Help! Snake fell!!

Ok, so please don't reprimand me I already feel horrible, but I was transferring my year and half old ball python back to her tank from her feeding tank when my son fell/dropped something in the other room and it made me jerk/jump while i was putting her back. She proceeded to 'half-fall' into the tank but part of her landed on the lip of the tank. I was able to pick her back up and gently put her all her in. Anyway, normally I would have picked her up and checked her out if such an incident had occurred, but since she just ate I was hesitant to. She was moving around fine (except quicker than usual, i think it freaked her out a bit) and is now hanging out in her hide acting pretty normal. Usually she moves around a bit more, but she did just eat and I think she is just de-stressing. Has anyone had a similar incident? Is she hurt? Should I bring her to the vet? Before she went in her hide I was looking closely at her and she doesn't seem to have any kinks or look like anything is broken? I just don't know what to do, i feel so horrible :tears:

This happened o me with a corn snake, it was really scary but the snake was okay. If anything is wrong it would take a few days to show signs of internal bleeding or other damage. After she digests some, take her out and feel her sides to see if there is anything unusual. She is probably fine.

Snakes are pretty resilient, and have good layers of muscle. Odds are you didn't seriously hurt her. Check on her every so often for the next few days just to make sure she's acting normal, but I think she'll be fine. :) After her 48-hour digestion period, take her out and let her run through your hands, putting mild pressure on her body. If she doesn't jerk back (like she was in pain) or act like any spot hurts, then there shouldn't be any reason to worry.

I would have to agree with Chloe. I'm sure it's scary, and you feel terrible but she's probably ok just keep an eye on her for the next few days.

Thanks guys, I feel much better, still bad but not horrible. She's my first snake so I'm a bit new to it all :) I will definitely keep an eye on her and check her after 48 hrs.

In the future I'd recommend just feeding her in her regular enclosure. There's absolutely no need for a separate feeding enclosure.

Yeah, I've been told many different things, but I'm trying to transition her off of live feeds right now and i don't want them peeing everywhere in here regular enclosure. But feeding with tongs in her regular enclosure is ok right? I mean do you have experience with that?

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Originally Posted by BarbieBatwings

Yeah, I've been told many different things, but I'm trying to transition her off of live feeds right now and i don't want them peeing everywhere in here regular enclosure. But feeding with tongs in her regular enclosure is ok right? I mean do you have experience with that?

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Absolutely. My Ball had a thing where she wouldn't swallow the prey if it had bedding on it; if this is something that pops up or you're afraid of them eating bedding, just place down paper towels and move your BP on to them, then feed. My girl actually got to the point where if I put a paper towel down anywhere in her tank, she'd go and sit on it herself, expecting food. :P

Ehh reminds me of those snakes that climb trees...many times they eventually drop down to the ground...i couldn't imagine climbing down a tree with no arms or legs haha!

Balls are really good at falling any distance up to their own body length. Landing on the lip of the tank maybe could hurt them, but it doesn't sound like she feel that far, and it sounds like she was only a bit startled.

Give her a day off and watch for a regurgitation. If the food stays down, you can assume she's fine.

If she hisses at you the next several times you pick her up, then she probably did get a little hurt or scared by the fall. (I had an enchi fall off from around my shoulders when she was a baby. She hissed at me for two or three years afterwards.) It's okay to handle a snake that hisses when you pick them up, but it does mean that she's (understandably) worried about being dropped again. It takes a while to rebuild trust.

No hissing = no trauma.

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Originally Posted by xFenrir

Absolutely. My Ball had a thing where she wouldn't swallow the prey if it had bedding on it; if this is something that pops up or you're afraid of them eating bedding, just place down paper towels and move your BP on to them, then feed. My girl actually got to the point where if I put a paper towel down anywhere in her tank, she'd go and sit on it herself, expecting food. :P

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Be very careful with paper towels. If a prey item sticks to the paper and gets ingested, it is MUCH more fatal than a few pieces of substrate. I never let my rats gets wet, so bedding doesn't stick to them.

My ball python has crawled, and in turn fallen, off my bed a couple times (on to carpet), and one time decided he was tired of holding onto my arm, went slack, and dropped onto the kitchen floor. A lot of snakes like to climb, and the great thing about animals that can climb, is they can also fall. And like xFenrir said, they have large amounts of muscle, so the odds off any amount of damage being done is very slim.

Salem took a dive off the bed and landed on the ground with a thud once. It scared me, but he was more shocked then anything. The spinal column of a snake is very flexible and resilient. As stated above, the best idea is to feel along her ribs and make sure none of them were broken. If she fell more then two feet then you might want to do a thorough inspection.

