Help! Is she in danger?!

Today is feeding day, and my beautiful baby Penelope has me scared out of my mind.

She grabbed hold of her first mouse and drug it into her water bowl, then proceeded to drown it as she smothered it and THEN EAT IT UNDERWATER.

It took her a long time to eat it, and then she stayed stretched up to the top of her cage, looking like she was trying to puke up a wad of her subtrate while drooling all over herself. She was also shaking a little bit, but she sometimes does that while she's finishing off the tail. I left her alone in her cage, covering it with a towel to give her a little darkness and some "alone time". I found the wad on the floor of the cage, and watched her for a few more minutes, and she seemed to be okay. She even flicked her tongue around and recognized that I was near.

But when I went to drop in her second rat, she did a drunken slither over to it before hitting it, scraping the side of her head and body along the subtrate.

But she's eaten that mouse just fine.

BUT, she's still acting as if she's drunk and scraping the side of her head along the cage and the subtrate.

Should I be worried? Do I need to skip sleep and stay up and watch her? HELP, PLEASE! I can't lose my sweet Penny when I just got her!!:please::please::please:

Why didn't you pull her out of the water dish?

Its hard to say if anything is wrong or not but all you can really do at this point is make sure that your husbandry is perfect and give it time.

Make sure that you are providing a 90 degree hot side, and a 80 degree cool side with humidity between 40%-60%. If you are using a heating pad is it being regulated by a thermostat? what are you using to measure temperatures/humidity, and finally what are you using for a cage? and how big is it?

So she regurgitated some substrate, but not the rodent?

Call me stupid, but I never EVER thought she would drag it into her water because she never has before, no mater how close the the bowl she was.

No, she hasn't spit up the mice, just a fairly large chunk of subtrate about the size of my thumb nail. She's no longer drooling as well, which makes me feel a little better.

Right now she's in an aquarium, a 10 gallon because my ex didn't get me the 20 that he said he would before he left. But that's changing soon because I don't want to keep her in an aquarium. She has an under-the-tank heater that's only on during her "day time" because I don't want her to get too hot. She gets a spritz when I add water to her subtrate (which she LOVES) to keep her tank nice and cozy. Her home may not be perfect according to some, but she's happier now than she was when my ex found her. (Yes, found her. Someone dumped her after deciding they didn't want to keep her after all, and he happened to spot her at the edge of a parking lot.)

I've covered her cage and turned off her lamp to darken it and make her feel more secure. She's just mostly kinda laying there now. Her breathing picks up a bit now and then, but she looks like she's possibly recovering.

Oh, and I was told to never interrupt a feeding. So when she drug it into the dish I could only stand there and watch and hope the she didn't drown herself.

There are some times when intervening is best, this seems like one of those times. Worst case you get bit and the snake doesn't eat...

do you even know the temperatures inside the cage?

UTH's must be regulated by a thermostat, without one they can and will get hot enough to kill your snake. they can reach 130+ degrees in a matter of hours.

Please read these 2 threads, it sounds like you have been given some bad information and it would be best to clear things up.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CuddleMunkie

Oh, and I was told to never interrupt a feeding. So when she drug it into the dish I could only stand there and watch and hope the she didn't drown herself.

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For future reference, it is okay to reposition the snake if it struck in strange place. Sometimes my snakes strike and they are laying with the prey coiled outside the tub, I then grab the rat by the tail and move them back into the tub.


You need a thermostat to control your heat pad, which should be on 24/7. If the snake is kept too cool it very well could regurgitate its food.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

For future reference, it is okay to reposition the snake if it struck in strange place. Sometimes my snakes strike and they are laying with the prey coiled outside the tub, I then grab the rat by the tail and move them back into the tub.


You need a thermostat to control your heat pad, which should be on 24/7. If the snake is kept too cool it very well could regurgitate its food.

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Yea exactly. When this happened i certainly didnt leave her in there, i just picked her up and placed her in a bit of a drier spot in the tub lol.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/09/30/ehanydu6.jpg

The pad used to be on 24/7 but I started unplugging it this week because she never ventured over to that side of the tank. She'd always lay on the other side of her bowl, and I was concerned about it. So now I unplug it whenever I'm not home to watch her, which is at night because that's when I work and it's nighttime anyway. She does have a heat lamp that I will turn on if it's cold in my room. (My ex liked to practically live in a frozen room.)

I'm completely new at this, and he gave her to me when we broke up because I fell in love with her, and now I'm left to take care of her by myself and I want to do this right so that I can keep her around for a good long time. So I deeply thank you all for not yelling at me about being so stupid.

