• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Could my Snake be Dying???

COerriccaRN

COerriccaRN

New member
My Amel, Sunny has started doing some...odd...things lately.

He used to stay in his hide 24/7. He only came out at night and would run back into his hide if I moved or anything.

Now, he sits in one spot out in the middle of his viv. In his viv, I have one hide and one water bowl. He sits against the glass wall right in the middle of the two ALL THE TIME. Literally, he never leaves. Sometimes I will think he is dead because he will be in the same position for days at a time, but he never is. Sometime she will have his head squished up to the glass and sometimes he will just be curled up. I have no clue why he does this and does not stay in the hide or anything. Also, he never moves when I walk by. I can jump and run around my whole room and he just sits there like nothing is bothering him. Its almost like he is sick, but he doesn't really show any other signs of being sick

I don't provide my snakes any heat/coolness at all so he isn't trying to get into the warmest spot.

My concern is that he is dying, or on that path. My other two snakes come out of their hides to lay in the tree's and such, but they move around. They don't stay in the same spot for days...

Could Sunny be sick and/or dying?????? This is VERY odd and disturbing behavior from a Corn Snake...
 
Well, no guarantees, of course, but we have two or three who do just that every once in a while, and they're fine. Dunno what's going on in those little grain-of-rice brains of theirs...
 
Well, no guarantees, of course, but we have two or three who do just that every once in a while, and they're fine. Dunno what's going on in those little grain-of-rice brains of theirs.../QUOTE]

I wouldn't worry if he did this occasionally, but he does it ALL THE TIME. 24/7. He is always in that spot in the bald open, pressed against the glass.

I guess if I had a brain the size of a grain of rice, I would do some weird things to.
Click to expand...
 
COerriccaRN said:
<snip>I wouldn't worry if he did this occasionally, but he does it ALL THE TIME. 24/7. He is always in that spot in the bald open, pressed against the glass.
Click to expand...

That's what I meant. We have a hypo lavender female who spent nearly a week coiled up at the front of her aquarium, tilted at about a 60-degree angle, with the top of her head smashed against the glass, with a repeat performance a while later. We also have an amel stripe who wads himself into a pancake and hunkers down at the front of his Critter Keeper, and doesn't shift for days. They be peculiar beasties, they do!
 
Maybe he wants some heat? When their digesting they don't mov for 2 days or so because they are using their energy to digest their meal and heat speeds this process hence why they seek it out in the wild. With no heat and a feeding schdule of evry 5-7 days he may be always digesting which would make him sluggish. PS- If he's shedding he's growing:)
 
Maybe he wants some heat? When their digesting they don't mov for 2 days or so because they are using their energy to digest their meal and heat speeds this process hence why they seek it out in the wild. With no heat and a feeding schdule of evry 5-7 days he may be always digesting which would make him sluggish. PS- If he's shedding he's growing
Click to expand...

He hasn't shed yet since I have had him =( Also, my other snakes don't have heat and haven't for a long time. They are VERY active. I feed them every 7 days or so.
 
Hello,
have you ever had his poop analysed? Maybe he`s got some kind of parasite that uses up all the nutrients coming from the food. Not growing is not a good sign.
The best way to be sure your snake is ok, is to bring him to a vet and let them take samples that can be analysed for parasites and bacteria.
 
If you are not providing heat, it's a safe bet to say all of the viv is the same temp....
So no temp gradient.....
What are the temps in the viv?
And if it's eating fine it may be growing and you just haven't noticed it yet..
 
I'd be inclined to look at the temperature as well, as you're not providing any additional heating. If there isn't a warm spot into the 80s, then it's possible that its digestive system isn't working properly - that would explain why it's eating but not growing. Having undigested food in the gut woud certainly be enough to kill it.

Also, if the temp in the tank is over 80 degrees all the time, then the snake could simply be too hot (although mine tend to sit in their water if that happens). Again, being too hot for too long can kill and may be affecting digestion/growth. However, I'd have thought that temps are lower at night where you are - do you notice any change in that activity pattern after dark?
 
After Dark Sunny crawls around a little, but I don't know how much. His position is changed when I wake up in the morning. I just checked temps and its about 78 right now. Its HOT in texas, the night temps don't change much...
 
78 as an occasional top temp isn't ideal. You really need to have a warm spot in the 80s for digestion (I aim for mid-high 80s). I think that's your most likely issue with this fella. Would you be able to buy a UTH & thermostat?
 
Would you be able to buy a UTH & thermostat?
Click to expand...

More than likely not in the near future...It will probably be a while before I can save up enough money for that, for all of my snakes. Those things are EXPENSIVE!
 
COerriccaRN said:
More than likely not in the near future...It will probably be a while before I can save up enough money for that, for all of my snakes. Those things are EXPENSIVE!
Click to expand...

If you can't afford the equiptment needed for the animal you should not own the animal.
Please rehome these snakes ASAP if you can't afford the proper set-ups.
Get all the stuff you need first THEN the snake.

I mean really...would you buy a fish before getting water for the tank?
Would you buy a bird without a cage? Would you buy a horse for an apartment?

It is beyond irresposible to buy a pet and not everything it needs to survive. Why not just kill it now?

And yes I know I am being harsh. But this is animal neglect and pussy-footing around that fact is not going to help anyone.
 
whippet said:
If you can't afford the equiptment needed for the animal you should not own the animal.
Please rehome these snakes ASAP if you can't afford the proper set-ups.
Get all the stuff you need first THEN the snake.

I mean really...would you buy a fish before getting water for the tank?
Would you buy a bird without a cage? Would you buy a horse for an apartment?

It is beyond irresposible to buy a pet and not everything it needs to survive. Why not just kill it now?

And yes I know I am being harsh. But this is animal neglect and pussy-footing around that fact is not going to help anyone.
Click to expand...
I wish you would just come out and say what you mean and not beat about the bush.....
Fact is they have the snakes and are unlikely to follow any of that advice.
It is possible to use a home made rheostat instead of a Thermostat....
Or with trial and error you can use just the UTH and pack the viv up, to create the right temp, though this isn't something I would recommend.
Either way you do need more heat for the snakes to be able to digest properly...
 
whippet said:
If you can't afford the equiptment needed for the animal you should not own the animal.
Please rehome these snakes ASAP if you can't afford the proper set-ups.
Get all the stuff you need first THEN the snake.

I mean really...would you buy a fish before getting water for the tank?
Would you buy a bird without a cage? Would you buy a horse for an apartment?

It is beyond irresposible to buy a pet and not everything it needs to survive. Why not just kill it now?

And yes I know I am being harsh. But this is animal neglect and pussy-footing around that fact is not going to help anyone.
Click to expand...

Her other two snakes are fine, though.

I had my snake for two weeks without a heat source because I was told that he didn't need it. He has one now, but for those two weeks he was perfectly fine. Digested just fine, was active, went into shed, etc.

Anyways I would try to get some sort of heat for this guy, even if you just use a lamp on half of the cage. Just make sure it doesn't get too hot. If that doesn't help....then try someone else's advice.
 
I think the cliche cohab line applies here too..."there is never a problem, until there's a problem". So what if your snake was fine for 2 weeks without heat, it doesn't mean the conditions were perfect. A human can live 4-6 weeks without food, but would you want to? I know that's a totally different subject, but in my head it makes sense.

And I'm not picking on you Daenerys...you just had the handiest example.
 
Yeah but I have also heard from several sources that corns don't need a heat source so long as the temperature in the room isn't too high or low for them. I know they tend to do BETTER with a heat source but they don't need one, just like it isn't NECESSARY that humans eat a perfectly balanced diet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top