wierd spider movements

i have a male spider and i noticed that he flips his head upside down and all around at times. he does it alot when i hold him. Does anyone know what this could be?

use the search button, I promise you'll find the answer

search Spider Wobble

You guys are so helpful!

Firstly... hello!

The strange movements you are seeing are refered to as a the spider wobble. Every spider has this neurological disorder, some show it more than others. Typically the wobble becomes more prominent or noticeable when the snake is excited or stressed, IE: When being handles, transported, or fed.

It does not harm the snake at all, spiders live long and healthy lives even with the disorder. It is just something that most spider owners have to accept or not deal with the morph. Nothing is wrong with your boy, so don't worry. It is normal... for a spider.

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Originally Posted by Crawly's Mom

You guys are so helpful!

Firstly... hello!

The strange movements you are seeing are refered to as a the spider wobble. Every spider has this neurological disorder, some show it more than others. Typically the wobble becomes more prominent or noticeable when the snake is excited or stressed, IE: When being handles, transported, or fed.

It does not harm the snake at all, spiders live long and healthy lives even with the disorder. It is just something that most spider owners have to accept or not deal with the morph. Nothing is wrong with your boy, so don't worry. It is normal... for a spider.

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X2 -- It will vary on intensity from individual to individual. Any morph with Spider in it can have it. My Spinner has it and he is just fine, real good eater.

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Originally Posted by Crawly's Mom

You guys are so helpful!

Firstly... hello!

The strange movements you are seeing are refered to as a the spider wobble. Every spider has this neurological disorder, some show it more than others. Typically the wobble becomes more prominent or noticeable when the snake is excited or stressed, IE: When being handles, transported, or fed.

It does not harm the snake at all, spiders live long and healthy lives even with the disorder. It is just something that most spider owners have to accept or not deal with the morph. Nothing is wrong with your boy, so don't worry. It is normal... for a spider.

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x2

I was quite freaked out when I saw my spider morph corkscrewing his head when I first put him in his enclosure on the day I got him. I was also pretty pissed that the guy I bought him from didn't mention this kind of issue. I bought him to be a future breeder and was unsure about the issue as a moral dilemma in perpetuating a faulty gene.

After owning him for a while now, I have a different stance. Spiders eat like pigs, breed well, and show no signs of poor health. Some people even report them to be "friendlier" than other morphs. The ataxia we see in the spider breed is often associated by people with similar behaviors in humans. While their direct mechanism in the nervous system is nearly identical, the ataxia in humans is almost always the byproduct of a crippling illness such as Cerebral Palsy. In those individuals, discomfort stems from other elements of the illness and generally not the ataxia itself (there are some exceptions with violent muscle spasms or tensing, but that is not what we see in spiders).

Ataxia is a fancy term to describe partial or complete lack of muscle coordination.


TL;DR your snake is fine dude. Don't let it bother you unless the animal shows signs of physical injury stemming from the ataxia. If you can't let go of that visceral reaction to seeing it behave that way, trade your snake for a new one.

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Originally Posted by Crawly's Mom

You guys are so helpful!

Firstly... hello!

The strange movements you are seeing are refered to as a the spider wobble. Every spider has this neurological disorder, some show it more than others. Typically the wobble becomes more prominent or noticeable when the snake is excited or stressed, IE: When being handles, transported, or fed.

It does not harm the snake at all, spiders live long and healthy lives even with the disorder. It is just something that most spider owners have to accept or not deal with the morph. Nothing is wrong with your boy, so don't worry. It is normal... for a spider.

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Search button would have gotten OP faster results. Besides, this has been discussed a thousand times. Idk how people don't get tired of repeating themselves.

I am sorry you are distressed by this problem.

This is however, exactly the reason why anyone thinking of getting a pet should research first. There are thousands of pages on the internet talking about the spider wobble, and it would be very hard indeed NOT to come across the information if even minimal research was made.

All spider ball pythons, as well as any morph combination containing spider will wobble to one degree or another. With many it is slight or barley noticeable, with an unfortunate few it is very severe and almost unbearable to watch. There is no escaping it when dealing with spiders, individual owners and breeders must decide for themselves if they are comfortable with it or not.

Gale

I have heard of the wobble but i didnt know 100%u what it was so wasnt sure thats what it was or not. Thank you for the help

By the way, if you see any snake OTHER than a spider or woma ball python displaying that type of behavior--assume that it has a deadly and contagious illness. (Other things can cause this, including overheating and congenital problems during development in the egg, but it's extremely rare, and it's not normal in non-spider/woma morphs).

