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Ball Python respiratory problems

I have a young ball python that I have had for about one month. He is around 17 inches long. He has been eating regularly once a week every week and is very tame. The humidity is in between 50 and 70 at all times and the temperature is in the mid to high 80s on the warm side and low 80s to high 70s on the cold side. He has a large water dish and a hide box as well as climbing branches. He appeared happy and healthy since I got him until tonight. I came home from work and the house was very warm and because of the heat lamp caused the tank to become almost 100 degrees! I turned off the high wattage heat lamp and instead turned on a lower wattage one. Soon the temperature was back down to mid 80s. I then noticed that he was showing signs of labored breathing. Head up and mouth open and a popping sound when breathing and almost a coughing/sneezing type of sound. I know these are signs of respiratory infection but he had never shown any problems before this temperature catastrophe, so I don’t know if it is a respiratory infection or just respiratory distress from the extremely high temperature? Sorry this is so long, but please help.

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Answer #1

100 degrees is boiling point in Celsius but not Fahrenheit. Snakes live at these temperatures in the desert. Watch your snake for another day and if he doesn’t get better, take him to a vet.

Answer #2

id say its definatly because of the high temperature… 100 degrees is boiling point, so your basically cooking the snake! you really need a thermostatically controlled heat lamp! so the temperature never overheats. also make sure the snake has plenty of water, not just to drink but to bathe in if he gets too hot hope that helped you out a bit

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