I'm forced to take a nap now because I have to be back up for work in a couple of hours, and I'm having my sister check in on her to make sure she's okay, which she seems to be now. She's completely in the dark so she can rest and I will most certainly check on her the minute I get up. I was just so scared, I didn't know what to do. And I'll read those threads and get right on getting her a much better cage than this aquarium she's in now. I'd love to get her a big box with a hideaway and a nice big dish for her to soak in since that seems to be what she enjoys doing every few days. My little Penelope means the world to me, and I want to make sure she's happy and healthy and around for a very long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjL...e_gdata_player here's lil video I made the other day this is my tank my snake was feeding within first three days reguardless of previous owner claiming he was on a hunger strike if you get the thermometer the most expensive part the rest is cheep and easy just drill holes in a tub ur done I wud move her to the new enclosure after just incase stress is playing a role

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

There are some times when intervening is best, this seems like one of those times. Worst case you get bit and the snake doesn't eat...

do you even know the temperatures inside the cage?

UTH's must be regulated by a thermostat, without one they can and will get hot enough to kill your snake. they can reach 130+ degrees in a matter of hours.

Please read these 2 threads, it sounds like you have been given some bad information and it would be best to clear things up.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

Wow?! I guess it makes sense though with higher wattage. when I first started out it got to 110 f, so it must have been less. Ya definitely get a thermostat

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

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After coiling, you can safely move them...I've never had one let go of the rat while moving them out of the water dish/preventing it from tipping.

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If the temps are a little off, try adding a little more substrate, I have my buy on cypress bedding and I have it piled up a little higher over the heating area, when I measure the temps he is always in roughly the mid to low 80s.

- - - Updated - - -

before anyone asks, I also have a thermostat, just forgot to mention it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alpine

I have it piled up a little higher over the heating area, when I measure the temps he is always in roughly the mid to low 80s.

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You actually want less bedding over the UTH, UTH's do not increase the ambient temperature so too much substrate could prevent the snake from easy access to the heat source. Also make sure you are not measuring the temps based on the surface temperature of the substrate, ball pythons like to burrow, the surface temp directly above the UTH (without substrate) is always going to be warmer than the temperature at the substrate level. If you are measuring your temps based on the substrate temperature you run the risk you burning your snake.

I measure bottom and top, got a probe under the substrate and one on the top, and another that measures ambient temps throughout. It stays about 90 on bottom and about 85 on top and ambient is about 75-80 on a regular basis. Humidity is still getting worked out right now but still says at a comfortable 55-60%, though sometimes it gets a little higher for some reason, and I have to figure it out.

--PENELOPE UPDATE!--

Just got up and checked on Penny, and she looks like she's back to normal. And she's moved herself away from the side of the tank with the UTH again. I really don't think she likes it at all. When it's on, she doesn't want to stay on that side of the tank hardly at all. But yeah, she looks normal now as if nothing happened. I feel so much better now. And now I can focus on getting her a better home!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CuddleMunkie

--PENELOPE UPDATE!--

Just got up and checked on Penny, and she looks like she's back to normal. And she's moved herself away from the side of the tank with the UTH again. I really don't think she likes it at all. When it's on, she doesn't want to stay on that side of the tank hardly at all. But yeah, she looks normal now as if nothing happened. I feel so much better now. And now I can focus on getting her a better home!

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Well what's your temperatures on your hot side?

It doesn't sound like you have a
Thermostat or thermometer :/

Have you read the care sheet ? :)

for the UTH, if nothing else, run down to home depot or lowes and get a dimmer switch, usually around the lighting department or just ask one of the people around that area and they can usually get you what you want. I am using them and it works out well enough for me. If you can go to a pet store and pick up a laser thermal reader that would be a great addition to get the heat spot right for you. Before then, the dimmer will at least allow you to provide a decent amount of heat without taking the chance to burn your snake. My dimmers tend to be less than around half way turned on and I hope that helps to get you started until you can get a thermal reader. I think the thermal reader I got was around $25 from pets mart. Best of luck!

No, I don't have a thermometer right now because my ex took it when he gave the other BP we had to his friend before he left. I basically don't have anything for Penny anymore and have to start from scratch.

Please don't worry about that. I'm not one of those people who never mess with my BP. I take Penny out nearly every day and handle her and show her affection (and get affection in return! :D) and ALWAYS peek in on her every few hours or so to make sure she's not doing anything strange and that she's warm and comfortable.

I WILL be getting her thermometers and things like that so she stays happy and healthy. She was thrust upon us rather suddenly, but once she was in my life I couldn't just let her go. I'm fully confident that I can give her a wonderful home and keep her around for a very long time. She's family now, and everyone at home loves her and has complete faith in me to take care of her.

You need good thermometers and a thermostat, stay away from pet stores, as all they sell is overpriced junk.

Get this thermometer/hygrometer from Walmart, it costs $12 and measures 2 temperatures and humidity (the probe goes on the hot side directly above the UTH on the cage floor, and the unit goes on the cool side)

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...nt/photo-3.jpg

You will also need a thermostat to regulate your UTH, a thermostat is the most important part of keeping reptiles:

Here are 3 good thermostats, as I said before stay away from the junk sold in pet stores

Budget: http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

Mid-Range: http://www.reptilebasics.com/ranco-etc-111000-pre-wired

High Quality: http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

Any time one of mine gets in the water I just grab it and set it to the side of the bowl while its still killing the rodent, won't hurt anything :D


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