Please Help! Newby Owner, I think my snake may be sick???

I am a new snake owner. Actually to be technically correct my Kids are new snake owners I am just the person who ended up taking care of them :)

My daughters 1 year old female Ball Python started acting weird the past two days. She randomly twitches and has been doing everything from laying in the water bowl for long periods of time, to rubbing her nose against the inside of the water bowl and cage in addition to lifting her head up in the air in a strange sort of way. Kinda like she is lost. On another note we have had her almost 3 weeks and she still will not eat. We have been giving her the same thing her previous owner did, Live mice. The other Ball python has ate one mouse. We bought them at the same time from two different owners but they both came from the same store. I know that is confusing.....


Tank layout consist of the following: 30 gallon terrarium with a one gallon capacity rock style water bowl and two hiding places, one half log and one rock formation. Bedding is a reptile approved white pine chip. For lighting we have one night red reptile lamp and one daylight reptile lamp that we use in their respective times. Cage temp stays around 85 degrees and we try to keep the humidity above 70%. The humidity did drop down to near 50% the past two days (about the time she started acting funny) as our humid-stat was malfunctioning and we had to replace.

Thank you for your time.

70% is a little high first off for me personally. I keep mine at 50% and bump to around 55 or 60 for shedding.

Second off my guess with the soaking excessively and weird movement is MITES. Take everything out, clean the enclosure and get PAM (Provent-A-Mite) and spray the cage down. Wait 45 minutes and put everything back in with paper towels and the water bowl and hide washed.

Good luck! Hope this helps a little bit.

Thanks for the humidity tip. That is just what we were told to do. Can I get PAM at any pet store? Also forgive my ignorance but I am not sure what "put everything back in with paper towels and the water bowl and hide washed" means???

I think he means to put paper towels down instead of bedding, and wash everything so it won't have any mites on it.

Got ya. Where can I purchase the PAM???

Call local pet stores, see if they have some. If not order it online.

One last question, if she has mites and I do have to order it online. I probably will not get here for a week or so, will she die? Do I need to take her to the vet?

You'll need to order Provent-A-Mite (PAM) on-line. Lots of places can get it to you pretty quickly. I have never heard of a snake dying from mites while the owner was waiting for PAM to be delivered. :)

Do you see little tiny black dots (looks like a poppy seed) in her water bowl where she was soaking or on her body, especially around her eyes or on the underside of her jaw? If so, mites are probably the answer.

While you're waiting for the PAM, you might try one of the other remedies out there such as soaking her in a warm bath (water same temp as her cage). Mites are not supposed to be able to swim so most of them will drown. Make sure you pour water over her while she is soaking so the little buggers don't crawl up on her back and live. That only solves half the problem though. The other problem is the mites in her cage. While she is soaking, take the cage outside and thoroughly clean it and her furniture (hide, water bowls, etc.) with hot water with a bit of dish detergent and bleach. Make sure you get in all the crevises. Rinse very well and then dry it out. As mentioned before, use paper towels on the bottom of the cage instead of the white pine chip bedding. By the time the PAM gets to you, you'll be ready for round two . . . the baby mites will probably have hatched and you'll need to follow the directions on the can of PAM. It is vry effective but you might have to retreat one or twice. You also need to treat your other ball python with PAM to make sure the mites don't jump to it. In addition, the area around her cage should be sprayed with the PAM when you get it.

BTW, many snakes do not eat if they have mites. Also, her not eating could be just her adjusting to the new home. Since she is 1 year old, the not eating shouldn't be a big problem unless it goes on for more than a few months.

Good luck and let us know how she does.

You mentioned that the other snake ate once, so I just wanted to double-check with you that the snakes at not in the same cage. If so, the other one will need to be treated for sure and then they need to be housed separately (for life). Even if they aren't, you did buy them at the same location, so it would probably be wise to treat both snakes and both tanks anyway.

Good luck with the little critters, they make great pets!

