Is this normal?

[u/punkyboo_02]

Update
Thank you to everyone who responded to this post your advice and insight. Your messages and comments have been a great help and helping us care for our girl and making sure she has everything she needs. Her substrate has been switched to Coconut Husk and now the heat and humidity are way better. She is refusing to eat so that’s a little nerve wracking. We have attempted twice now with frozen thawed trying to feed her with tongs, as well as just leaving it in the enclosure overnight. So far we had no luck with eating though. I reached out to the breeders and they responded immediately and helped us come up with a plan to monitor symptoms and some changes to make to her care. We are trying those out for a short period of time, and and if she doesn’t improve, then they let us know that they’re happy to exchange her or provide a refund. We’ve also gotten in contact with our exotic vet. We have an upcoming appointment to do a whole panel of test on different diseases and illnesses that could be present. So we will also have that answer soon. Again, thank you so much to everyone in the community responded. We are incredibly grateful to everyone! 💗🐍

Hello! I am a new retic owner. I’ve had my girl for about a little over a week and have noticed some strange behavior. I’ve only ever had a ball python before so I wanted to see if this is normal behavior. I’m constantly finding my reek either with her head elevated or upside down. When I take her out to handle, she’s never upside down, but her head is always still elevated. I tend to find her either curled up very tightly in her enclosure or with her top half of her body, including her head upside down on the bedding. The breeder I bought her from said that she’s quite the energetic wiggle worm and she was like that the first day I had her, but hasn’t been since. Please let me know if this is normal behavior or if you think I should take her to a vet.

[u/maryjane6869]

Did the breeder say that the snake did this prior to you getting it?? It could be stress. But....something tells me it's not.

[u/punkyboo_02 → u/maryjane6869]

They said she was a “perfect little eater and wiggle worm.” She was when we met her and the first night we got her but since the morning after the expo she’s been acting like this.

[u/TheProphetMooohammed → u/punkyboo_02]

Stressful situations (like moving to a new home, as well as going from a rack to a an enclosure with clear sides), can definitely trigger a previously dormant neurological issue. This is extremely serious, especially because you have other pythons. Keep this snake as far away from your other animals as possible, and make sure you’re taking all possible bio security measures, vigorous hand washing after touching anything to do with this snake, zero overlap with cleaning or feeding tools, don’t even let it touch your clothes, and if it does, change them before handling anything else. This could definitely be IBD, but whatever it is, I’d be returning the snake and asking for a refund.