bp flailing around wildly for a few minutes...help

Hello fellow snake lovers! Need some advice on some strange behavior in a female bp that my husband and i just rescued. We've had her and a male for about a week now. Tonight was the the 3rd time we had them out, as well as our original bp Tabitha. We put them back in after cleaning up the tank and the new female started spazing out hardcore. Speeding around the tank like she was being chased and flailing her head and upper body around. She did this for about 3 mins. Could it be stress? We were promised she was well handled, but we were also told she was a boy... i would really appreciate any advice to help keep this big girl from hurting herself. She's about 3.5 feet but pretty girthy for what I've seen. Also...maybe she just laid eggs before we got her. Her lower 3rd of her body underneath looks almost like she got tore open or super stretched out and her little booty hole or whatever it is looked like maybe some of the insides came out. It looks way better now. Closest herpe vet is 5 hours away...do we need to go get her checked out? Worried about our new baby.

It may have been a seizure... Could you give information on what the temperature and humidity is inside the cage? What is the setup like? When was the last time she ate?

Without knowing how you are keeping them, what you cleaned their enclosure with or pictures, no one here can help you. Many will try, and your head will explode with all the theories and postulations as to what may be wrong.

In the meantime, YOU need to do the following:

(1) Check the caresheet on this website against your husbandry parameters (basking temp, ambient temp, cool side temp). If they do not match up, correct them immediately.

(2) If you are keeping any of these snakes together stop doing so immediately. Buy individual set ups and maintain the animals separately. Cohabitating must be performed correctly. If you are indeed keeping any of them together, you maybe under the false impression that you are saving money or time in doing so. If you are truly cohabitating them correctly, you are not.

(3) You have apparently brought two new snakes into your home without quarantining them - correct? If the new female is sick, you have put your established animal at risk. Read up on proper quarantine procedures and begin implementing them immediately.

(4) You mentioned you cleaned up the enclosure. After you have seen to the potential husbandry issues, please clarify exactly what this cleaning procedure entailed.

(5) See a vet and have both new animals checked. In the absence of doing that, all you are going to get is a bunch of arm chair quarterbacks making WAGs and giving you confusing advice.

(6) You stated that you had the animals a week yet this was the third time you have had them out. New acquisitions need time to acclimate. Letting them be for at least a week is a good initial acclimation period. After you have corrected any husbandry parameters, leave these animals alone for at least a week.

(7) Do not respond to this post or any others until you make sure you husbandry skills are up to snuff and can tell us exactly how the snake is being kept - down to how you are measuring those parameters. Your first concern should be affirming that you are keeping these animals correctly. The new arrivals need to be moved away from your existing snake and each snake needs it's own enclosure at this point.

Booty Hole = Vent.

Two questions

Is the bottom of the tank to hot?

Is the female in question a Spider?
It could be wobble...

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Originally Posted by BPro927

Two questions

Is the bottom of the tank to hot?

Is the female in question a Spider?
It could be wobble...

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I thought spider, too.

My first thought was that they're both males.

But what skip said.

They could be sick, you could have cleaned with bleach and fried their brains, it could be too hot, or any number of issues. Tell us EXACTLY how it/they are being kept and we might be able to come up with something better than 'see a vet'. At the end of the day, you might want/need to see a vet though.

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Originally Posted by 33rpm

I thought spider, too.

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REALLY?! Aside from the maybe two youtube videos out there, have you ever actually SEEN a spider "speeding around the tank and flailing", without some other underlying issue? I have NEVER seen a spider act that way, and it's more than a little irritating that people who also haven't keep propagating the myth that the "wobble" should be your first thought when a BP is acting strangely.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

REALLY?! Aside from the maybe two youtube videos out there, have you ever actually SEEN a spider "speeding around the tank and flailing", without some other underlying issue? I have NEVER seen a spider act that way, and it's more than a little irritating that people who also haven't keep propagating the myth that the "wobble" should be your first thought when a BP is acting strangely.

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Really. Speeding around a tank? No. Flailing? Yup.

P.s. I love how you come after ME, as I was just agreeing with someone who posted prior to myself. xoxo

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Originally Posted by 33rpm

Really. Speeding around a tank? No. Flailing? Yup.

P.s. I love how you come after ME, as I was just agreeing with someone who posted prior to myself. xoxo

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My reference was to both of you, I just didn't feel the need to multi-quote.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

My reference was to both of you, I just didn't feel the need to multi-quote.

