Spider wobble in full effect

[Turbo Serpent]

if it was a slight wobble in which it had no ill effects on the animal, I can almost understand that, but any animal IMO who cannot eat on its own because its so handicapped from the wobble should not be bred, and perhaps should have been culled. As much as it is a pretty morph I highly believe in breeding animals who are healthy and strong, which a bad wobble doesnt show.

Seems pretty apparent to me that the animal in the first video, even with the exaggerated wobble, was still capable of striking and coiling its prey. It moves in jerky uncoordinated movements, but it can still lead a normal life. No reason to cull them off, especially since these "handicaps" don't surface until they reach a more mature state.

Also the spider shows the signs of the wobble, which is inherently a part of its genetic makeup, but I am 100% positive that other morphs out there have other "handicaps" that aren't so apparent. They could simply be internal deviations, or lack accurate vision, or the thermal pits could be skewed. We honestly do not know.

If and when you go to breed you simply need to understand that these are morphs, which in short form mean that they are merely mutations. With every mutation there are other factors that change other than just color. Don't crucify one morph for a genetic "fault" when one of your personal animals could have something far worse internally you do not know about, because the animal cannot tell you it can't see or smell properly.

[SawyerBalls]

One of my normal female's escaped her enclosure about 6 months ago and was missing for about 2 months. We finally found her roaming around outside! But anyways the reason why i mention this is because when we found her she was obviously very cold and dehydrated (but she had a full stomach haha) but more importantly she was wobbling her head a lot just like the spiders do! I was really worried and didn't know how well she'd recover but after a few months it slowy got better and better and now she doesnt really show any sign of it. I just thought i'd mention it because it looked a lot like the spider wobble so perhaps the first spider went through some kind of situation like this, causing him to have a head wobble. who knows...just my random guess

[Turbo Serpent]

One of my normal female's escaped her enclosure about 6 months ago and was missing for about 2 months. We finally found her roaming around outside! But anyways the reason why i mention this is because when we found her she was obviously very cold and dehydrated (but she had a full stomach haha) but more importantly she was wobbling her head a lot just like the spiders do! I was really worried and didn't know how well she'd recover but after a few months it slowy got better and better and now she doesnt really show any sign of it. I just thought i'd mention it because it looked a lot like the spider wobble so perhaps the first spider went through some kind of situation like this, causing him to have a head wobble. who knows...just my random guess

Your female wobbled because of possible dehydration and the cold affects the muscles and their ability to move fluidly. Nothing even close to the spider's neurological issues.

[rabernet]

if it was a slight wobble in which it had no ill effects on the animal, I can almost understand that, but any animal IMO who cannot eat on its own because its so handicapped from the wobble should not be bred, and perhaps should have been culled. As much as it is a pretty morph I highly believe in breeding animals who are healthy and strong, which a bad wobble doesnt show.

I have not even seen heavy wobblers not be able to eat on their own. When I first got into ball pythons, I wasn't even into spiders, and I didn't know about the wobble. I've since come to love them so much, I have four - 2 males and 2 females.

[SawyerBalls]

Your female wobbled because of possible dehydration and the cold affects the muscles and their ability to move fluidly. Nothing even close to the spider's neurological issues.

Even after a month of being in a 91ish degree environment she still was wobbling around. I'm sure it was mostly from the outside environment (even though i live in san diego, which isnt too harsh) but i'm just hoping one of our little neighbor girls didnt try wacking her with a stick or something before they called us over. That was my worst fear when i saw her head wobbling around.

[kc261]

One of my normal female's escaped her enclosure about 6 months ago and was missing for about 2 months. We finally found her roaming around outside! But anyways the reason why i mention this is because when we found her she was obviously very cold and dehydrated (but she had a full stomach haha) but more importantly she was wobbling her head a lot just like the spiders do! I was really worried and didn't know how well she'd recover but after a few months it slowy got better and better and now she doesnt really show any sign of it. I just thought i'd mention it because it looked a lot like the spider wobble so perhaps the first spider went through some kind of situation like this, causing him to have a head wobble. who knows...just my random guess

If the original spider had gone through something like this that caused his wobble, then the rest of the spiders would not wobble. You can't inherit something that happened to one of your parents. That's like saying if a person has some sort of accident and loses a finger, than all their children, grandchildren, etc. will all have a missing finger.

In the article entitled "Will They Come in out of the Cold? Observations of Large Constrictors in Cool and Cold Conditions," David Barker talks about something called Cold Shock Syndrome or CSS. I would guess this is what is affecting your snake.

When warmed to temperatures where activity is possible, snakes suffering CSS will not be able to move in a coordinated manner. They may exhibit what appear to be violent seizures if disturbed or handled. Snakes with this condition may die within 48 hours of being warmed; if they survive past that period of time, they likely will recover, but full recovery to normal coordinated movement can take more than a year.

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.usark.org/uploads/ComeOutOfCold_BCHS.pdf

[jjmitchell]

Wow I guess I am lucky, I own two spider females, both have slight wobble, but it is so little that if you are not looking for it you dont notice, and they only show wobble like discussed in this post @ suppertime....

I am however glad that the you take such good care of the animal in the vid... alot of people would have given up on an animal that needed the assist on a regular basis

[SawyerBalls]

Yeah thanks, I was thinking about that too. Except my scenario was if a legless soldier(Lt. Dan---Forest Gump) came back from war and had a bunch of babies they all wouldn't be legless and captians of shrimp boats....duhh. Thanks for the CSS article, i'm just glad mine didn't die or continue to have the wobble

[WesleyTF]

my spider isn't super enthusiastic about striking/constricting, but he has VERY little wobble. He hasn't missed a meal yet, though (knock on wood)!

[SawyerBalls]

For all the people who have spiders that show hardly any signs of wobbling, if you have produced offspring from them, how was the offsprings wobble? Is it very slight like the parents or do they all have an equal chance of being bad wobblers?