wretchedprocess
New member
On the issue of whether stargazers are suffering:
I've never personally seen a stargazing corn except in youtube videos, but we have a ball python at the rescue who exhibits that behaviour. Before anyone worries, it's NOT BID or anything contagious, we've had him very thoroughly checked out, and he's perfectly healthy apart from the stargazing. He's been there for quite a while, and he's always been a very good eater and healthy in every way we can see except for the weird movements. In his case it's probably because of a head injury or exposure to toxins before we got him.
Anyway, I don't think he suffers from anything other than boredom. To keep people who come to adopt snakes from worrying, we have to keep him kind of out of the way, and his cage is not very exciting. But he's a really sweet snake, and loves being held. He's bright, friendly, engaged, and entirely capable of hanging on just like a normal ball python. In fact, when he's being held, he acts almost normal. I tend to feel that if he were in any sort of distress he'd be a bit more defensive about being taken out of his cage, but obviously he feels confident enough in his ability to tell what's going on and where it is not to feel threatened. Would I breed him? Hell no. Would I adopt him? I'm actually trying to convince my husband that this is a good idea. Because I know no one else will want him, and he deserves a good home.
I don't think the stargazers necessarily suffer. It's definitely something to weed out of the gene pool if at all possible, but from my limited experience I would say euthanizing them just because they stargaze is much more cruel than kind. Assuming, of course, that you can find a sap like me who loves the abnormal ones as much as the normal ones.
I've never personally seen a stargazing corn except in youtube videos, but we have a ball python at the rescue who exhibits that behaviour. Before anyone worries, it's NOT BID or anything contagious, we've had him very thoroughly checked out, and he's perfectly healthy apart from the stargazing. He's been there for quite a while, and he's always been a very good eater and healthy in every way we can see except for the weird movements. In his case it's probably because of a head injury or exposure to toxins before we got him.
Anyway, I don't think he suffers from anything other than boredom. To keep people who come to adopt snakes from worrying, we have to keep him kind of out of the way, and his cage is not very exciting. But he's a really sweet snake, and loves being held. He's bright, friendly, engaged, and entirely capable of hanging on just like a normal ball python. In fact, when he's being held, he acts almost normal. I tend to feel that if he were in any sort of distress he'd be a bit more defensive about being taken out of his cage, but obviously he feels confident enough in his ability to tell what's going on and where it is not to feel threatened. Would I breed him? Hell no. Would I adopt him? I'm actually trying to convince my husband that this is a good idea. Because I know no one else will want him, and he deserves a good home.
I don't think the stargazers necessarily suffer. It's definitely something to weed out of the gene pool if at all possible, but from my limited experience I would say euthanizing them just because they stargaze is much more cruel than kind. Assuming, of course, that you can find a sap like me who loves the abnormal ones as much as the normal ones.