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Suuuuure! ;)

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Originally Posted by 33rpm

Suuuuure! ;)

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So we're still friends? ;)

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

So we're still friends? ;)

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Of course! :halohorn:

Boy do i feel like an idiot...of course you need all that info...
1. Basking side 92 cool side 84 using ut heating mat and basking bulb. Humidity about 55%. Using tank thermometers on either side and a humidity gauge in the bottom of the tank.
2. Yes cohabiting...will buff up on the proper way to do this and will separate for the time being. Husband is working on this as i type
3. Can't believe we didn't think to quarantine... thank you
4. Cleaned out 2 urine cakes, rinsed and scrubbed out water dishes with hot water and a brush designated as snake water dish scrubber. The only thing I've ever used is a bit of dawn then a thorough rinsing. Mixed substrate around and remoistened.
5. Will get a vet visit scheduled asap.
6. Will leave them be for at least a week

Also...we use Eco-Earth coconut fiber for subtrate, have two water bowls, one on hot side one on cool side. An antler, 2 logs, a large custom built cave. In a 55 gallon tank. Supposedly they were fed a few days before we got them. Should we wait until the week of acclimation has ended before feeding?

Thank you so much for your help. I will be more thorough in future queries.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

My reference was to both of you, I just didn't feel the need to multi-quote.

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Check out this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/MGy4g1qJdpo


This snake is flailing around.

I was making a suggestion. The original poster did not give us enough information. I was just trying to help a fellow hobbyist!

Oh and I have a spider with very little wobble.

You have a good day!

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Originally Posted by straightballin'

Boy do i feel like an idiot...of course you need all that info...
1. Basking side 92 cool side 84 using ut heating mat and basking bulb. Humidity about 55%. Using tank thermometers on either side and a humidity gauge in the bottom of the tank.
2. Yes cohabiting...will buff up on the proper way to do this and will separate for the time being. Husband is working on this as i type
3. Can't believe we didn't think to quarantine... thank you
4. Cleaned out 2 urine cakes, rinsed and scrubbed out water dishes with hot water and a brush designated as snake water dish scrubber. The only thing I've ever used is a bit of dawn then a thorough rinsing. Mixed substrate around and remoistened.
5. Will get a vet visit scheduled asap.
6. Will leave them be for at least a week.




Also...we use Eco-Earth coconut fiber for subtrate, have two water bowls, one on hot side one on cool side. An antler, 2 logs, a large custom built cave. In a 55 gallon tank. Supposedly they were fed a few days before we got them. Should we wait until the week of acclimation has ended before feeding?

Thank you so much for your help. I will be more thorough in future queries.

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Okay Lori - again, you are going to get a lot of opinions here so let's prioritize things:

(1) You need three enclosures - this is where the rubbermaid, iris or similar tubs (28qt or 41qt) are an economical choice.

(2) Each enclosure needs it's own heat source. All three heat sources can be controlled by one thermostat.

(3) Keep it simple for right now. Newspaper or paper towel substrate and a hide over the heating pad with a water bowl will do fine.

(4) Once the three snakes are in their own individual enclosures - do not touch them for 7 days. Don't feed them, don't hold them, don't even open the lids to look at them.

(5) Depending on how warm you keep your house, using tubs may be a problem............there are ways to compensate for this.

(6) Tank thermometers are virtually useless. Reptile Basics will sell you a nice heat gun so that you can get accurate hot spot, cool spot and ambient temps.

(7) You can get the tubs with lids at Walmart or Target. Three of them will set you back about $30. You can pick up three heating mats from any petstore and and entry level thermostat to regulate them.

All three heat mats can be run off of the one stat. The lids can be held down with binder clips.

If money is not an issue, you can run this set up until you can purchase a three drawer rack from Reptile Basics (short lead time) or Animal Plastics.

At this point, with the three snakes sharing one 55 gallon tank, quarantine may be a moot point. As I stated before, you can cohabitate adult balls, but a 55 gallon tank is too small to provide all of the necessary requirements for a pair, let alone a trio. Separate the animals and let them settle into their new homes.

At this point, don't worry about humidity. You can buy spaghnum moss from any local nursery, wet it, wring it out and place it in the hide.

Are any of these morphs or are they all normals?

If the antler has sharp prongs I would remove it immediately.

Skip has got you well covered.

My immediate thought on the behavior is that the female is a male in with another male. The behavior you described reminds me of how males will "battle". I'll see if I can find a video so that you can see if the behavior is similar.

In the meantime I'd follow Skips recommendations.

Edit - can't seem to find any videos of the behavior at the moment.

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