Please help me understand. Our baby passed yesterday

[Johnryan]

Please I need someone who knows ball pythons well. Our ball python passed away yesterday treat. We recently moved so she’s been rejecting food for about a month. We did feed her right before we moved. She’s been fine showing no symptoms of anything we know. We hadnt taken her to a vet. Theres none nearby. We found her yesterday burrowing with a mouth full of her substrate coconut husk like she was eating it. We flushed her mouth and tried to clean out as much as we could so she could close her mouth. She passed awhile later. Please tell me if anyone has heard of this happening or what could have caused it. My fiancé is shattered as am I. Our baby is gone.

[Bogertophis]

I'm so sorry about the loss of your snake. The best way to find out what went wrong might be to have a vet do a necropsy, but even that doesn't always bring answers, & can be expensive too.

So many questions...if you're up to it?

Do you have any other snakes? Or other pets? If so, what?

How old was this snake, if you know? ("baby" is often a term of endearment rather than age)

How long have you had her? Where did you get her from? (private breeder, private owner, pet store, herp expo, etc.???)

Was this your first snake? (I ask this because snakes are notoriously hard to read...especially if it's your first snake. But even with experience, many owners often miss symptoms.)

So up until you moved, she was eating regularly for you? Do you have any pictures of her? Missing meals for a month doesn't mean much, unless the snake was underweight- then it might.

Did you ever weigh her? What size & type of prey was she eating?

Did you notice her mouth breathing (keeping her mouth open)? Any bubbles around her mouth? Any regurgitations? Any weird looking stools (mucus? blood? poorly digested? odd colors?)

What were the temperatures (highest & lowest) in her enclosure? What kind of enclosure? Was she ever without adequate heat? (like during the move?) What kind of heat sources used? Thermostat?

How much was this snake handled? How often & for how long, typically?

Was this snake ever sick that you know of? and treated by a vet? If so, what was the diagnosis? & what was the treatment?

(I may think of more questions, but this will get you started, anyway.)

[MichPlat]

I'm so sorry about the loss of your snake. The best way to find out what went wrong might be to have a vet do a necropsy, but even that doesn't always bring answers, & can be expensive too.

So many questions...if you're up to it?

Do you have any other snakes? Or other pets? If so, what?

How old was this snake, if you know? ("baby" is often a term of endearment rather than age)

How long have you had her? Where did you get her from? (private breeder, private owner, pet store, herp expo, etc.???)

Was this your first snake? (I ask this because snakes are notoriously hard to read...especially if it's your first snake. But even with experience, many owners often miss symptoms.)

So up until you moved, she was eating regularly for you? Do you have any pictures of her? Missing meals for a month doesn't mean much, unless the snake was underweight- then it might.

Did you ever weigh her? What size & type of prey was she eating?

Did you notice her mouth breathing (keeping her mouth open)? Any bubbles around her mouth? Any regurgitations? Any weird looking stools (mucus? blood? poorly digested? odd colors?)

What were the temperatures (highest & lowest) in her enclosure? What kind of enclosure? Was she ever without adequate heat? (like during the move?) What kind of heat sources used? Thermostat?

How much was this snake handled? How often & for how long, typically?

Was this snake ever sick that you know of? and treated by a vet? If so, what was the diagnosis? & what was the treatment?

(I may think of more questions, but this will get you started, anyway.)

Excellent post my friend !!

[Bogertophis]

Snakes don't typically eat their substrate. What you described (finding her with a mouthful) suggests to me that she was maybe in some distress or pain, & was burrowing & thrashing around in a fair amount of discomfort. I can only try to read into whatever information you supply, but fyi, I've kept many snakes, including BPs, for about 4 decades, so I've seen a lot.

And while I know it hurts to lose a pet you love, I also commend you for caring enough to try to find out what went wrong. We've ALL lost snakes "before their time", & the best thing to do is try to find out why, & if there's any way to have prevented the loss.

Another question: did you feed live rodents (-ever?) or pre-killed/frozen-thawed ?

[Lord Sorril]

We did feed her right before we moved.

