Hi there, I've got a 1 year old female ball python who has started to gather a list of strange symptoms that are starting to look like an RI.

I noticed her 'snorting' several weeks ago. I don't know how else to describe it other than a short, sharp exhale; like a 'snort'. I don't think it's a hiss (she's never actually hissed at me so I'm not totally sure) because it happens both when she's in the tank by herself and when I'm handling her. That was the first weird thing.

Then I noticed her yawning three or four times during one handling session of about 30 minutes. I started to pay more attention and noticed her yawning more often than she probably should be. I couldn't see any mucous or viscous saliva or anything like that. The inside of her mouth looked fairly pink like normal.

She's been eating normally once a week, a large mouse (last feed was Friday). Her nighttime behavior is normal, she cruises around for an hour or so and then goes back to her fav hides on the warm side of the tank. Daytime behavior is normal from what I see (I work so I'm not with her all day) but for the most part she appears to stay in her hides.

I caught her open mouth breathing or at least what I think was open mouth breathing. She had her mouth open just a little and was just sitting there. Then, just closed her mouth and went about her business.

She also started burrowing in her substrate (reptile prime) out of the blue. She was really keen on getting underneath her water bowl, to the point she rubbed a little boo boo on her nose. That behavior stopped when I put the water bowl down on the surface of the tank and surrounded it with substrate.

All of this taken together, I scheduled a vet appointment and will see him later this week BUT

Tonight, I was woken up by this horrendous coughing/gagging noise. I ran to her tank and her mouth was open and another of these strangled-sounding noises came out. She was quite tense too. Then she closed her mouth and went into one of her hides. My immediate reaction after seeing she wasn't dying was to hop on here and see if others had experienced this. Most of the threads suggested looking to see if she had just pooed because apparently they can make these awful noises when farting or pooping? Lo and behold, she had just laid a poo but it was surprisingly runny. There were firm parts of it but there was also a runny part too.

Her temps and humidity were great up until two weeks ago. I got a 40br tank and moved her in (from a 20l) and since then have had a hell of a time heating it and keeping it humid. On her warm end, I get about 86 degrees and the cool end about 72 (ambient only 77) and humidity has been all over the board. I don't know if it's the size of the tank or the dryness of my house or what. I rehydrate her reptile prime substrate everyday and it's still not keeping the humidity at a decent level. She does have a humidity 'box' filled with damp sphagnum moss under her heat lamp and above her heat mat, though and she tends to stay in that one most of the time.

These new husbandry problems that I've been racing to fix have only occurred in the last couple weeks but most of the symptoms have occurred in the last two months.

So, I wanted to ask anyone on here what you think is happening here. Is this symptomatic of an RI despite the fact that she's still eating and up to her normal antics? or could this just be an escalation because the stress of a new environment/bad husbandry? Of course, the vet will give me a more definitive answer but I want to hear if anyone else has experienced a mix of symptoms like this or if maybe I'm just putting things together that don't add up to anything.

Also, any tips or tricks to heating and humidifying the new tank would be GREATLY appreciated.

Sorry for the length, just trying to put in as much info as possible for you all. Everyone on this site has been so helpful and kind in the past so I'm really grateful to you!