Quote Originally Posted by Crawly's Mom View Post
You guys are so helpful!

Firstly... hello!

The strange movements you are seeing are refered to as a the spider wobble. Every spider has this neurological disorder, some show it more than others. Typically the wobble becomes more prominent or noticeable when the snake is excited or stressed, IE: When being handles, transported, or fed.

It does not harm the snake at all, spiders live long and healthy lives even with the disorder. It is just something that most spider owners have to accept or not deal with the morph. Nothing is wrong with your boy, so don't worry. It is normal... for a spider.
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I was quite freaked out when I saw my spider morph corkscrewing his head when I first put him in his enclosure on the day I got him. I was also pretty pissed that the guy I bought him from didn't mention this kind of issue. I bought him to be a future breeder and was unsure about the issue as a moral dilemma in perpetuating a faulty gene.

After owning him for a while now, I have a different stance. Spiders eat like pigs, breed well, and show no signs of poor health. Some people even report them to be "friendlier" than other morphs. The ataxia we see in the spider breed is often associated by people with similar behaviors in humans. While their direct mechanism in the nervous system is nearly identical, the ataxia in humans is almost always the byproduct of a crippling illness such as Cerebral Palsy. In those individuals, discomfort stems from other elements of the illness and generally not the ataxia itself (there are some exceptions with violent muscle spasms or tensing, but that is not what we see in spiders).

Ataxia is a fancy term to describe partial or complete lack of muscle coordination.


TL;DR your snake is fine dude. Don't let it bother you unless the animal shows signs of physical injury stemming from the ataxia. If you can't let go of that visceral reaction to seeing it behave that way, trade your snake for a new one.