That spider gene corkscrew... lazy eye?

[KRAZE]

Hey guys, I acquired a female spider poss het pied through someone who originally wanted to take part in breeding ball pythons together along with a couple other friends and has since pretty much lost all interest in their part of the project. Myself and friend have been caring for the snakes since they were young and have always been in good hands, and I currently have the snakes in my care.

This one girl is about 700grams and is a beautiful snake, shows potential to create some nice spieds and the male I bought for her is double het albino/pied, so possibly albino pieds/spieds in the long run.

However my plans for breeding her are slowly fading away with time. She has developed a corkscrew recently. She never had an issue with wobble or corkscrewing, once in a while she took 2 shots to grab her food, but nothing major. Recently I have been noticing more spastic movements of the head, and her not being able to slither like most snakes. She tends to need something to follow, weather her own body or an object. Im not 100% sure on her age but I think she turns 2 this spring.

A couple weeks ago I was examining her more closely and I noticed something weird.... it looks like she has a lazy eye. Has anyone ever seen this? I took some good pics, see them below. Its her left eye.

I would like to know peoples opinions on the spider gene 'problems'... Is this something i should just leave as a pet snake, or should I attempt to breed and outcross it out? I just dont want to breed her and end up with more babies with the same neurological issues. I have no problem with just letting her live life as happy as it can be, but if success can be had in breeding her without any damage to her or future offspring then thats great too.

Let me hear some opinions, but PLEASE read through all the above before responding, I dont want to hear anything nasty, just looking for some opinions.

Thanks guys

Left vs right eye

normal eye

lazy eye

 

[PlatinumRosePythons]

I have never seen a snake with a lazy eye before. Very interesting. Hopefully someone else with more experiance will chime in. From what i've read it seems that corkscrewers can produce low wobbles and low wobbles can produce corkscrewers. It's just a luck of the draw thing. I have a young spider and she's fairly low wobble for now, may change for worse or better as she gets older (hopefully not worse, for her sake) but from everything i've read i've never heard of a 'lazy eyed' snake.

 

[skirtinthedirt]

If you just noticed the "lazy eye' and her spider issues recently have gotten worse, I would think the two issues may be related. It's possible you have some other neurological issue going on completely unrelated to the spider gene.

With both issues, I would be hesitant about breeding, unless you can find a treatable cause, but treating neuro issues in reptiles is difficult no matter the species.

Consider a vet visit, to see what they have to say, and beyond that obvervation and good husbandry are your friends.

Good luck to you.

 

[snowgyre]

I agree with Emily. A 'lazy eye' can be caused by a number of problems, such as a stroke, head trauma, etc. I think there is something actually neurologically wrong with this animal independent of the spider gene.

 

[KRAZE]

I just cant figure out what would have caused a sudden increase in corkscrewing/wobble. Its only been easily noticed when she would strike food, but nothing tramitic has happened recently, or ever that i can think of.

Is it common for spiders to get worse when they hit maturity? Like a worse-with-age type disorder? If not i cant think of the cause. I recently made a new rack, but she had started getting worse before that. Plus, she has lived in 4 other environments not including the breeder and never showed stress with change.

I dont think a vet would be able to do anything for me, especially here in CT. I would like first to hear sone options on whatvelse might have caused this or if someone with a lot more experience with spiders than myself lol.

I am also working on getting ahold of the original breeder to see if and inbreeding was done or if siblings have any issues. I do have her sister, a pastel poss het pied, who is fine but slightly larger at 900g.

 

[snakesRkewl]

Is it common for spiders to get worse when they hit maturity? Like a worse-with-age type disorder? If not i cant think of the cause. I recently made a new rack, but she had started getting worse before that. Plus, she has lived in 4 other environments not including the breeder and never showed stress with change.

Aside from the eye issue it is very common for spider and spider combos that don't start out wobbling or corkscrewing to do it by the time they are around a year old.
The first spider male I raised didn't do much of anything until he was about 9 months old, then by a year he was a train wreck corkscrewing and flipping his head to and fro without much control., he retired before reproducing.
We are currently raising a queenbee female that didn't show any signs of corkscrewing until she hit 13 months old and now at 18 months old can spin with the best of them.
We've bred several non corkscrewing bee's and about half of their babies have corkscrewed within a year old.
Our spiderbelly girl is fairly stable, although now and then she'll go upside down in her tub, she doesn't seem to corkscrew or wobble outside of her tub, just a slight head tilt.
Welcome to the spider gene.