Though I do not AT ALL agree with not separating her for food. If she's a pet this is a must because she'll start to expect food IN HER TANK. My friend feeds her snakes in her tank, and at first they were really friendly animals, now they almost always strike unless she gets them out with a snake hook. It's better safe then sorry in the end. Another thing is, is her enclosure always retains the scent of the rat.
I've always fed my boys in a container, and it's trained them to know to expect food when they're in it, which almost immediately causes a feeding reaction even with the mouse still under the heat lamp 14 feet away. It's something that helps exercise good feeding habits and keep your hands bite free. :)

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Originally Posted by MorbidWolfess

Though I do not AT ALL agree with not separating her for food. If she's a pet this is a must because she'll start to expect food IN HER TANK. My friend feeds her snakes in her tank, and at first they were really friendly animals, now they almost always strike unless she gets them out with a snake hook. It's better safe then sorry in the end. Another thing is, is her enclosure always retains the scent of the rat.
I've always fed my boys in a container, and it's trained them to know to expect food when they're in it, which almost immediately causes a feeding reaction even with the mouse still under the heat lamp 14 feet away. It's something that helps exercise good feeding habits and keep your hands bite free. :)

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It is absolutely a myth that feeding in the enclosure causes cage aggression. Our collection is a pretty decent size (at the peak of hatching season it is usually around 200 BPs). We feed everyone in their tubs and have no issues with anybody being aggressive. If you think about it, it makes sense. Everyone's tub gets opened once a day at a minimum (sometimes more if we are checking for locks/eggs), so one out of 7+ tub openings leads to food. Plus, if you feed outside of the enclosure, you then have to move a snake that is in feeding mode, which increases the chances of being bitten. Another thing- if snakes really did make such a strong association with regards to where their food comes from, moving them to feed them probably wouldn't help anyway. They would just learn that being taken out means that food is coming and become aggressive when they were removed from their enclosures.

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Originally Posted by FireStorm

It is absolutely a myth that feeding in the enclosure causes cage aggression. Our collection is a pretty decent size (at the peak of hatching season it is usually around 200 BPs). We feed everyone in their tubs and have no issues with anybody being aggressive. If you think about it, it makes sense. Everyone's tub gets opened once a day at a minimum (sometimes more if we are checking for locks/eggs), so one out of 7+ tub openings leads to food. Plus, if you feed outside of the enclosure, you then have to move a snake that is in feeding mode, which increases the chances of being bitten. Another thing- if snakes really did make such a strong association with regards to where their food comes from, moving them to feed them probably wouldn't help anyway. They would just learn that being taken out means that food is coming and become aggressive when they were removed from their enclosures.

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It's what worked for me, and the consequences of when my friend did not do it. When your a breeder you don't HANDLE each and every snake every day, on top of which feeding in the enclosure causes territorial habits. I just explained what worked with me and what didn't work for my friend, I fully support the method and I'd prefer not to have fingers pointed at me as if to say I'm wrong. People do stuff different ways, because I own them as pets and I prefer to have a controlled environment for my pets, I do it my way and I say what I do and do not support and why.

I'm sure as a breeder you don't particularly worry about this problem, but that's not going to change my opinions or stop me from doing it. So don't point fingers at me saying "You're wrong" when I like what I do and I think I have reasonable reason to do them.

[QUOTE][/It's what worked for me, and the consequences of when my friend did not do it. When your a breeder you don't HANDLE each and every snake every day, on top of which feeding in the enclosure causes territorial habits.QUOTE]

I'm not 100% sure I follow you here. Are you saying my snakes are more territorial because they are not handled every day? Because that certainly isn't the case at all. Even our maternally incubating females are pretty easy to deal with.

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I'm sure as a breeder you don't particularly worry about this problem, but that's not going to change my opinions or stop me from doing it. So don't point fingers at me saying "You're wrong" when I like what I do and I think I have reasonable reason to do them.

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It's not that I don't worry about cage aggression. It's not happening. Feeding in their enclosure isn't making them aggressive. And yes, if you are giving out information that I have found from experience to be inaccurate, I will point out why I find it to be incorrect. Over and over, I've encountered new keepers who are frustrated because their new snake won't eat and they've read/heard that they need to feed in a separate enclosure. It's a bit frustrating to see this myth keep going because I have seen it cause unnecessary stress for snakes and their keepers.

If it works for you, fine, keep doing it. What bothers me is that you are telling people their snake will ​become aggressive if it is fed in the enclosure. It is not true. FWIW, I am not doubting that your friend's snakes are aggressive. I'm just doubting that feeding in the enclosure caused it, because I have done it with a pretty large group of animals over a long period of time and have seen no correlation between feeding in the enclosure and aggression.