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Originally Posted by that_dc5

Search button would have gotten OP faster results. Besides, this has been discussed a thousand times. Idk how people don't get tired of repeating themselves.

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because we are here to help everyone out with there issues, that would be the whole point in the forum. :)

Even if it's frustrating to answer the same question again and again, remember, there is an animal on the other end and an owner who is confused. I have seen far too many people get turned off of a forum because of rude responses and unhelpful people who end up killing their animal because they are unsure what to do or even WHAT to search for. I can tell you that while it seems simple to search, when I was early on in my reptile keeping career, I had no idea what to do. We had a leopard gecko with a prolapse and no clue what it was. Now I would know immediately what to search for, but at the time, it was a nearly impossible feat and seemed like no one had ever seen the problem before.

There are those of us who are willing to answer those questions, if you aren't feeling it--don't answer. Or link to a thread in a friendly way. It's easy to come off as rude over the internet, and that is especially dangerous when it risks having a person put their animal in jeopardy because they are frightened to ask a question that may have been asked before! :)

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Originally Posted by purplemuffin

Even if it's frustrating to answer the same question again and again, remember, there is an animal on the other end and an owner who is confused. I have seen far too many people get turned off of a forum because of rude responses and unhelpful people who end up killing their animal because they are unsure what to do or even WHAT to search for. I can tell you that while it seems simple to search, when I was early on in my reptile keeping career, I had no idea what to do. We had a leopard gecko with a prolapse and no clue what it was. Now I would know immediately what to search for, but at the time, it was a nearly impossible feat and seemed like no one had ever seen the problem before.

There are those of us who are willing to answer those questions, if you aren't feeling it--don't answer. Or link to a thread in a friendly way. It's easy to come off as rude over the internet, and that is especially dangerous when it risks having a person put their animal in jeopardy because they are frightened to ask a question that may have been asked before! :)

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Agree with this... i am also new to snake keeping and while it is true that maybe 90% of the information here can be found in the net, sometimes it is just reassuring that actual people who has known snakes for a while will tell you what to do. there are a lot of conflicting opinion in the net...

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Originally Posted by angllady2

I am sorry you are distressed by this problem.

This is however, exactly the reason why anyone thinking of getting a pet should research first. There are thousands of pages on the internet talking about the spider wobble, and it would be very hard indeed NOT to come across the information if even minimal research was made.

All spider ball pythons, as well as any morph combination containing spider will wobble to one degree or another. With many it is slight or barley noticeable, with an unfortunate few it is very severe and almost unbearable to watch. There is no escaping it when dealing with spiders, individual owners and breeders must decide for themselves if they are comfortable with it or not.

Gale

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x about 20000!!!:gj:

Just thought id throw in a video of my spiders extreme wobble.

http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/...160/th_001.jpg

I did the most research i could in the time i had. It was more of a rescue type of situation. I felt i could care for this snake more than the person who had it. I knew a little about spiders but i admit i shouldve known more before i got him. So thank you for everyone that was helpful and nice enough to give a helpful answer rather than get mad that i had a pet that i "didnt research enough". I guess to those people it mightve been better to just let the snake suffer without care...

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Originally Posted by Rat160

Just thought id throw in a video of my spiders extreme wobble.

http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/...160/th_001.jpg

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I lol'd hard. I've never actually seen a spider wobble (as I only have a normal female), but that is HILARIOUS. That spider's got to be the Chris Tucker of pythons (yes, the Fifth Element's Chris Tucker). :D

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Originally Posted by Jor23dan

I did the most research i could in the time i had. It was more of a rescue type of situation. I felt i could care for this snake more than the person who had it. I knew a little about spiders but i admit i shouldve known more before i got him. So thank you for everyone that was helpful and nice enough to give a helpful answer rather than get mad that i had a pet that i "didnt research enough". I guess to those people it mightve been better to just let the snake suffer without care...

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Let's not get dramatic. First off no one told you to leave the forum cus you don't know what you're doing. Second, the spider wobble, can't be helped so there is no "suffering without care". And third, whoever said to research it (like I did), wasn't to blow you off. It was so that we don't have to repeat ourself over and over again. The forum is here for everyone to ask questions, and I have asked a million, but some questions can be avoided by just hitting the search button. Lately it seems as if bp.net has the same posts over and over again by different people. Mainly, "Is my snake a morph, even though I bought it as a normal and I'm just hoping it's off so I can brag about it". But either way welcome to the forum and I wish you the best with the Spider.

I wasnt saying you were blowing me off i was talking more about the ones that say i shouldve done the research before i got it. Im also not saying its a rescue because the wobble but because the person i got it from wasnt taking proper care of it and didnt care to take proper care for it.