Hello!
So I've had a ball python called Boxas for about a month and a half - 2 months now, and I absolutely adore him. He's been eating about once every 7 days and he hit 1 year old last month.
He's been doing pretty well, I moved him from a 30 gallon tank to a 28 quart bin and he took about a week or two to get adjusted. After not taking food after that time, he's been eating frozen/thawed rats normally.
He gave me one full shed in less than 12 hours and I'm so proud of him.
Lately though, I'm a little bit concerned.
I can't bring up the courage or strength to pry open his mouth, but I've noticed when he yawns or eats or drinks he has a bit of saliva in his mouth. Not much, but I was thinking it could be a respiratory issue. He shows no other signs though, like wheezing or loss of appetite. In fact, I fed him day before yesterday.
Whenever I offer water to him he drinks most of the time, but sometimes a bit of the water drips out of his mouth. I don't think all of it, and the time between the two times was just fine. I never really heard of snakes spitting out water they willingly drank.
I'm thinking it could be his humidity, since I'm keeping him on aspen. I gave him an appropriately sized humidity box though, and ever since I noticed this I've been keeping up with the humidity inside of it more regularly. He used to use his humidity box a lot, but ever since I swapped the forest floor substrate with actual moss he's avoided using it. Maybe he thinks he doesn't need it right now.
I really hope it's not something serious and that I'm just overthinking this.
I would seriously appreciate a response soon, I wanna fix this if it's an issue.
Thanks!