New ball arrived frozen - thawed back to life

Sorry for the long post but believe it or not, this is 100% true.

Id be lying to you if I said I was shocked or surprised, but Im not. This has happened to me before with an amazon green tree frog. Im curious if anyone else has experienced something like this before.

In a freak occurance, I received a 500 gram ball python this morning that appeared dead, frozen solid as a rock. No signs of life whatsoever, just coiled up and rock hard cold. It couldnt even be uncoiled. It was hard enough that it almost seemed possible to snap the snake in half. I was really bummed out and sad for the little guy. I even emailed the sender that it was DOA.

However, although the snake was obviously dead, it was not limp as one would expect. Due to being cold and apparently frozen, I figured "what the hell, lets put him in a tub over the heat tape to see what happens". Sure enough, two hours later, he's resurrected and crawling around his new tub like nothing ever happened.

Back when I was a kid, my green tree frog was left in the car for an hour in cold weather. When I came back, it was frozen solid laying on its back. An hour in my hands under the cars defroster and he was as good as new again.

It seems there is a fine line where certain reptiles can go into a sort of hibernation to survive a brief cold surge. I imagine this sort of slows their heart rate to save itself. Amazing creatures I must say!

wow man thats awsome. you gotta take a picture of the magic snake..

I once had a baby ball python in my car in the winter that had no signs of life at all. It wasn't frozen solid, but it was completely lifeless and dead looking. I could roll him over on his back and there was no movement at all, I opened his mouth and it just stayed open with his tongue hanging out. I figured he was gone but just in case, I stuck him in a tub in my rack and checked on him the next morning. He was up and cruising around and even fed for me right away. Don't ever count these guys out, they can really surprise you.

^ for reals? Man thats crazy to hear its happened to others before. My wife was freaking out that it came back to life like that. She told me that I cant ever get rid of it because its "lucky" haha.

Somewhat similar story for RDR's Platy.

http://www.ralphdavisreptiles.com/co...all_python.asp

thats crazyy

Oh yeah thats very similar to RDR's story, crazy! Thanks for the link.

Somebody else had a story of a snake being froze in a block of ice, and coming back and doing fine. Don't recall who posted it or where, just remember seeing it.

Nothing is dead until its warm and dead.

In the field we are using new techniques that actually put cardiac arrest patients into induced hypothermia and the results are shocking. The survival rate increases dramatically.

glade to heat it ok , i know my black rat was a fighter when i aquired her via stepping on her and breaking her back (2/3 limp) i figured would die well shee took 6 months but she just anormal snake with out any kink or sign she broke any thing. It was late winter so I had to keep her and she been with me every since.

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Originally Posted by FIREball

Nothing is dead until its warm and dead.

In the field we are using new techniques that actually put cardiac arrest patients into induced hypothermia and the results are shocking. The survival rate increases dramatically.

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That's what happened to my nieces fiance. 20 year old kid, his heart stopped while playing ultimate frisbee with some friends. Nobody knew what the heck they were doing until the paramedics got there 20 minutes later so he had no CPR. They were able to get his heart going again, but he was in a coma. They airlifted him to Rochester Mayo and they cooled his core temperature down really far and left him that way for a while. Then when they brought his temperature up again he came out of the coma. He's alive today which is pretty miraculous, unfortunately that's a awful long time for the brain to be without oxygen and he suffered substantial brain damage. He'll have to be on 24 hour care for the rest of his life so in retrospect I'm not sure it was a kindness to bring him back. But it was pretty amazing at the time.

I've heard of someone's BP being ressurected too

The same exact thing happened to me in October when I ordered my 08 pastel. He was hard as a rock and colied in a ball. A couple hours under my mom's arm with a heat pad and he finally immerged from his coils. I was working at the time and was so relieved to hear he was okay...reptiles are incredible survivors.

Imagine if you defrosted a mouse and it started running around!

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Originally Posted by Oroborous

reptiles are incredible survivors.

