Mr. Peaches
New member
I'm concerned about my albino adult ratsnake. He was a rescue and when I got him, he was in pretty bad state. He had mites and lost the tip of his tail in a bad shed. He was also consistently beaten and is afraid of people but not aggressive. The vet thinks he's 7+ years old or maybe even older.
When is got him he was a perfect eater and ate two mice in one go every 1st as. He was quick and would strangle one mouse and not release it and the already go for the other. The last couple of months I've been noticing that he's having trouble catching them.
He follows their scent but never notices them run away. So if a mouse was in the corner of his terrarium, by the time he slithered over there, the mouse would be long gone. Also when the mice touch him while running away he gets scared and goes into protective mode. When striking he would be late for he first needed to kick the mouse before being certain whereto strike and you can guess it, the mouse was long gone by then.
Still he managed to catch one three weeks ago. Sunday I got him two live mice again. He had just come out of shedding and was roaming the terrarium hungrily for food. I put the mice in and nothing. He didn't chase them, just slithered slowly and after two hours gave up and went to his hide.
I took the mice away and offered one again, dangling it to it to front of his face. Nothing. He slithered right past me and the mouse. I let the mouse touch his head and he just didn't do anything. It was like the mouse wasn't even there. I think he's really going blind for he only reacts to sound, not to sight. I'm definitely switching him to frozen thawed but does this sound familiar to anyone and is this how a blind snake would react?
I plan on taking him to the vet if he refuses to eat the next few weeks, but I don't want to stress him by dragging him unecessarily to the vet just to check if he's really blind.
When is got him he was a perfect eater and ate two mice in one go every 1st as. He was quick and would strangle one mouse and not release it and the already go for the other. The last couple of months I've been noticing that he's having trouble catching them.
He follows their scent but never notices them run away. So if a mouse was in the corner of his terrarium, by the time he slithered over there, the mouse would be long gone. Also when the mice touch him while running away he gets scared and goes into protective mode. When striking he would be late for he first needed to kick the mouse before being certain whereto strike and you can guess it, the mouse was long gone by then.
Still he managed to catch one three weeks ago. Sunday I got him two live mice again. He had just come out of shedding and was roaming the terrarium hungrily for food. I put the mice in and nothing. He didn't chase them, just slithered slowly and after two hours gave up and went to his hide.
I took the mice away and offered one again, dangling it to it to front of his face. Nothing. He slithered right past me and the mouse. I let the mouse touch his head and he just didn't do anything. It was like the mouse wasn't even there. I think he's really going blind for he only reacts to sound, not to sight. I'm definitely switching him to frozen thawed but does this sound familiar to anyone and is this how a blind snake would react?
I plan on taking him to the vet if he refuses to eat the next few weeks, but I don't want to stress him by dragging him unecessarily to the vet just to check if he's really blind.
