Albino Ball WITHOUT TONGUE

[JPBarm]

My name is Juan Pablo, I`m from Argentina.
I purchased an albino high contrast female ball python from Daytona National Expo, last August. The animal is a beautiful baby of 78 grams, look healthy and active. I buyed her and traveled to home. Later, I looked closely and I noticed that she hadn`t her tongue. I never saw her flicking her tongue al all.
When I explored more in detail in the open mouth, I noticed that she had a tiny appendix, but she could not flick it outside the mouth.
I assit her to eat a couple of times, but I wish she can hunt and eat for herself.
how is it going to use its jacobsons organ?
How much important is this deficiency for hunting?.
Can she detect the prey only through the heat it gives off?
Is it possible that this is an heritable defect?. I had the intention of breeding her in the future, but this could be a problem.
Is a common problem in albino balls? Anybody had this problem with balls?
I hope you can help me with this subject. Thanks.

[seeya205]

I have never heard of this before! I guess it is possible becasue nature isn't always fair! She would be able to get the heat signature off the prey. Have you tried live feeding to see if she will go for it. If she eats okay then she should live a long healthy life! Do you know the breeder that you bought her from? If so, I would contact him and see about trading her for another one! Good luck with her!

[Miko]

I fully agree with Seeya, you should contact the breeder because they should have informed you about this. Anyway, I'm sure that your ball python can sense heat still so you could either feed live or just run frozen under warm water for a while. Watch out during shed because since she might not be able to see very well and might not be able to smell so your hand might frighten her.

The only way to find out of the defect is hereditary is to either breed her or see if the parents also have it. Ball pythons only really use heat, smell, and eyesight for hunting so it's like she's missing 1/3 of her hunting senses. I don't believe it is common because I have never heard of something like this before. I don't think she can use her Jacobson's organ, or at least not very well... Since the tongue is supposed to go out of the mouth to collect particles in the air then the Jacobson's organ receives it. However, if there's nothing to receive and read then there is really no use of it but maybe some air comes in to it because it is close to the front of the mouth.