No Tongue?

Anyone ever hatched out a Ball with no tongue? Is it possible? Reason I ask, is I saw a baby today that was hatched out about 2 weeks ago and because of an incubator malfunction the clutch hatched about 2 weeks early. A couple of the babies have what appears to be slightly longer top jaws and shorter bottom jaws. Also I didn't see any tongue flicks other than that they act as any other ball.

I have never heard of it but I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible. After all, in Asia, they found a snake with a limb! All kinds of crazy defects can happen!

I would assume a snake without a tongue should not survive...

Actually it could potentially survive, however it would probably end up trying to eat anything warm enough.

It's more likely that the jaw deformity affected the muscles, so the snake cannot flick its tongue out--either because it can't move its tongue properly, or can't move its jaws properly. Open its mouth and look.

This snake is very unlikely to survive, and should probably be euthanized (IMO).

I have a two year old albino male ball that doesn't have a tongue. He only eats ASF's but I'm not sure that has anything to do with the tongue. He is about 900 grams and has no problems. I took him to a herp vet when he was younger and was told that as long as he eats and grows not to worry about it.


<--- That's him.

I heard that a snake without a tongue cannot survive because without the tongue it would be unable to find it's prey.

Though, with pythons and boas, since they have heat pits, I could imagine they could live without a tongue since they also can depend on their heat pits for detecting the prey.

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Originally Posted by Hock3ymonk3y

I have never heard of it but I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible. After all, in Asia, they found a snake with a limb! All kinds of crazy defects can happen!

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Can I get a link for that? I've never heard of that and can't find it on google

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Originally Posted by zues

I have a two year old albino male ball that doesn't have a tongue. He only eats ASF's but I'm not sure that has anything to do with the tongue. He is about 900 grams and has no problems. I took him to a herp vet when he was younger and was told that as long as he eats and grows not to worry about it.


<--- That's him.

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Snakes have nostrils. The tongue is just a PART of the olfactory system, it may be the key player, zues gives us evidence that the snake does not rely solely on on this for sensing scents.

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Originally Posted by CoolioTiffany

I heard that a snake without a tongue cannot survive because without the tongue it would be unable to find it's prey.

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Im guessing that would be in the wild. When its put right infront of them/assist fed at frist, im sure it would be fine and get the hang of it.

the snake with a limb probably just had a big lizard in its belly and the leg punched through. The pics are in the news area on the forum here.

Zues thanks for the info I picked up one of these snakes to keep someone that wouldn't have any knowledge from getting it and it just dying. Its an Albino also and I'm sure after a couple of assist feedings it'll get the hang of it and eat on its own.

Also after looking in the mouth it does have a tongue. It just never flicks it out so maybe it has very limited muscle movement with it. My wife swears she felt it flick it out a little and touch her so maybe it can get it to the edge of the mouth. I'll post a few pics after it settles in for a bit.