That could have been your issue.

[Johnryan]

I'm so sorry about the loss of your snake. The best way to find out what went wrong might be to have a vet do a necropsy, but even that doesn't always bring answers, & can be expensive too.

So many questions...if you're up to it?

Do you have any other snakes? Or other pets? If so, what?

How old was this snake, if you know? ("baby" is often a term of endearment rather than age)

How long have you had her? Where did you get her from? (private breeder, private owner, pet store, herp expo, etc.???)

Was this your first snake? (I ask this because snakes are notoriously hard to read...especially if it's your first snake. But even with experience, many owners often miss symptoms.)

So up until you moved, she was eating regularly for you? Do you have any pictures of her? Missing meals for a month doesn't mean much, unless the snake was underweight- then it might.

Did you ever weigh her? What size & type of prey was she eating?

Did you notice her mouth breathing (keeping her mouth open)? Any bubbles around her mouth? Any regurgitations? Any weird looking stools (mucus? blood? poorly digested? odd colors?)

What were the temperatures (highest & lowest) in her enclosure? What kind of enclosure? Was she ever without adequate heat? (like during the move?) What kind of heat sources used? Thermostat?

How much was this snake handled? How often & for how long, typically?

Was this snake ever sick that you know of? and treated by a vet? If so, what was the diagnosis? & what was the treatment?

(I may think of more questions, but this will get you started, anyway.)

[Johnryan]

Thank you for your help, i'm gonna try and answer these in order of your questions


No other snakes, the previous area had two dogs one other ball python but never kept in the same room or interacted and a parrot again not interacting. The current area has no other reptiles but a cat a dog and an old parrot.

We believe she was young when we got her , she fit in a tiny fish carrier, she would have been ours for two years in April.


We had her for almost two years , she came from a Petco , they had no information on the breeder last time she ate or her gender we found out she was a girl when she laid her first clutch of eggs.

She was our second snake but really our first snake, we had a corn snake for about two weeks then she discover a flaw in her habitat and escaped we are still waiting for someone to call us and yell, found your snake in my boot. Also we did look untill we moved for him.

Untill we moved she was on a proper strict feeding schedule and she never didn't eat, she would be fussy but would eat. We got an enrichment piece of stone plinth once so she wouldn't get substrate in her mouth when she ate. She wouldn't go near it she climbed the walls and game down from above off a branch. She ate her mousy and then small rats. I have many pictures but none of her in distress would they help?

We did not weigh her we wern't in an area that had many reptile vets and we moved to a place with less, but she looked in good health and monitored her for any visble signs, her mother was very watchfull. She had graduated to big mice small rats and was having no trouble with them

As for that , she was found with her mouth wide open, full of substrate. I was sadly not there but on the phone with her the whole time I was described what was happening, she tried to flush her mouth clean out the husk rinsed with water untill she was able to close her mouth again. she seemed to be feeling better another cleaning was happened less panicked. She did strike once, that would have been only the second time in her life. Not counting when she was blind from a shed and struck right next to her mouse when feeding. We hadn't seen her showing any symptoms like that before she was exploring and climbing days earlier

Her encloser was closely monitored during the move she was kept warm with constant warm packs car heater and lap sitting covered in a travel cage she knew and blankets.

I believe during the high stress of the move my girlfriend gave her limited handing to let her feel at ease but during handing she was giving a warm space to roam and not over handled we are both people with anxiety issues so we got not stressing our snake with to much people,

Again we never took her to a vet so these are things I don't know, but every reptile doctors office in the state called me monday morning..Never sick that we knew of in our care she was an adventureous girl that loved to climb hide stare and go womph when she tried to go uppies to high .


This is all I have for you I believe I thank you for however you can help.

[Johnryan]

Thank you. I just don’t know what what to do. She was alive and fine then suddenly not and she was never neglected

[Johnryan]

Please what can I tell you that I’ve missed of or don’t know. I also don’t know forums and stuff. I don’t know what icons photos are.

[bcr229]

How long ago did she have eggs? If she retained an egg she could have gone septic and passed.