Is my ball python dead??

[Snickers1]

Hello! I’ve had my ball python for about 3 weeks now. He’s about 6 months old. When I woke up this morning I found him kind of stretched out with his tail curved and head facing the floor of the tank. He’s not moving at all. I picked him up and poked around him a bit. No response. The temperature in his tank is 86 degrees. His eyes are open though. How do I know if he’s dead?

[Jim Smith]

Since snakes can not close their eyes, you can't use this as an indicator of if an animal is dead or not. I suspect that if you pick up your snake and they are completely unresponsive with no movement at all and the head and tail hang down, then there's a pretty good chance that the snake is dead. Sorry about your loss. Were there any other symptoms prior to its demise?

[Snickers1]

Thank you for your response. He didn’t make it unfortunately. He was pretty normal beforehand so I’m not exactly sure what caused his death. The only thing I really could say was different was his skin. He was pretty wrinkly so I figured he was starting the shedding process. He did seem pretty weak as well but I heard that was normal for shedding. Not sure what I could have done differently

[IDvsEGO]

Sorry to hear that. Always a tough thing to lose a pet.

[Aaron_S]

Thank you for your response. He didn’t make it unfortunately. He was pretty normal beforehand so I’m not exactly sure what caused his death. The only thing I really could say was different was his skin. He was pretty wrinkly so I figured he was starting the shedding process. He did seem pretty weak as well but I heard that was normal for shedding. Not sure what I could have done differently

It could have been cancer, some cardiac arrest or some other health event we can't see or they don't show symptoms of.

[Herpin' Man]

A wrinkly appearance is often the result of dehydration, for what it's worth.