Weird open mouth behavior

[Malkingray]

I have a 4 year old amel female that I picked up about a year and a half ago. I bred her last year to my friends amel male and she had 14 amel hatchlings. She did well, has never missed a meal and put on weight after laying the eggs and I have had absolutely no problems with her until this week.

I fasted her through Oct and cooled her down in Nov and kept her around 55 degrees through the 1st week of Jan. I slowly warmed them up the 2nd week, and at the end of the 3rd week offered all the adults their 1st meals. She refused as did 2 others. I offered meals again one week later, she refused all the others ate. She has now refused her 3rd and 4th meal. She shed 2 days ago. I had decided today that I would try a live mouse with her this weekend.

While feeding and cleaning this afternoon, I noticed that she was moving around her enclosure with her mouth open (All the way open, wide enough that she could have eaten a med size rat). She continued to do this for an hour, only closing her mouth briefly now and then. At one point she "vomited" a moderate amount of clear fluid. (I use the term vomit because regurgitate means to bring food back up and she hasn't eaten since the last week of Sept). The fluid was thicker than water. I left the room to call my vet and when I came back she had stopped and was cruising around like herself. My vet won't be in til Monday and she has an appointment for that afternoon.

Any idea what she is doing? Anything I can do for her until her appointment or should watch for? She was 725 grams prior to cooling her down and 698 the third week of January. She is 697 today. She doesn't seem ill and that anything is bothering her now, or prior to the open mouth thing. She is not having anytrouble breathing.
Thanks,

[PtDnsr]

No idea but I hope everything goes ok. One of the corns we have breeding this season (actually my dad's blizzard male - hi dad!) would sometimes sit with his mouth slightly open while in with the female. It freaked me out the first time and I watched him like a hawk for any sign of an RI. Now that I have them separated I haven't noticed it at all - almost as if he was ready to hiss and scare off any other guys. Not sure if it's the same thing or not but it will be interesting to see what your vet has to say. Maybe try mixing some Nutribac with water and see if she'll drink that (but toss it after 24 hours). :shrugs: Hopefully one of the vet techs will actually be able to help out some.

~Katie

[Malkingray]

My first thought was that it was some freak breeding ritual since she just shed and will soon be ready to breed. I couldn't find any reference to it in any of my books - behavior or health problems. I have checked on her several times since I noticed it and she is fine and hasn't done it since. I was hoping that since she just shed, as did two of my other girls that I would feed and give them til Sunday to digest and introduce them to their boyfriends, but I think I will hold off on breeding her til I have her checked by my vet.

I wish the vets I worked for would see reptiles - I could save so much money if they did!

[cornsnakefreak67]

she is probaly just hungry! corn snakes open their mouths wide open and keep doing it when they are hungry. have you asked a vet about her not eating because i would do that!




hope shes ok! :rolleyes:

[Malkingray]

She has refused every meal I have offered her since warming her up in mid January. My vet didn't find anything wrong with her when I took her in. I won't be breeding her this year. She seems a tad lethargic to me - although she may not be and I may just be overly concerned. I have another apointment scheduled this week.

[ghosthousecorns]

I don't know about just being hungry and especially if she puked. That doesn't sound good, could she have ingested substrate? Definitely follow up with the vet. I'd try a few different food items. live, and maybe smaller (like pinkies) just to get her system going again. I had a male that would only eat pinkies last breeding season. Good luck!

[Malkingray]

I have tried f/t mice (adults and weanlings) and rats (pinks and fuzzy) as well as a live mouse and a live fuzzy rat. The f/t I have left in overnight in both her cage and a tub I use to feed. The live "meals" I only have let in for 30-60 minutes while I was in the room.
I pulled her from my snake room when this all started and have been keeping her seperate for now. I had kept her on newspaper and aspen except when feeding, although I did try a few of the corns on bed-a-beast over the last few weeks (seems to work well for my Ball Python, but the corns seem to prefer the aspen). The temps are good - even a bit warmer incase she is ill. I haven't noticed any more of the open mouth behavior, but she may be doing it when I am not around.
Do you think if I gave her bene-bac or something it may help? My appointment is on Thursday for a recheck.

[ghosthousecorns]

At least the first check up went OK and she isn't gaping her mouth open any more. I haven't used the bene-bac but I do put a few drops of grapefruit seed extract (GSE) in my snake's water bowls and that's supposed to help with regurge issues. If the bac is water soluble you can probably mix some in her water, I don't think that would hurt.

[pasam]

You probably had her checked out by now but could it be a respritory infection? Kinda sounds like one to me, but I could be way off.

[MegF.]

Sounds very much like an R.I. That was the first thing I thought of when you said the mouth was gaping and there was liquid coming out. Also the fact that you had just brought them out of a low temp brumation was another clue. I'd get your snake rechecked for r.i. and get the temps up in her viv in the meantime (90 degree warm spot). I'm surprised that yours lost weight at all. Normally, weight loss is at a minimum because they aren't moving. Mine lost almost no weight at all and they were brumated at far higher temps than yours at a much longer period.