Uhhh?!? Somebody please help!

[BeccaBurrr]

So..I was walking into my bedroom and glanced over at my girl's enclosure. What I just saw scared the crap out of me. So I look over, and I see the side of her hide moving up and down very quickly. I look underneath and see her breathing incredibly hard. Harder than I have ever seen...and then suddenly it stopped. So I start shaking, thinking that my BP just died or is dying. I just stand there motionless, not knowing what to do, and just generally freaked out. So my roommate comes in, since I'm not responding to anything he's asking...and starts to take off the top of her cage. At that moment, she sticks her head out and looks at us...she seems just fine. So the roommate walks out and I still just stand there. She takes her head back into her hide, and I, feeling a little less freaked out, decide to look into her hide. She's got herself laying in the weirdest position I've ever seen her in. For one, the tail (about one inch) is folded underneath her body(looking pretty darn limp)..then the rest of her body up until about 6 inches to the head is lying completely on its side. Then for the rest of her body to her head, she's got looped up (above the ground) and then her head is resting on the ground. WTF is she doing? The heavy breathing..and then laying out oddly....what is this? She hasn't shown any signs of RI to my knowledge. No coughing or breathing with her mouth open. Her temps haven't changed either and her humidity varies between 40%-60%.

Can somebody shed any light on this? I'm worried my baby girl is dying.

[4theSNAKElady]

Is your baby just a normal, or a spider or bumble bee? Spiders and bees are wierdos. They do all kinds of stuff that freak their owners out.

[Kaorte]

Could it be that she needs to poop soon? I've seen some weird behavior when they are having bowel movements... lol


If not that... I have no clue. Maybe she is just super scared for some reason?

[BeccaBurrr]

She's just a normal. I've never seen any weird behavior like this from her before. She ate a mouse earlier this afternoon just fine too..so I've just been assuming that she's healthy. She's never refused a meal, has had 2 perfect sheds with me, and shows all the "usual" signs of being healthy...hiding during the day, becoming active later in the evening, and all that. I went to check on her again and the weird laying has somewhat stopped. She's still got her tail bent underneath her body though. Her breathing isn't as fast, but she seems to be breathing with very slow/deep breaths. I can't explain how upset I'm feeling right now. I thought maybe she was having digestion problems or maybe regurgitating her food for some reason, but there is no sign of that (yet)..and hopefully it stays that way. I'm so restless right now..I don't know what to do for her...or if there's anything really wrong.

[4theSNAKElady]

You must be a new mommy. She sounds perfectly fine...esp is shes eating. Chances are, shes just contemplating a poop

[angllady2]

I have discovered one thing from owning ball pythons. If I watched their every moment, I'd go stark raving mad thinking they were dying. They do weird things, sometimes just to scare the crud out of you I think. Ask how many people have found their snake sleeping partially or completely upside down. Or contorted into the craziest positions imaginable. The heavy breathing thing they just do sometimes. Frequently I catch one of mine doing it if I startle them out of a deep sleep, maybe they are having a nightmare? I can't tell you how many times one of mine has made my heart stop, only to be perfectly fine a few seconds later. I swear mine are responsible for most of my grey hair. Just check in on her now and then, and try not to freak yourself out too badly.

Gale

[BeccaBurrr]

The mouse she ate today was a tad smaller than what I'll usually feed her, but not by very much at all. On Sunday, I went to get her a meal, but the store I went to only had TINY little mice and just slightly bigger ASFs. I bought one of the ASFs, knowing it wasn't a big enough meal. She nommed it down very quickly and there was no lump. She also didn't spend much time hiding for digestion. Usually she'll hide for 2-3 days after a normal sized meal. The next day she was very active and even more so yesterday and today...so I took that as meaning she was still hungry, since she had such a tiny meal...do you think that this could have something to do with her behavior? Or..could there have been something wrong with the mouse that could cause this?

I recently added moss to her enclosure as well, to try to help humidity levels since my humidifier hadn't been working up until a couple days ago. Could this cause any problems? I noticed her belly was a little pink today when I had her out before her meal. So I'm thinking she'll be going into shed soon...no cloudy eyes or anything yet..just the pinkish belly.

I may be overly paranoid..just trying to figure out what could be making her act this way.

[BeccaBurrr]

You must be a new mommy. She sounds perfectly fine...esp is shes eating. Chances are, shes just contemplating a poop

I am. I've had her for only about 3-4 months. This was the first real scare I've had from her...and oh man, was it awful. I couldn't even speak, I just instantly thought my girl was dying or having a heart attack.

[BeccaBurrr]

I have discovered one thing from owning ball pythons. If I watched their every moment, I'd go stark raving mad thinking they were dying. They do weird things, sometimes just to scare the crud out of you I think. Ask how many people have found their snake sleeping partially or completely upside down. Or contorted into the craziest positions imaginable. The heavy breathing thing they just do sometimes. Frequently I catch one of mine doing it if I startle them out of a deep sleep, maybe they are having a nightmare? I can't tell you how many times one of mine has made my heart stop, only to be perfectly fine a few seconds later. I swear mine are responsible for most of my grey hair. Just check in on her now and then, and try not to freak yourself out too badly.

Gale

Thank you for calming my nerves! I was shaking there for a good 10 minutes after all of this happened, just thinking that my girl had indeed died.
I also started to reconsider if I really want to get more of these guys or try breeding in the future. If I can barely handle my ONE BP acting this way, I don't even know what I'd do if I had a baby hatch out only to die in a few days time or any of my snakes dying, for that matter. I'd probably cry for days and not know what to do with myself. I'm bad at detaching myself from these kinds of things..

[MorbidWolfess]

It definitely sounds like she's trying to make a bowel movement or trying to pee. I can always tell when Shilo is trying to poop because his head will go straight up in the air and his mouth will open just a little bit. There is also the worry that she may be constipated but you can usually tell because there hasn't been poop in a while and there is a bulge at the base of their tail. If that's the case, just place her in some water about the temperature of your hand, maybe a tad warmer and it'll pull that right out. I give my snakes baths weekly, and that'll work like a charm believe me.

Shilo scares me an awful lot, he's a pastel and he'll do weird things with his head (like lay it up against his hide at a 90 degree angle... sleeping perfectly) and one time I even caught him limp on his branch like he was dead, but he was just sleeping like a rock. O_O