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Yet they will get a cold if their ambient temp falls below 70. :rofl:

Still though, amazing stories from everyone. :O

wow crazy stories, i wonder if there are any stories of people who left their reptiles in their cars when it was hot and they survived.

My burm that I used to have came back to life like that. When I was stationed in Monterey I met some Air Force dude that had a burm, and seeing as how I just bought a corn snake I figured we could chat. Turns out he got mad when it bit him so he threw it outside the window. Now this was January in Monterey CA so it got to about 36 that night. I was at his house the day after he threw her out the window and I was in shock so I asked where it was and he pointed outside to this 6ft burm on its back stretched out and lifeless. I brought it inside and stuck it in a luke warm bath and within minutes this beautiful burm came back to life and started cruising, and stopped to give me a quick hiss. I took her and the whole setup off his hands immediately and took her home. Week later she had an RI, went to the vet and cured her real quick. She lived with me till she hit 8ft and we were having a baby. Amazing creatures, snakes are.

I beleive your snake is a master at "playing dead"

Great story, that is amazing! I would have never guessed that this is relatively common D:

I had heard a story like that with a BP and someone's power going out while on a vacation. I discounted it based on the reputation of the person for telling tall tales but hey maybe it is possible.

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

I beleive your snake is a master at "playing dead"

Great story, that is amazing! I would have never guessed that this is relatively common D:

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well, I doubt that it's 'common' and I would imagine that the longer they're in a torpid state, the more chance they have of never coming around again. But I think for short periods of time they can survive colder temps then are commonly believed. It would be interesting to know how cold they actually were, I doubt that actual freezing temperatures where ice crystals would form were involved .

Scorpions can be frozen for a day and revive.:gj:

thats crazy I didnt think an ectotherm could survive something like that. Snakes are amazing creatures good story!

Wow!

It kind of makes sense though; the body will go to great lengths for self-preservation when in shock. That's awesome though. Maybe you could try to sell him a cryogenically frozen snake? haha.

What kind of BP was it?

Just curious, how did it freeze during shipping?

Well, it is summer, and from your member info, you live in California. I doubt that it could have been cold enough for the snake to freeze to death.

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Originally Posted by elevenphoenix

What kind of BP was it?

Just curious, how did it freeze during shipping?

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Originally Posted by Wh00h0069

Well, it is summer, and from your member info, you live in California. I doubt that it could have been cold enough for the snake to freeze to death.

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Its a normal 100% het pied male. And yes, I am in sunny southern california so the fact that it was practically solid cold baffles me. I have no clue how it got so cold. A cold pack was not used in shipping. I assume it must have been a cold morning in Ontario.

Package Progress:

It was picked up by UPS and stayed in Springfield, MO until about 10:30pm. Current local temps are highs in mid 90s and lows in mid 70s.

It got to Louisville, KY around 12:50am and was there til 3:30am. Current local temps are highs around 90 and lows around 70.

It arrived in Ontario, CA at 4:36am and remained there for 2 hours before being "out for delivery". Temps at that time were highs around 85 and lows around 65.

Moral of the story: If you get a cold lifeless snake, dont count it out, heat that sucker up slowly!

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Originally Posted by Wh00h0069

Well, it is summer, and from your member info, you live in California. I doubt that it could have been cold enough for the snake to freeze to death.

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The unpressurized cargo hold of a jet can get VERY COLD when flying at 30 thousand feet which is why insulation is so very important.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

The unpressurized cargo hold of a jet can get VERY COLD when flying at 30 thousand feet which is why insulation is so very important.

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Thanks for this post. Maybe this is a clue as to why. The box was insulated well in regards to having styrofoam lining the walls. However, about 4 holes a bit larger then a pen were poked thru the box and styrofoam. I know this is commonly done to "vent" the box but in my experience, they are not needed as boxes are not air-tight and holes only cause a loss of the insulation protection. Also, there was not very much newspaper surrounding the snake for added insulation.