Help! Is she in danger?!

[CuddleMunkie]

Today is feeding day, and my beautiful baby Penelope has me scared out of my mind.

She grabbed hold of her first mouse and drug it into her water bowl, then proceeded to drown it as she smothered it and THEN EAT IT UNDERWATER.

It took her a long time to eat it, and then she stayed stretched up to the top of her cage, looking like she was trying to puke up a wad of her subtrate while drooling all over herself. She was also shaking a little bit, but she sometimes does that while she's finishing off the tail. I left her alone in her cage, covering it with a towel to give her a little darkness and some "alone time". I found the wad on the floor of the cage, and watched her for a few more minutes, and she seemed to be okay. She even flicked her tongue around and recognized that I was near.

But when I went to drop in her second rat, she did a drunken slither over to it before hitting it, scraping the side of her head and body along the subtrate.

But she's eaten that mouse just fine.

BUT, she's still acting as if she's drunk and scraping the side of her head along the cage and the subtrate.

Should I be worried? Do I need to skip sleep and stay up and watch her? HELP, PLEASE! I can't lose my sweet Penny when I just got her!!

[The Serpent Merchant]

Why didn't you pull her out of the water dish?

Its hard to say if anything is wrong or not but all you can really do at this point is make sure that your husbandry is perfect and give it time.

Make sure that you are providing a 90 degree hot side, and a 80 degree cool side with humidity between 40%-60%. If you are using a heating pad is it being regulated by a thermostat? what are you using to measure temperatures/humidity, and finally what are you using for a cage? and how big is it?

So she regurgitated some substrate, but not the rodent?

[CuddleMunkie]

Call me stupid, but I never EVER thought she would drag it into her water because she never has before, no mater how close the the bowl she was.

No, she hasn't spit up the mice, just a fairly large chunk of subtrate about the size of my thumb nail. She's no longer drooling as well, which makes me feel a little better.

Right now she's in an aquarium, a 10 gallon because my ex didn't get me the 20 that he said he would before he left. But that's changing soon because I don't want to keep her in an aquarium. She has an under-the-tank heater that's only on during her "day time" because I don't want her to get too hot. She gets a spritz when I add water to her subtrate (which she LOVES) to keep her tank nice and cozy. Her home may not be perfect according to some, but she's happier now than she was when my ex found her. (Yes, found her. Someone dumped her after deciding they didn't want to keep her after all, and he happened to spot her at the edge of a parking lot.)

I've covered her cage and turned off her lamp to darken it and make her feel more secure. She's just mostly kinda laying there now. Her breathing picks up a bit now and then, but she looks like she's possibly recovering.

[CuddleMunkie]

Oh, and I was told to never interrupt a feeding. So when she drug it into the dish I could only stand there and watch and hope the she didn't drown herself.

[The Serpent Merchant]

There are some times when intervening is best, this seems like one of those times. Worst case you get bit and the snake doesn't eat...

do you even know the temperatures inside the cage?

UTH's must be regulated by a thermostat, without one they can and will get hot enough to kill your snake. they can reach 130+ degrees in a matter of hours.

Please read these 2 threads, it sounds like you have been given some bad information and it would be best to clear things up.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

[Kaorte]

Oh, and I was told to never interrupt a feeding. So when she drug it into the dish I could only stand there and watch and hope the she didn't drown herself.

For future reference, it is okay to reposition the snake if it struck in strange place. Sometimes my snakes strike and they are laying with the prey coiled outside the tub, I then grab the rat by the tail and move them back into the tub.


You need a thermostat to control your heat pad, which should be on 24/7. If the snake is kept too cool it very well could regurgitate its food.

[Mike41793]

For future reference, it is okay to reposition the snake if it struck in strange place. Sometimes my snakes strike and they are laying with the prey coiled outside the tub, I then grab the rat by the tail and move them back into the tub.


You need a thermostat to control your heat pad, which should be on 24/7. If the snake is kept too cool it very well could regurgitate its food.

Yea exactly. When this happened i certainly didnt leave her in there, i just picked her up and placed her in a bit of a drier spot in the tub lol.

[CuddleMunkie]

The pad used to be on 24/7 but I started unplugging it this week because she never ventured over to that side of the tank. She'd always lay on the other side of her bowl, and I was concerned about it. So now I unplug it whenever I'm not home to watch her, which is at night because that's when I work and it's nighttime anyway. She does have a heat lamp that I will turn on if it's cold in my room. (My ex liked to practically live in a frozen room.)

I'm completely new at this, and he gave her to me when we broke up because I fell in love with her, and now I'm left to take care of her by myself and I want to do this right so that I can keep her around for a good long time. So I deeply thank you all for not yelling at me about being so stupid.

I'm forced to take a nap now because I have to be back up for work in a couple of hours, and I'm having my sister check in on her to make sure she's okay, which she seems to be now. She's completely in the dark so she can rest and I will most certainly check on her the minute I get up. I was just so scared, I didn't know what to do. And I'll read those threads and get right on getting her a much better cage than this aquarium she's in now. I'd love to get her a big box with a hideaway and a nice big dish for her to soak in since that seems to be what she enjoys doing every few days. My little Penelope means the world to me, and I want to make sure she's happy and healthy and around for a very long time.

[Killerherts]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjL...e_gdata_player here's lil video I made the other day this is my tank my snake was feeding within first three days reguardless of previous owner claiming he was on a hunger strike if you get the thermometer the most expensive part the rest is cheep and easy just drill holes in a tub ur done I wud move her to the new enclosure after just incase stress is playing a role

[MorphMaster]

There are some times when intervening is best, this seems like one of those times. Worst case you get bit and the snake doesn't eat...

do you even know the temperatures inside the cage?

UTH's must be regulated by a thermostat, without one they can and will get hot enough to kill your snake. they can reach 130+ degrees in a matter of hours.

Please read these 2 threads, it sounds like you have been given some bad information and it would be best to clear things up.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

Wow?! I guess it makes sense though with higher wattage. when I first started out it got to 110 f, so it must have been less. Ya definitely get a thermostat

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers