Why Did My Ball Pythons Die?

It had barely been two weeks after I got my second Ball Python that I'd found him dead in his cage. Not long after that I got a new one. And just now I opened her tank to fill her water bowl and saw she wasn't moving. Surprise surprise: dead. It had only been a few weeks since she had eaten. I gave her two weeks after getting her to herself. I didn't want to stress her too much so I didn't take her out of the tank at all for those 2 weeks. At the end of those two weeks I tried feeding her. She wouldn't eat. To my knowledge that's normal after getting a new snake. My first one wouldn't eat until a few weeks after I got her. I was going to feed her tomorrow beings today was Thursday. I had only taken her out of her tank every several days. I made sure to keep her tank at the proper humidity and temperature. I just have no idea why they died. My first one died by accident. She'd never had any trouble aside from me accidentally suffocating her in my sleep.
I'm not going to get another snake beings I'm clearly unfit to do so. I just want to know what I did wrong.

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Originally Posted by Slurp

She'd never had any trouble aside from me accidentally suffocating her in my sleep.

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Without specific information on what your snakes' enclosure setups were, including temperature, humidity, hides/decorations, size of enclosure, etc, it's going to be hard to provide useful feedback. That said, the part of your post I quoted seems like something worth asking questions about. How exactly did you suffocate a snake while you were sleeping, and what circumstances led to it being possible to do so?

I fell asleep and rolled over on her.

I'm sorry for your losses. :(

Just want to make sure I'm following you had your first snake who passed away from the accident when you fell asleep, then you purchased a second who does unexpectedly in his cage within 2 weeks of purchase and now you have just lost your third?

More exact details on your husbandry would be very helpful. Also where did you purchase the 2nd and 3rd snake from? Where they housed in the same enclosure? What type of disinfecting did you do to the habit and items between snakes 2 and 3?

If you still have the body it may be worth it to you to have a necropsy done. Anything we tell you is going to be pure speculation.

Weird. I can't think of anything that would kill them that quickly except extreme heat or cold, or pesticides/other poisons. Yes, let us know all the parameters of the enclosure and how you cared for them, etc.

So how many snakes has it been since 06-24-2016, three?

Every time you post every-time you post that there is a new dead snake, so I am starting to wonder if you are just trolling for attention or really having the worse luck I have ever seen. :confusd:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ied-Last-Night

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Slow-and-Lazy

If you are trolling I would recommend that you stop

If you are indeed having one dead snake after another in just 2.5 months, I would suggest that you no longer buy any snake until you do little more research, know when to seek medical help and are willing to do a necropsy when an animal die.

NO ONE can answer your question as to why, but my guess is it's not an issue with the animal itself.

Where do you get your rats? What are your temps? What do you clean with? Where do you purchase your snakes?

I don't see why any one would "troll" about something like this. All I've ever done here is ask for help and vent. Normally people would "troll" for giggles. I don't see anything funny about what I've posted.
And I've already said I'm not going to purchase another one. And I have done all the research. I was on the internet looking at countless different websites MONTHS before I got my first. I know where to keep the temperature and humidity, I know substrate to use. I know how long they can go without food or water. I know what to do and not to do when they shed and all of the signs if they are about to shed. Everything I'm doing for my snakes is exactly like any other snake owner. I could write out a perfect care sheet from memory. Apparently just owning them is enough for them to magically drop dead in their tanks. And beings snakes can't stand to be alive around me, I'm not getting any more. And that also means that this thread is the last you'll see of me.

Sometimes doing research doesn't work. . .if you found the wrong information :/. Specifics?

^^^^what willowy said. You say that you have done everything correctly, but not one word about what you believe to be correct. These are not hard animals to keep. Something is very wrong. If your husbandry is correct you either have the worlds worst luck, you are buying sick animals, or there is something in the environment that you are not aware of that is making your animals very sick.

I’ll bite

Can you post a pictures of the enclosure?

And than describe how you kept them? (temps humidity, enclosure size, thermostat used, thermometer used, hide used, substrate used etc). How much they weigh when purchased, how long they remained without food, etc

Also can you explain why you still have not had a necropsy done because if you keep them PERFECTLY than obviously you should want to know what is going on when 1 than 2 died? in such little amount of time, I know I would.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slurp

I fell asleep and rolled over on her.

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That much was apparent from your previous post. My question was why and how that was allowed to occur. If you're tired or sleepy or just not interested in paying attention to the snake, it's time to put it back in its enclosure. Even apart from suffocation/crush injury possibilities, you were creating an escape opportunity, which was irresponsible at best.

As others have said, you keep saying your husbandry was perfect, but you're not providing any actual data. Nobody can help you without real knowledge of your setup. Also, did you clean & disinfect the enclosure you were using before getting a new snake? If the first one was sick, it could have left behind whatever was making it sick, and as soon as you put a new animal in that cage, boom, new infection. Without knowing what you actually did, though, all anyone here can do is speculate.

Yea it all just doesn't seem to add up. Post the info so we can possibly help.

Seeing all 3 posts now and piecing it all together I'm curious about the husbandry myself as well as where the particular animals were purchased whether a breeder or a big box store.


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Was the snake that just passed away using same cage, decorations, hides, anything that the one previous passed away was using? If so and you did not properly clean everything the first one may of had something that killed this one as well.

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I'm very sorry to hear about your snakes. :(
My first thought is that if the same housing was used for each of these snakes then there could be something wrong with the cleaning and maintenance. Maybe it is contaminated with something and/or maybe it wasn't cleaned properly after losing a snake. I'm grasping a straws here, in your mind you will be able to sort through this and figure out what went wrong. Review all you've read on proper care and read other sources of this info to help you figure it out. It will give you some peace. Did you buy them all from the same breeder? There are so many factors to consider here to determine why this happened.
I spend about 2 months reading about keeping a BP and I read every day before I bought my snake. I know there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Better judgement must prevail in the end.