Has This Happened to You From Feeding?

[TheSnakeEye]

We recently had a nice little group of babies hatch and pretty much left them alone until their first sheds. After their first sheds, we gave them a small mouse and left them alone. Their second meal was a rat fuzzy, an appropriately sized rat fuzzy, but still a fuzzy. Well about 3 days after feeding, I notice one of the babies has a crazy wobble like you'd see with a Spider. I mean his head is LOOPY. Once he starts moving, he just twirls and twirls. I have yet to feed him again. Someone suggested that perhaps that is happening to him due to being fed a fuzzy too soon. Every snake I hatched (not that I've hatched too many) has been started on fuzzies. Most people I know start them on fuzzies.

So my question is, has anyone EVER had any neurological issues happen to one of their babies from maybe feeding something too large or too strong for a hatchling? I myself, do not think this issue is food related, but you never know. Thanks!

[TheSnakeGeek]

is it a champagne?

[TheSnakeEye]

is it a champagne?

No it is not. Why do you ask?

[TheSnakeGeek]

saw your avatar was a champ and champagnes have been known to wobble like spiders especially as babies. i had no idea of this until i saw a champagne at daytona last year corkscrewing all over the place.

but if thats not the case, it's probably due to a temperature spike at some point.. or i've read poison can cause the wobble too..

[TheSnakeEye]

saw your avatar was a champ and champagnes have been known to wobble like spiders especially as babies. i had no idea of this until i saw a champagne at daytona last year corkscrewing all over the place.

but if thats not the case, it's probably due to a temperature spike at some point.. or i've read poison can cause the wobble too..

I've seen a few Champs wobble as babies, but thankfully none of mine. I hope none of my coming babies this year wobble either. Either way his clutchmates are fine so I don't get it.

[TheSnakeEye]

Anyone else?

[angllady2]

I certainly have never heard that. if the prey is too large, they either won't eat it, or if it's REALLY too big, they won't even strike it. I would think of a host of other causes before I'd think food. UNLESS the food you offered came into contact with a substance that might be toxic to a snake. Ivermectin for mites for example. Or something similar. Parasite treatments, internal or external, or anything of that nature that was on or inside the prey offered could easily affect a snake that consumed such prey.

However, since it only affected one baby, that only makes sense if that one prey item had a much higher concentration of a toxic substance than all the rest. Heat spikes cause severe neurological damage. I know this from personal experience. A toxin in the air is another possibility, but it seems to me an unlikely one. I suppose if you used a strong cleaner in the baby tubs, and that one tub had a lot of residue in it, that might have caused the problem.

Truthfully, it could have been any one of many things that caused it, or perhaps it is a birth defect that presented late. I know none of this makes you feel any better, I'm just kind of throwing out possibilities.

Gale