BP fell from climbing perch!

I had my pastel ball python out and she was climbing on her climbing perch. I thought she had a pretty good grip and I was watching her carefully and I looked away for a literally a second. I heard a thud and she had fallen from her perch!! (It's about 34'' tall) :O I inspected her for any damage and didn't see anything:O, I immediately put her back in her cage and saw her moving around, but I can't help but be very nervous and feel like I did something stupid..

P.S She still reacts to everything and doesn't * appear* to be damaged but I don't know about internal damage, etc..!

Well i think its rude to call people stupid BUT.... Bps arent climbers. They really dont need climbing perches.

): ......

I know BPs are not arboreal nor do they climb often but when I put her down I notice she always starts climbing up things, even to the top of the posts on the rack. She doesn't actually have a climbing perch in her cage.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Well i think its rude to call people stupid BUT.... Bps arent climbers. They really dont need climbing perches.

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I know BPs are not arboreal nor do they climb often but when I put her down I notice she always starts climbing up things, even to the top of the posts on the rack. She doesn't actually have a climbing perch in her cage.

Just make sure no swelling comes around and make sure there isn't a spot that if you touch it she reacts as tho it hurts like gets defensive over it she should be fine mine for some reason let go of my arm before while I was walking an he was fine even bounced on the carpet

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Originally Posted by carlson

Just make sure no swelling comes around and make sure there isn't a spot that if you touch it she reacts as tho it hurts like gets defensive over it she should be fine mine for some reason let go of my arm before while I was walking an he was fine even bounced on the carpet

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Thanks! My sister's friend's brother came over and he wanted to hold my little boa sooo bad so I let him but I said be very careful, and he dropped the snake from high up but luckily was fine. I never let that guy hold my snakes again though lol

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Originally Posted by ToriTheBallPython

I know BPs are not arboreal nor do they climb often but when I put her down I notice she always starts climbing up things, even to the top of the posts on the rack. She doesn't actually have a climbing perch in her cage.

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Studies have shown that ball pythons climb extensively in the wild.

In fact, they are so proficient at it, that a large part of their diet is avian prey.

My normal likes diving off of the top lip over his glass opening in his vision cage.. Scares me half to death everynight but he's been doing it almost everynight for months. My spider male loves to climb and he'll try anything but he doesn't have very good coordination and will fall if we don't keep a good hold on him. Your snake is probably fine. x2 on watching for swelling

I know of some who like to climb, and have fallen from much higher elevations, and been fine. Just keep a sharp eye out for signs of injury, if you're worried you can get her x-rayed, although that's probably excessive if you don't have suspicion that she's actually injured.

Anyone that says Ball pythons don't climb has never given them a perch.

When they are younger they climb a fair amount, but once they are a couple years old and a couple thousand grams, I feel like they become less adventurous.

Sure they can climb fairly well, but what they lack is a good grip like arboreal and semi arboreal species. They just don't seem to "hang on" very well. If you want to throw them on a perch, cool, just make sure it isn't too far off the ground and maybe make a "landing pad" in case they do fall. Perhaps a towel or something.

Ball pythons aren't super fragile creatures. A short fall shouldn't be too bad, worst case scenario being a broken rib or two (ouch). They are tough little guys.

Thank you all so much. I checked on her this morning and she looked okay.

No problem :) I'm sure we all know what it's like to worry over a pet

You can see pictures of my pets in the Updates On Everybody thread I made!

The CITES group found 1:75 in a tree, "searching in every opening". The italian predation study has commented that they have started thinking of sub adult royals as semi arboreal. As Skip said there is lots of evidence they climb naturally.

They do seem to slow down after they hit the 1000gm mark as Karote mentioned not all however but most.

Ball pythons love climbing perches, and they fall all the time. If she didn't fall from any height greater than the size of the tank, she's fine. I bet she went right back to climbing her perch and falling off it again, didn't she?

Ball pythons are terrible climbers, but they are expert fallers. A good rule of thumb for adults is, as long as the fall isn't much higher than they are long, they actually do have some control over their landing. Even it it looks totally crazy and out of control. You know how martial artists smack the floor with their hands when they fall to distribute their energy? That's what ball pythons are built to do. And they're well-padded.

I'm a big fan of giving them climbing perches because it gives them something to do at night. And yeah, from 11pm until 2am all I hear is THUMP. Scrabble scrabble. THUMP. I think the West African savannah and forests must be filled with the sound of pythons falling out of low branches in the evenings. Because it's not like wild pythons have someone to take their perches away. I don't know why they do this, but they sure do like doing it. (Go on, I dare you to tell me climbing is a stress response. My climbers eat like pigs and I have the BEST, most hysterical counterargument to the "stress" argument. Go on. Tell me.)

If she ever falls off of your neck onto a hard floor, that's something you might want to worry about and consider X-rays. I had a baby enchi drop off of my neck onto a concrete floor. Now she's an adult, but she still hisses whenever I pick her up. And any height above that is also a potential concern.

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Originally Posted by loonunit

i think the west african savannah and forests must be filled with the sound of pythons falling out of low branches in the evenings.

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lol!!.......

3000 gram thump in the night, it happens but not often.


http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...g_for_food.jpg

Arialmt, you have a beautiful normal :) Luckily my pastel girl is just a baby (130 g ) and she didn't show any signs of injury/shock.

Now this is my real climber! Sorry for the burry Pic he WOULDN'T STOP MOVING! LOL.
Please note this wasn't the same perch my pastel fell off of, it is much higher.

http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/...tings/4356.jpg

I personally wouldn't let them climb or give them anything to climb, but that's just me.

Just about all snakes climb to a degree and there's nothing wrong with allowing yours to do so. Some are better at it because they do more climbing than others. Therefore those muscles are stronger and they have better control over them. Most people keep their bps in tubs with out perches or anything to climb, so what do you think will happen when they finally get the chance to do so? They might make it up the first time or even a few times but eventually the muscles being used to hold on will tire out, and they fall.

Their muscles are not much different (other than structure) than any other muscles including ours, they function the same way. As they grow their weight affects that, use it or lose it. So if they're not able to climb or practice holding their body weight on a limb then their less likely to do it as well or even hold on as long as a snake that does.

Like trying to handle a wild snake over a pet, if both put up a fight which one do you think would be stronger?