poisons etc) Yay!!! So it looks like my sweet girl is gonna be just fine :) also she peed on me for the first time the other night so that was fun!! :gj: Anyways, thanks to all who helped with their advice and input! So thankful it's nothing serious and that I've just got an oddball (pun intended lol)