Breathing...

[Andariel]

Does anyone elses BP exhale deeping once in a while? Its nothin regular, its kinda like when you take a deep breathe and go "pffffttt" with it. But Andariel does that since I got her to the vet.

She has stopped sneezing and popping tho so her RI is almost gone (or totally gone). I whacked one of my feeders tonight and its twitching in her tank, so hope for the best. I whacked it over an hour ago and its still twitchin/rollin around so its still alive, but I don't see it regaining full use of its body at all so I'm not worried about it hurting her at all.

-Chris

[Wizill]

my guess (and i repeat, GUESS) is that it's just after affects of the RI. My bp's breath a little deeper depending on how active they are being. and dude, if you're gonna whack the rat. kill it. lol, that's cruel!

[Andariel]

I guess I worded that wrong... its not like rolling around trin to get up... it was more like when u kill something and the nerves twitch for a while after it dies. It was most definately dead after that abrupt meeting with my cedar chest. It wasn't breathing and wasn't reactive to me moving it around the tank, just a leg twitch now and then. I don't see how anything that small coulda withstood that impact.

BTW she's still on mice, but I'm gonna get a medium rat and try that to see if she'll eat. She seems to have no interest in mice at all alive, fresh killed, or otherwise. Maybe she is just spoiled and won't eat common feeder mice?

-Chris

[freakoverdose1]

I just bought my 2 month old beautiful BP and The man at the pet store told me that she has been feeding on live. Not knocked out or killed fully alive and he hasn't had a problem... Now i read on here that I should knock them out or kill the mouse first... Does it really matter if she is not getting injured? Also, another question. I just got her a week ago and she hasn't even touched her water. Will she get seroiusly dehydrated if she doesn't drink. And my BP also was supposed to defecate on thursday and it is now saturday..hmm maybe just stress of new home.

[freakoverdose1]

One more question....He said the heat side and the hiding side are different. Is this true? herhiding side has no heat source while the other side has covered heat rock and dome lamp. The temp in my ttank is about 82 degrees F, taken from center in back..... I don't want her to get to cold while hiding since thats all she does for now because of stress.

[invadertoast]

Freak - don't worry about her pooping, they don't always go on a regular basis. Also, it's okay to feed her live, but feeding pre-killed prey is safer, you could try to ween her over to pre-killed then to frozen-thawed. My BP Eleanor was eating live when I brought her home and I've never had to feed her anything alive, she went strait to frozen-thawed; same goes for my second BP, (now deceased) he took the first frozen-thawed rat I offered. And don't worry if you don't see her drinking, she probably does it while you're not around or sleeping, I hardly ever see Eleanor drink and she's perfectly healthy
Now on to the heat... first off, ditch the hot rock and invest in a cheap under tank heater from Wal-Mart ($12) or something, hot rocks are known to cause burns, and I personally don't really trust having any heating element directly inside the cage. Move your thermometer to the floor of the hot side, and make sure the temperature is around 90 on the ground. Lastly, you should have one hide on either side of the tank, one warm one cool, this way she can thermoregulate without having to be seen.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your new baby!!

[Andariel]

Freakoverdose1: Feel free to view the members galleries for ideas of how to setup your tank. Here's a link to my setup using a 40 gallon breeder. (http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....view_album.php)

My snake hasn't eaten in over a month (Dec 5th was her last) and I'm having to agree with the rest of the members when I say its more stressful for the owner than it is the snake. I don't know how she does it.. .I can't go 6 hours without eating, she's gone over a month. But besides her RI, which is cleaerin up beautifully i might add, she's healthy active and alert... and a babydoll to boot She loves her daddy.

Welcome to the site!

-Chris

[freakoverdose1]

Well thanks for all the help.. I got rid of the rock and got adhesive terrarium heating pads. Doing much better. She is settling in good, actually going active during then ight now and climbing on her branch. Tuesday will be the first feed from me as her owner, I will start with live since she is used to that but as the mice need to be bigger i will wean her to prekilled then eventually to frozen-thawed... again i appreciate the help... i have pictures of her... how do i post and where?

[Marla]

Great to hear you've improved her home. I'm sure she'll be happier for it. By the way, either a temperature gun or a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer (~$15 @ Wal-Mart) will give you much better info on temp maintenance.

If you have a web site or web space provided by your ISP, upload the pics there and include the link in a post here by using the IMG code. If not, you can ask for a member gallery to upload them here.

[freakoverdose1]

Yeha I need a member gallery to upload them here. I don't have an off site addy