Can't Stand the Excitement

Wow, Mr. Wibbles' life sure is action-packed and full of excitement, isn't it? When I started this blog, oh Faithful Reader, I had no idea what unchartered waters we would sail together as we saw life through the eyes of a ball python with wobble head. Would the genetic condition dominate his existence? Would it mess up his ability to slough off his sheds? Would he continue to strike at prey at angles perpendicular to the direction that the prey was actually located relative to him?

No, no, and sometimes, but only rarely.

I need a new picture of Wibbles on this blog. Remember the missing scales from the last posting? They reappeared with the following shed, no problem. He has gained weight steadily (see chart below). He passed quarantine and now lives in the 4th floor tub of a 5-slot adult rack (Jason's Jungle, great product, great guy) with some ball python neighbors (June, Ward, Mez, and Daphne). He still has a hide, the same fake rock hide he's always had, and when he's hungry he sticks his head out of it and faces the front of the tub. I dangle the prey and he strikes from the hide and pulls it on in. Two days later his head surfaces again, but I feed him once per week now. He's eating one frozen/thawed weanling rat per feeding. I've started breeding my own rats, but he's still working his way through the ones from RodentPro.com.

He shed yesterday, a perfect one-piece effort, then weighed in at 416 grams. Tonight he feasts.

Here's the chart I promised (I think you can click to enlarge). Until next time!

Wounded

When I checked up on Mr. Wibbles today, I was in for a nasty surprise: he was missing scales on his nose. Here is the picture:

I do not know for certain how it happened, but I have a suspicion. Mr. Wibbles has been splashing his water around. He has a heavy water dish and cannot move it, but I have seen him splash down into it. This is forcing me to completely clean his tub out on a daily basis and put dry substrate in (newspaper).

The thermostat probe at the basking end has no suction cup, and he has been known to move it around, sometimes too far toward the center which threatens the thermoregulatory balance (did I just make up a word?). To secure the probe into place, I use duct tape. I've never had trouble with this before, but then again, I've never had wet enclosures before. My guess is that the excessive moisture weakened the adhesive just enough for him to pull the strip of tape off the bottom of the tub (perhaps he was caught by the probe wire and pulled free), then later when he was sniffing around he got it stuck on his nose.

When I cleaned his enclosure tonight (because it was soaked) I noticed the probes were not secured. When I lifted his hide, I found feces and urates, plus a small strip of duct tape.

For first aid I rinsed him off in the sink under a gentle stream of warm water, patted him dry with a paper towel, and applied a small quantity of triple antibiotic ointment to the exposed area. Mr. Wibbles didn't flinch once, and did not seem to mind the ointment the slightest bit. He was so calm that I was able to apply it with precision, avoiding his nostrils.

Nevertheless, I'm worried for Mr. Wibbles.

Mr. Wibbles Makes a Friend

A buddy of mine who professes a fear of snakes stopped by last night to set up some music gear in the basement. He has read this blog before and knows all about my "special needs snake." I offered to show him Mr. Wibbles and he said sure.

I offered him the opportunity to back as far away as he wanted, but he bravely stood by as I opened Mr. Wibbles' container. After watching me hold Mr. Wibbles for a minute or two, he was able to bring himself to touch the scales. Quite a feat for an ophidiophobe.

Mr. Wibbles went on to eat another mouse F/T fuzzy last night. Struck true first time, great double-coil.

Mr. Wibbles Gets His Wobble On

Shot two videos last night and finally caught Mr. Wibbles doing his thing. It's nothing too dramatic, actually, since his symptoms have lessened somewhat in the past four weeks. In fact, if you didn't know what to look for, you wouldn't even know he suffered from the spins.

Video #1 - He doesn't give us much here. Guess he forgot to read the script.

Video #2 - Finally we get a wobble, but in this case it's more of a "flop." He's a flopper...he's got the Flops. Mr. Flopper.

Oh yeah, he finally defecated, but I haven't weighed him yet.

Weight Gains and Humidity Woes

I found Mr. Wibbles in a bit of a fog this morning, quite literally. His water dish was empty, the sides of his tub were wet so that I couldn’t see inside, and his paper towel substrate was fairly moist. Clearly his humidity is too high. Tonight I must solder more holes into his tub to allow some additional moisture to escape.

While I was cleaning and sterilizing his habitat this morning, I went ahead and weighed him. He came in at 106 grams, a 51% increase in the 25 days we’ve had him. He hasn’t defecated, however, so we should expect some decrease when he does. Still, this is encouraging news for Mr. Wibbles, who is growing by leaps and bounds.

Here is his weight chart:

...and the Oscar for Worst Director goes to...

...hand me the envelope please...

...Scott Duncan!

[applause, boos]

[Lofting award to jeers] Thank you, thank you!

I shot some video of Mr. Wibbles eating two mice last night. My hope was to show Mr. Wibbles demonstrating his wobble. Unfortunately, the director had no control over his cast and Mr. Wibbles moved and ate as if he did not have the defect. Additionally, when presenting the first mouse to the lead actor in the drama, the director inadvertantly placed his hand between the camera and the star. Viewers can still see the strike, but the scene is framed less than optimally.

Nevertheless we hope you enjoy the show!

Camera Problems

Mr. Wibbles never did finish his shed. Most of it ended up coming off in one piece, with two or three shreds of it separated from the whole here and there. However, there is one piece about 3/4" long that remains stuck under his chin. Why that didn't come off we're not sure, but my wife thinks that with his wobble he might have an especially tough time rubbing that spot against a surface (since he frequently tilts his head at a slight angle). I've got his humidity around 85%, but since that doesn't seem to be getting the job done we may end up having to help the guy out.

So we fed him on Wednesday night and I was all prepared to film the whole thing for posterity when the new digital camera I own reported that the batteries were exhausted. Normally I would take the camera's word for it, but I've had this camera for less than a week and I've already changed the batteries twice. This time I used a flashlight to check the batteries and wouldn't you know, they were fine and had plenty of life left in them. The camera takes several different kinds of batteries; right now we're using AA's. We'll switch to lithium or one of the other options and see if that does any better, but something tells me I'll be taking advantage of the warranty.

Long story short: no pics or video of the feeding. So here are my observations.

(1) He ate 2 F/T (frozen/thawed) mouse fuzzies.

(2) He nailed them both on his first attempts.

(3) If you only saw the strike that took the first mouse, you'd never know he was a wobbler.

(4) Before taking the 2nd mouse, he was lurching around spastically. Think of the movie "Men in Black", and the bug in the Edgar suit. He moved around like that, tilting/flopping to the left, then abruptly jerking around the other way, his head not quite positioned the way it should be. It got more pronounced when I dangled the mouse for him. Possibly he was scared, but eventually his tongue flicked, he suddenly became quite calm, and a second later he struck perfectly and double-coiled.

I was quite proud.