New ball arrived frozen - thawed back to life

[bonzai272]

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!

[seercirra]

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

[MarkS]

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.

[bonzai272]

^ 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.

[Spaniard]

Somewhat similar story for RDR's Platy.

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

[ItsMichael805]

thats crazyy

[bonzai272]

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

[Neal]

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.

[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.

[mechnut450]

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.