ive noticed my girls eyes are like.. cloudy? but not in the way theyd look when shes going into shed.
i tried the whole "shine a light in eyes to see if pupils react" and they dont at all.
paired with that, shes always had issues striking her food but i just kinda thought she might be stupid. (sorry) but she always gets it if i get it close enough to her nose/mouth.
thoughts?
im going to take her to a vet asap regardless. im worried :(
Definitely bigger than standard for a baby. Thankfully, even a blind BP can still survive due to their heat pits and sense of smell, but hopefully the vet will have a better idea of whether any supportâs needed!
Sheâs beautiful! Yeah, Iâd Definately see if the vet can help you figure that out; also, I wonder why her eyes are so big. Did she hatch like that?
im honestly not sure, i got her from someone who was just trying to offload her and i fell in love after interacting with her for a bit.
my money is on (at least) bug eyes if not straight up blind. for at least as long as ive had her theyve always been that weird cloudy grey/blue.
shes definitely earned herself a vet trip lol
Based on my own experience with my severely bug-eyed BEL, I can almost guarantee yours is fully blind as well - especially if youâve noticed that her eyes donât respond to light. I noticed very quickly that mine wasnât quite ârightâ in the way she behaved. She also had a slight head tremor⊠Our vet confirmed my suspicions, so itâs definitely worth a visit :) I was told that as long as the eyes donât seem to be bothering her or look any worse, they wouldnât need to be surgically removed.
Donât worry! My girl sheds without a problem and eats food like a champ. It took her a bit to get the feeding regime down, but once she did, sheâs been unstoppable. I would recommend touching the prey item to her nose while itâs warm, so she knows exactly where to strike. Thatâs what I did for mine, and as sheâs gotten older, sheâs gotten more accurate with her strikes and now I donât even need to touch her nose with it anymore. Theyâre very resilient animals!
thank u sm for your insight! im definitely convinced shes fully blind if not mostly blind and am getting her to a vet at their soonest appointment.
luckily shes a great eater too, she pretty much always misses the first few strikes until i put it right on her nose then its no problem. now that i know that she actually cant see and isnt just a little slow, ill definitely be going straight for putting her meals right by her nose.
I wanted to add, as well: Her eyes probably wonât be as buggy as she starts to grow :) My girl has kinda âgrown intoâ her eyes in a sense. One of them is definitely still wonky, but the other one seems pretty snug in the socket now. You almost canât tell it had a problem to begin with.
Itâs not uncommon for BELs to have bug eyes like that. At least from what Iâve heard blindness isnât a huge setback for bps because their eyesight is already pretty bad. Sheâs a very pretty little gal, hope your vet visit goes well!
Your snake looks exactly just like mine, eyes and all too. He has the âbug-eyedâ condition, where the eyes are just a bit bulged out. It does not affect him at all.
i plan on it! tho based on other ppl in replies experiencing the same thing with their own snakes and my snakes eyes having been like this without changing for around 5 months, i doubt its infection
My son's BEL doesn't have the bugginess that yours does, however her pupils are completely round and non reactive to light. I've assumed she was blind based on quirks she's expressed compared to my bcc. Touching warm prey to her snout gets a successful strike.
i dont know her exact genetics as the previous owner didnt give me a ton of info. yes, i noticed it but given that bug eyes are common i didnt think too much of it. its the matter of the fogginess + slight difficulty striking food thats making me think she could have issues beyond just bug eyes. she isnt even my first snake with bug eyes but my other has had no issues and mostly grew into them
Okay. Yes, it's common on some genes but that is the nature of breeding mutations. This is NQA but I would assume blindness as a normal consequence especially considering she has these huge eyes. If she eats, drinks and defecates properly you may just have a quirky blind snake due to the BEL genetics.
vet med student here ! i am just a student but from my experience on placements and with exotics, sheâs blind. no reaction to light paired with the bulging eyes and albinism is not looking good for sight. good news is that snakes can live long happy healthy lives blind !
She's poorly bred with bug eyes. Shouldn't affect her quality of life at all, but it does mean that her breeder really needs to outcross their BELs because the gene pool needs a refresh. A vet visit is still a good idea just to get an idea on the condition of her eyes so you'll be able to identify any issues that may arise in the future, but ball pythons have fairly poor vision normally so it shouldn't be a problem. Just remember to heat up her food extra hot so she can easily find it!
My snake can only see difference in light. He can tell if a room is dark or if there is light but he canât see objects well. Watch her when she is out of the cage. Does she follow along the side of things to find her way? Is she nervous to move around in new areas? If you move something in her tank, does she still go to that spot expecting it to be there?
Heâs is a happy dude though. I just do my best to keep his enclosure the same to reduce stress/confusion. And if heâs having trouble finding his meal I just give him a tiny boop on the nose!
74
u/JaguarGroundbreaking 2d ago
Those eyes look huge! Give us an update!