corn "freaking out"

[icygirl]

I just had the weirdest experience. I'm standing in my living room and all of a sudden I hear this banging noise. I look over and my adult corn snake, Jake, is moving REALLY fast, frantically, all around his tank, I mean really freaking out. I have never seen him do anything like that before. It's almost like something spooked him, but there is nothing unusual around that could have scared him!! My first thought was that one of the branches in his tank fell on him and he freaked, but the branches all look to be in the same place that I put them... This episode only lasted about 30 seconds and he's now calmed down, but he's just sitting in one place. He's not dead or anything as I see his tongue flicker sometimes, and physically he looks totally normal, other than just not moving.

Any thoughts? And do you think I should take him out to make sure he didn't injure himself somehow... or would that stress him out more?

FYI he is in a 29 gallon tank with two hides, a water bowl, and some branches. He has been in the same setup for a few months now with no problems...

[wilomn]

I just had the weirdest experience. I'm standing in my living room and all of a sudden I hear this banging noise. I look over and my adult corn snake, Jake, is moving REALLY fast, frantically, all around his tank, I mean really freaking out. I have never seen him do anything like that before. It's almost like something spooked him, but there is nothing unusual around that could have scared him!! My first thought was that one of the branches in his tank fell on him and he freaked, but the branches all look to be in the same place that I put them... This episode only lasted about 30 seconds and he's now calmed down, but he's just sitting in one place. He's not dead or anything as I see his tongue flicker sometimes, and physically he looks totally normal, other than just not moving.

Any thoughts? And do you think I should take him out to make sure he didn't injure himself somehow... or would that stress him out more?

FYI he is in a 29 gallon tank with two hides, a water bowl, and some branches. He has been in the same setup for a few months now with no problems...

If he's got a heat pad make sure it didn't malfunction. Check him for mites too. And check the cage for spiders. I've seen snakes do that freak out thing for those three reasons.

[icygirl]

If he's got a heat pad make sure it didn't malfunction. Check him for mites too. And check the cage for spiders. I've seen snakes do that freak out thing for those three reasons.

No heat pad, he has an overhead heat lamp which was off at the time. I don't suspect mites because I keep his cage very clean, and use non-particulate substrate (packing paper) - but I will double check.

And spiders! I didn't know a snake could be afraid of spiders. I thought their vision wasn't so good?

But then again, I once was riding a horse that was losing her vision, and she bucked me off because she was spooked by a patch of light.

[wilomn]

I go through spates of black widow infestations and I know I've had several snakes bitten by them. They get some nasty sores and really thrash around the cage.

I'm surmising it was black widows. I have found suppurating wounds and black widows in the same boxes. Of course, I have a plethora of other looking nasties out here too.

[icygirl]

No mites, and definitely no black widows. I'm in New England and I've never seen one

I checked him over and he has no signs of mites, ticks, spider bites, or any other sort of external injury. He's also acting like his old self again, like it never happened. I also checked his cage for insects, and didn't find any.

We do have some fruit flies around, and I occasionally find a few dead ones in their water bowls. Maybe one flew really close to his eye and startled him?

[wilomn]

Or crawled up his nose.

[icygirl]

Or crawled up his nose.

Guess we'll never know...