[QUOTE=FireStorm;2066956]

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[/It's what worked for me, and the consequences of when my friend did not do it. When your a breeder you don't HANDLE each and every snake every day, on top of which feeding in the enclosure causes territorial habits.QUOTE]

I'm not 100% sure I follow you here. Are you saying my snakes are more territorial because they are not handled every day? Because that certainly isn't the case at all. Even our maternally incubating females are pretty easy to deal with.




It's not that I don't worry about cage aggression. It's not happening. Feeding in their enclosure isn't making them aggressive. And yes, if you are giving out information that I have found from experience to be inaccurate, I will point out why I find it to be incorrect. Over and over, I've encountered new keepers who are frustrated because their new snake won't eat and they've read/heard that they need to feed in a separate enclosure. It's a bit frustrating to see this myth keep going because I have seen it cause unnecessary stress for snakes and their keepers.

If it works for you, fine, keep doing it. What bothers me is that you are telling people their snake will ​become aggressive if it is fed in the enclosure. It is not true. FWIW, I am not doubting that your friend's snakes are aggressive. I'm just doubting that feeding in the enclosure caused it, because I have done it with a pretty large group of animals over a long period of time and have seen no correlation between feeding in the enclosure and aggression.

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I'm warning them that it's a possibility and I've seen it happen. It's completely up to the person whether or not they would like to continue or discontinue, however I just want to give my two cents. Please do not argue with me on it anymore. You're not the only one with some amount of experience, I'm stating what works for me and what didn't work for my friend. I'm saying that they can become territorial when given a larger expanse of 'territory' to play with when it comes to food. In the wild if the snake finds a territory with a decent supply of sustenance, they tend to get territorial and will defend it.
You can stop arguing with me now, we get it. You have your opinion, I have mine. What bothers me is you're pointing fingers at me, and I've previously told you I disliked it and asked you to stop.

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Originally Posted by MorbidWolfess

I'm warning them that it's a possibility and I've seen it happen. It's completely up to the person whether or not they would like to continue or discontinue, however I just want to give my two cents. Please do not argue with me on it anymore. You're not the only one with some amount of experience, I'm stating what works for me and what didn't work for my friend. I'm saying that they can become territorial when given a larger expanse of 'territory' to play with when it comes to food. In the wild if the snake finds a territory with a decent supply of sustenance, they tend to get territorial and will defend it.
You can stop arguing with me now, we get it. You have your opinion, I have mine. What bothers me is you're pointing fingers at me, and I've previously told you I disliked it and asked you to stop.

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If you don't like people giving their opinions on your opinions why did you even respond? Just because one friend of yours has aggressive snakes and she happens to feed in enclosure doesn't mean that feeding in enclosure is causing the aggression. Her husbandry could be off. Thousands and thousands of people have snakes and a lot of them feed in enclosure. I've never not fed in enclosure and sometimes they don't get handled every day or every few days because stuff happens and I've yet to have one strike at all. My female normal, if I did try to pick her up while she's in feeding mode, would bite me. Call that cage aggression if you want, but I call it a feeding response and I"m damn happy about it.

I feed all my snakes in their enclosure and none are cage aggressive. However, have rodents nearby and they go into feed mode. It's not the enclosure, or seperate feeding container, that makes them hungry or "aggressive". It's the smell of rodents.

I breed a lot of rats in the same room as my balls and a few can see the rats all day. I don't have any aggressive pythons and all but my breeders eat great. I only handle them on cleaning day to move them to the holding tub. I do open their tubs everyday to check on them.

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I feed all of my snakes in their own enclosures and have rats in the same room. None of my snakes are aggressive or have struck at anything other than a feeder. It doesn't matter if someone is a breeder, hobbyist, or pet owner. :rolleyes:

Clearly the 'friend with aggressive snakes' has something else going on. Its probably not the fact they're being fed in their enclosure that is the issue.....
Or just bad luck .....

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X2 on feeding in enclosure. I've always fed all my balls in their enclosure and not one is aggressive. The only snake I move is my corn, and that's mainly out of fear he'll eat substrate. He eats voraciously so the move doesn't really bother him.

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Hey guys, thanks for all the info again, I'm pretty sure after I switch from live I will be feeding her right in her enclosure (I will also be getting her a bigger one because her current one is almost too small anyway). But I figured I'd give you guys an update just if you were wondering, she kept down her food so I handled her as soon as the 48 hrs were up (and she was awake because I didn't want to rush anything). She is definitely still a bit startled or just not as confident in me handling her as before but did not hiss or strike or anything. I felt along most of her and everything seems to be fine, but I'm still going to be pretty careful and keep checking her for the next few days. Thank you all so much again :)