Taking another look at the "spider wobble"

[Serpent_Nirvana]

I have had very similar observations as the OP has (though not as extreme), and I've had very similar thoughts along the same lines.

I own four snakes with the spider gene; two spider females (both '08), a bumblebee male (also '08) and a spinner male ('10).

I have not yet observed any neurologic derangement in the spinner at ALL, despite the fact that I know that his initial QT setup was suboptimal -- previous snakes had done great in the same exact setup, but the spinner wouldn't eat until I got him into a little shoebox tub rack. (It really made me wonder how people bred ball pythons before rack systems, ha!) So, he was clearly stressed until I fixed his setup, but still I have yet to see him wobble, spin or do anything loopy.

After over a year and a half of being 100% "normal," the bigger '08 female will sometimes act squirrelly during feeding. Sometimes it's fairly subtle, sometimes less so. Her aim is just as good as any other BP, but sometimes she will strike in weird ways. In 2009 I took her to an education program and she didn't do a single loopy thing. I think I used her once or twice this year as well, with no loopiness. I can't recall my smaller spider girl ever doing anything wibbly.

Bumblebee is normal about 80% of the time, but if he gets stressed, he loopies -- or at least he used to. When I first got him home, he spun, and I almost cried (I'd read about the "wobble" but never seen anything firsthand). He would do this on rare occasions but as he settled in it got less and less frequent. He then did it again when I would put him into a strange environment (including a female's tub). Knock on wood, I haven't seen him do it at all for a good six months to a year, and lately he has seemed about as "normal" as a BP can get. (Including during breeding -- he is a machine -- feeding -- also a machine -- and photography sessions.)

Because of these experiences, I have sometimes wondered if we can potentially use the "spins" as an indicator that the snake is telling us it isn't happy ... I don't know. Stories like Robin's, cinderbird's and SnakeRkewl's (where the spider was either normal, and got really bad, or was really bad, and got better, but in all cases are kept in optimal environments with no major changes) make me think otherwise. (Also make me really wonder what the heck is going on internally ..? I can think of diseases that are degenerative, and diseases that improve, but almost nothing that sometimes does either one ... Can anyone else?) However, I've heard enough stories like mine and the OP's that I can't help but wonder ...

The docs are gonna get really sick of hearing about wobbly snakes when I'm on neuro next year.