Ball python twitching when I touch him

[Valyndris]

I'm so worried about my little Crowley, so he shed last night and took the rest of the night off, he seemed normal, he has a bit of blood in his shed but that always happens and I hear that is normal. Today I took him out and had him in his room for a couple hours and he seemed fine. I then took him to hang out on the couch. At first it seemed like he was enjoying his massages (I don't rub hard or anything), he was even waggling his tail. It seemed like touching his neck (he doesn't usually mind getting his head or neck touched) at a certain spot made him go turbo, he would move really fast. I thought maybe he was hurt so I was barley touching him while petting him to see if he had any sore spots. He'd start moving fast anytime I touched his neck and he started twitching when I touched a spot on his back.

I necked him and he did a double twitch, like a jerking movement and he jerked pretty hard. I am so worried that he is hurt, nothing looks swollen or feels any different. I tried to get it on camera but of course he only did the twitching off camera. I put him back for the night as I don't want to hurt him anymore if he is hurting. Could it be sore muscles from being in a hide for over a week while in shed and not stretching? I was able to neck him a few more times with no twitching. He went around my hand and suddenly twitched really hard, his whole front of his body moved like half a foot away when he twitched.

Is there something really wrong with my baby? I'm just so worried, I've never seen him behave like this before. He normally loves my massages, it looked like he did at first till the twitching. Again, I don't massage hard enough to hurt him in any way and I've been doing it for years with no problems. I hope my little Crowley is okay.

[Valyndris]

Would also like to add, he hasn't eaten since July 17th, he started his winter fast early I think because he stopped eating when we got a new AC, I accidentally let the place get a bit cold one day. The temps today were normal, my hands weren't cold to make him twitch or anything. He did have his humidity at 70% for the duration of his shed and his hide was near the fogger so it was wet in there too but I figured it would be perfect for him as he was in shed mode. I didn't see any signs of RI, his nose was fine.

He was making some light hissing sounds that sounded more like exhales or quiet hisses when I was touching the spots that were making him twitchy.

[Bogertophis]

It does sound as if he's feeling some pain, possibly, from what you describe, and you know your snake better than any of us. Maybe he pulled a muscle on one
of his "missions"? Or your "massages" are not as soft as you say? No, I don't think he got sore from laying around in his hide...that's what snakes do all the time.

It's rather unusual for a snake to be "wagging their tails" too, unless it's a member of a species that does caudal luring (like copperheads or green tree pythons do).
I sure hope he's OK...bummer that he got chilled & hasn't eaten in a while too.

[Valyndris]

It does sound as if he's feeling some pain, possibly, from what you describe, and you know your snake better than any of us. Maybe he pulled a muscle on one
of his "missions"? Or your "massages" are not as soft as you say? No, I don't think he got sore from laying around in his hide...that's what snakes do all the time.

It's rather unusual for a snake to be "wagging their tails" too, unless it's a member of a species that does caudal luring (like copperheads or green tree pythons do).
I sure hope he's OK...bummer that he got chilled & hasn't eaten in a while too.

I hope he just pulled a muscle and hopefully he will be okay soon. Crowley does waggle his tail when he really likes massages but today's waggle seemed a lot faster and more like he was waving his tail around to possibly be able to push or latch on something. He's in his hide now and looks comfy.

[Valyndris]

So I went through my videos I took of Crowley last night and here are some to show how he was behaving (I can only upload one video per post so I will be posting in 3 different comments). First video, he seemed normal, he's usually extra bouncy and happy after a shed but he was moving pretty fast compared to usual.

[Valyndris]

The second video is when I started to notice something was off. It shows how I massaged him, at first I thought he was waggling his tail because he was enjoying his massages like he normally does but he was waggling a lot harder than normal and as you can see when I stroke him, he does give a few little twitches. I didn't get any of the big hard twitches on camera, just these little ones.

[Valyndris]

The third video is when I was really starting to worry, he had started doing his twitching and jerking, off camera of course. He was moving really fast like he wanted to get away from the pain or something. At this point I was only petting him very softly as I didn't want to hurt him more if he was injured. Hope these videos help to determine what's wrong.

[MarkL1561]

The third video is when I was really starting to worry, he had started doing his twitching and jerking, off camera of course. He was moving really fast like he wanted to get away from the pain or something. At this point I was only petting him very softly as I didn't want to hurt him more if he was injured. Hope these videos help to determine what's wrong.

He’s not trying to get away from pain he’s probably trying to get away from you. To me he looked completely normal. Just looked like he wanted to be left alone which is typical of snakes. They don’t like handling they tolerate it. Some days they’re more tolerant than others, don’t take it personally. Almost all reptiles are like this. Be careful anthropomorphizing your animals, it’s easier to read them when you understand how their brains actually work. Certain behaviors might look similar to a humans but they’re not similar at all. Snakes don’t like massages, they ultimately want to be left alone to... well snake I guess haha


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[MarkL1561]

The second video is when I started to notice something was off. It shows how I massaged him, at first I thought he was waggling his tail because he was enjoying his massages like he normally does but he was waggling a lot harder than normal and as you can see when I stroke him, he does give a few little twitches. I didn't get any of the big hard twitches on camera, just these little ones.

Snakes aren’t dogs smh I think your thoughtful behaviors are actually quite detrimental. Snakes don’t want to be pet/massaged. Petting a snake is only enjoyable for the human. It’s ok if the snake isn’t stressed but it’s not something that should be done often. If you want an affectionate animal invest in a pup imo I don’t mean to be rude but thinking a snake is wagging it’s tail bothers me. Colubrids will “wag” their tails but as a warning to be left alone. You might be handling him too much and he just wants peace and quiet.


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[Moose84]

Snakes aren’t dogs smh I think your thoughtful behaviors are actually quite detrimental. Snakes don’t want to be pet/massaged. Petting a snake is only enjoyable for the human. It’s ok if the snake isn’t stressed but it’s not something that should be done often. If you want an affectionate animal invest in a pup imo I don’t mean to be rude but thinking a snake is wagging it’s tail bothers me. Colubrids will “wag” their tails but as a warning to be left alone. You might be handling him too much and he just wants peace and quiet.


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If there is one thing a snake DOESN'T like it's being grabbed or restricted in any way. The snake appears to be in "flight mode" when you grab at him.. Also, if the snake were in pain you would probably be hissed at and then eventually struck at doing that over and over again... This clearly looks like a snake that is not happy about whats going on in my opinion.. I will support the sentiment that this is a snake not a cat or a dog.