• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

HELP: Young Ball Biting Itself!!

W

wrxrated

New member
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
39
Location
Long Island, New York
Hello all,

I have noticed some very strange and disturbing behavior from my ball python recently.

She has been biting herself during feeding, and multiple times too! It is as if she simply does not know where here body is. i feed her in a large bin, and place the mouse clearly in front of her, but she still insists on biting herself multiple times before finding the mouse. She then pulls away in shock and appears to be frightened. She then resumes her hunting. Today she bit herself 3 times before she found the rat!

Now I have two questions:

1. What do I do? I talk to an experienced reptile owner and they said that this could be due to some left over skin from shedding blocking the heat sensors on the snakes head. What do I do about this? I used that Shed-ease stuff before and she hates it. But how would I go about removing that dead skin?

2. Is this harmful for the snake? I dont see any visible bites or skin irritation where she struck herself, but I still am worried. I have antibiotic stuff incase she ever gets bitten by a mouse, but I cant even see where she bit herself.


*Thanks for the help.... and I'm happy to be a member!
 
If it is because of retained shed, I would soak her for a little bit and then give her a soft rub down. Make sure you rub from front to back. To me, it sounds like there is more to this than old shed. I hope not and wish the best for you snake.
Rick
 
It appears as if one of those holes that are on the lower half off the python's jaw that are pinkish red in color has old unshed skin it. I know that these are the parts of the snake that sense heat.

Could this be it? I hope so, its really really disturbing for me to watch my snake bite itself.

Please anyone else if you have something to add do so... i dont want to have to see this anymore
 
soak the snake- remove the shed...

Have you tried f/t food?
I use f/t and tweezer feed or hand feed everything up to burmese python- size and up...

i have had them miss and hit me- but very rarely- the tweezer fed guys never miss- its not moving much and very easy to find- its always in the same corner of the cage...
Our tiger retic stations at the corner when i come in with a bowl of rats for everyone- she knows whats coming and where it comes from....

good luck... It could also be a nuerological issue... we had a RTB come in... about 3 years ago- bit its self and died- we had him quarantined and only had him 2 days...
it was horrible
 
I want to keep feeding it live. It never had an issue until it had one bad shed. Ever since that bad shed, she has been doing this during feeding time.

Any other suggestions?
 
Can you see the dead skin? Soaking will help. But if it doen't come off, take a wet Q-tip and try to gently rub it off. It helped me when one of my ball's nares were blocked with old skin and she couldn't breathed. At first I thought she had an RI because she kept opening her mouth to breath.

Jen
 
yes my snake appears to be yawning every now and then, could this be because of the blocked nare? its only one of them though, i cant see this creating so much of a trouble
 
Back
Top