Robbin

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Originally Posted by jnettrecker

I am a new snake owner. Actually to be technically correct my Kids are new snake owners I am just the person who ended up taking care of them :)

My daughters 1 year old female Ball Python started acting weird the past two days. She randomly twitches and has been doing everything from laying in the water bowl for long periods of time, to rubbing her nose against the inside of the water bowl and cage in addition to lifting her head up in the air in a strange sort of way. Kinda like she is lost. On another note we have had her almost 3 weeks and she still will not eat. We have been giving her the same thing her previous owner did, Live mice. The other Ball python has ate one mouse. We bought them at the same time from two different owners but they both came from the same store. I know that is confusing.....


Tank layout consist of the following: 30 gallon terrarium with a one gallon capacity rock style water bowl and two hiding places, one half log and one rock formation. Bedding is a reptile approved white pine chip. For lighting we have one night red reptile lamp and one daylight reptile lamp that we use in their respective times. Cage temp stays around 85 degrees and we try to keep the humidity above 70%. The humidity did drop down to near 50% the past two days (about the time she started acting funny) as our humid-stat was malfunctioning and we had to replace.

Thank you for your time.

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Everyone has gotten it pretty clear about the whole PAM thing.

As for another issue, PLEASE get the snake off of pine and put her on aspen or newspaper. Newspapers may be a good idea to watch for mites, but even after that don't use pine. Even if it's approved, it's not a safe substrate for snakes.

Is your snake a young snake? If she's tiny, she may not be eating because her enclosure is much too large. A 30g tank is only good for an adult breeder size ball python. It's much too much space for a baby and will probably make it feel insecure.
Do you have 2 tight hides on each side of the enclosure? Make sure they're not log hides and that there is no space between the snake and the hide when the snake is inside of it.
What have you been trying to feed? Make sure to feed something about the same thickness as the thickest point on the body. If your trying to feed f/t, try live. If your trying mice, try rats. Etc.

Yes, it is also very important to have the snakes separate, for multiple health and unsafe reasons. As well as stress on both of them.

:]

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Originally Posted by jnettrecker

Bedding is a reptile approved white pine chip.

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Pine has been known to kill reptiles. it needs to be processed to remove oils. its best if you avoid it and use aspen or something else.. until your snake is better I would only use paper towels. Don't treat for mites unless you actually have mites..

she could just be going into shed too

Unless you see mites, she's probably just shedding, and TAKE HER OFF PINE!!! Get aspen or papertowels or newspaper, just take her off the pine:weirdface

They are together? Is that not good? I don't have room for two tanks ect.... what is the harm in keeping them together? They lay together all the time? I will take them off of the pine tonight. Her eyes are clear not cloudy like when they are gonna shed.

Two snakes should not be housed together unless you're breeding them. The concept is that when you house them together, you double your troubles. One snake gets sick, they both get sick. You don't know which snake just defecated. Snakes are normally a solitary animal.

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Originally Posted by jnettrecker

They are together? Is that not good? I don't have room for two tanks ect.... what is the harm in keeping them together? They lay together all the time? I will take them off of the pine tonight. Her eyes are clear not cloudy like when they are gonna shed.

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When you see one snake laying on the other it's not 'cuddling', but instead its one on top being dominant and the other becoming stressed out.

One gets sick, the other gets sick.

There's always the possibility of cannibalism.

If they are two males, they could fight.

If they are male and female, and they breed too early, the female could be killed because she is underweight.

Ball pythons are solitary animals. They don't live together in the wild and are stressed when around each other. You don't want your animals to be stressed.

Here's a solution. Since the 30 gallon is much too large for baby ball pythons in the first place, divide it with a piece of plexiglass or a piece of thin plastic that is cut down to size. You can probably get either pretty easily at any department/ home works store.

:]

this also might help. after you soak the snake hold the head of the snake with one hand and check under the head mites like to go in between the scales. if you see any scales litfed, with a tooth pick cafefully pick out the mites. I also use a very little vasaline and put it on the snakes eyes(another hiding spot for mites) this will kill any mites hiding in the eye caps.

Hope this helps.