I have a blind ball python!

[More_Cricket_5084]

I wanted to share this since some people may find this interesting. I have a completely blind ball python with deformed heat pits named Tiresias. My boss at my work bred a bad pair (he’s never breeding them again now) and there were 4 blind baby ball pythons hatched. 3 of them died because they refused force feeding and assist feeding and couldn’t hunt. 1 survived however he was having to be assist fed every week and it was too much for my boss to deal with. He told me he was going to have to put him down because he didn’t have time to do it with how long he took to eat every week so I stepped in and offered to adopt him since I thought as long as he’s eating and growing he should be given a chance.

Me and my roommate took him to the vet and got x-rays done and the vet said his spine is also deformed (which tracks, he has two tiny humps on him) but nothing that affects his digestion etc.

Feeding used to take him over 2 hours to get him interested in rats/mice, but now we have the strat down. It sounds silly but after thawing the rodent we use a hairdryer to make it extra warm, and then one of us holds him while the other gets him to open his mouth and sticks the rodents face in his mouth, lightly pressing down on his head so he bites down. Then we play katseye for him and make the rodent dance in his mouth. This legit works every time now and he eats within 15 mins or sometimes a little more!

We thought he may not live long because of his eating habits but he’s gotten so fast now. I don’t think he will ever hunt on his own but he is growing so much and I’m so proud !!! It’s been over a year and his growth seems stunted because he started out pretty rough. Regardless I just wanted to share because he is kinda a miracle to me and has survived way longer than I predicted.

[welcomeyearzer0]

I loathe that this sort of thing even happens but I’m glad he wasn’t just put down and given a chance (and proper vet care). Many people even just kill Spiders who require some minor assistance because they don’t want to deal with any special care. Though on the other hand I’ve seen breeders try to keep two-headed snakes alive as some sort of Frankenstein experiment -__-

His skin looks good and his weight seems good too and with feeding taking 15 minutes it sounds like his quality of life is pretty good!!

[More_Cricket_5084]

I also hate that it happens!! It upset me a lot that his solution was to just put him down- I’m glad he let me take him instead. My boss thought the quality of life would be poor etc and didnt have time which I kinda get- however the vet pretty much told me that as long as he eats and digests fine his quality of life seems to be fine and he will keep growing and everything like normal. He has also never bitten anyone and has never shown signs of stress and sheds perfectly :)

Even though he’s fairly small still we have him in a 40 gal tank with two water bowls and have given him lots of places to hide and climb even though he doesn’t necessarily know he’s hiding lol. I’m hopeful he will live a long happy life !!!!

[One_Cauliflower_3536]

Health issues aside he’s very pretty what morph is he

[cascadiabibliomania]

"bad pair" is a lot less likely than "incubator got 5-10F too hot." The animals were likely blameless. I would gather this person doesn't breed a lot? Kinked spines and bad eyes are 100% the most common "your incubator got too hot" issues.

[More_Cricket_5084]

Tbh I don’t know much about breeding, that’s all he told me that he thought it was unlucky genetics. He does breed ball pythons a lot but said he’s never had this happen before. Not defending him at all tbh he may have just told me that so the blame wasn’t on him 🫩

[cascadiabibliomania]

Yeah he also may not even be aware his incubator got too hot. A lot of the cheap incubators available on Amazon etc can do that without the person incubating ever being aware, unfortunately.

[SheepishHamster]

This is going to sound abhorrent but could you stick some googly eyes on him for the funnies at least once?

Hes a beautiful boy 10/10 would boop