Is he hungry? And is it ok if he falls on his head?

I was feeding my snake every Friday, but he started schizing out on Thursdays so I figured he was hungry and fed him a day early then just kept feeding him on Thursdays. But now he's schizing on Wednesdays, like trying to escape from his cage ALL DAY without sleeping or resting at all, constantly moving around like he's hunting. It's crazy he climbs up to the lid and tries to pop it off, and every time he falls on his head or on his back and just gets up and does it again, is this dangerous? Because sometimes he jumps off the bed too... But anyways I thought that ball pythons were supposed to be hard to feed is it possible taht he is like starving if I don't feed him every five or six days?

are we talking a hatchling, sub-adult or adult?

He "jumps" off the bed? :confused:


Seriously though - are you not watching him when he's on the bed to allow him to get that close to the edge?

He's not going to starve to death keeping with the once a week schedule. Pick a day and stick with with! :)

with any snake u should never leave them open to scenario's where an animal can fall any great distance, u shoul dhave a pillow or towel below them and hold them over that and close to the towel etc. With reference to falling on his head, why dont u stand on a 6ft wall and aim head first at the floor?!?!? Sorry without meaning to sound rude because I am far from it, I am just a bit passionate on animal welfare! U shoudl see some of the animals i get, I had a corn that came to me 2 years ago that had broken its neck falling from a bed so I get touchy!! please just understand the message not the way I have written it!

How does your snake fall from the bed why do u not have better control of your pet?


Thanks a lot!




Peter

He will be fine. IMO it is pretty normal for them to be more active a day or two before actual feeding day. All of my snakes get active just before feeding day. I think it is best to pick a day and stick to it. If he were in the wild, he would not be getting a meal on demand muchless on the same day of every week... bp's are opportunistic feeders and will feed heavily when given the chance because they never know when thier next meal will come..but in captivity, b/c they get fed usually on a schedule, they are actually eating a heck of alot more than they would in the wild. No worries.

The falling you are describing is normal, mine all do it at some point when they are climbing and let go or lose balance...no worries there. They really are tougher than we give them credit for.

One time when I had my snakes in the bathroom (yes, I take them into the bathroom when im taking a shower. They love to climb the towel racks in there! k? :laughing: ) and my girlie fell from the shower rod. I felt SOOO bad, but she was okay. We don't go into the bathroom much together anymore...
Also, when i had em in a 55 gallon, on the top there is piece of plastic in the middle to hold a hood for a fish tank. They would clmb up to that and fall. I seriously think they did it out of entertainment. It was every flippin night, and it was loud! *THUD* *THUD* *THUD* aaaallllll night.

Sooo, your snake should be okay, just watch where heshe is going on the bed, to avoid avoidable damage!
and i have absolutly no comment on the feeding issue :confuse:

Um, goldenburm??? Need a valium??? Calm down... I just moved into my apartment the 'bed' I'm referring to is a double high blow up mattress... I was just using that as an example. The fall that I'm really worried about is when he climbs to the top of his tank and falls down. Like dizziedoll said, my point is that it does seem like he does it on purpose. And I've just never seen him be awake and active constantly like he was yesterday- he was definitely going through some things:) Oh, he is a sub-adult. Oh and if you think me letting him slide down the side of a plastic bed is animal abuse, let me tell you how he is alive right now. The person we rescued him from had him and another snake. He put them both in one tank with two live mice and said "Whoever doesn't eat dies." As you've heard, Hissler is always very hungry so he ate both mice... and his brother got chopped in half and was left in the tank with Hissler for a few hours. He probably needs snake therapy after that...

Rick and I call it the Mouse Dance...call it good feeding response insurance. =)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HisslersMommy

and his brother got chopped in half and was left in the tank with Hissler for a few hours. He probably needs snake therapy after that...

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What?????? Can you please explain why his brother was chopped in half? And if done on purpose, was the person who did this reported to animal control?

Yea isn't it horrible? In another post, I was saying how when my boyfriend found Hissler he was in the guys garage packed away with boxes and stuff and it was like freezing at night and very hot in the day and he hadn't eaten for months... The guy is very immature I guess he thought it would be fun to cut a snake in half... No I didn't report him we weren't there when it happened we just heard about it from someone who was. I don't think anyone really cared either the snakes are like toys to them.

How sad and sick that is! Glad you're boyfriend rescued Hissler and please don't take offence at Peter's concern. He's a very dedicated rescuer and sometimes our passion for the hurt creatures of this world just comes out strongly.

Our snakes are fed Thursday night after dark. They often start lurking (peeking out their hides intently) or searching their enclosures sometime on Wednesday. I think it's okay...gives them a bit of mental and physical stimulation and primes them for when the food does come. They all have strong feeding responses so I figure why fix what ain't broke LOL.

If you're concerned that he's agitated or is hungry earlier in the week...you could try upping his prey size slightly or offering two smaller prey items on his feeding night. Also you can add some loosely balled up newspaper to this enclosure. It's not pretty but it's a tried and true trick for calming a nervous or stressed snake.

~~Jo~~

What horrible people there are in this world - he is lucky you got him now :) And the newspaper trick really does work, strange as it sounds (I learnt that here too).

thanks everybody for your advice... i fed him yesterday and he was still hyper right after he ate so it wasn't that he was hungry. I made him a doctors appointment so hopefully he's all good.

Im sorry, but I keep cracking up everytime I read this thread title :( not that its funny that a snake is falling on its head, but just how it is worded :)

I'm retarded ;P I tend to blurt (and type) things out without thinking about it and all I could think is "WHY does this crazy snake like to jump off of things, and WHY does he keep doing it if he always lands head first?" Constantly, all I hear from his tank is FLOP! THUD! SMACK! I feel like he's going to get brain damage. Yesterday he even crawled up the side of the bathtub where he was swimming and then slid back down head first