Possibly blind??

[RX7-2nr]

i know a guy who just bought a female BP. he believes it may have bad vision, or possibly even blind. i havnt seen it yet, but he tells me that when he puts it on the ground it runs into things, and cant seem to get around them. im gonna go to his house this weekend, and check her out.

i was wondering if there is anyway to test her maybe, im not really sure what to do. anyway to tell if she is blind or not. he bought the snake from a guy in the newspaper who was selling it for $50 with a tank. She is about 2.5 ft long, not sure how old. Any ideas??

[Andy_G]

Well the most obvious would be to look at the eyes. I am not really sure how to tell with ball pythons if they are blind but in most snakes you can see an abnormality of some sort.

Could it be possible that your friend's snake is opaque and about to shed therefore cannot see?

[RX7-2nr]

no, he would have told me if its eyes opaque. he probably wouldnt have known why though. LOL.

[Linds]

An easy test to check how responsive the eyes are (and also used for neurological response, etc.) is to shine a flashlight in to it. In healthy eyes the pupils should be highly responsive to the light (become very small), and dilate again once light has diminished.

[Stockwell]

Linds is exactly correct!!!:)
I had a Blood Python once that was a real SOB
and it had no pupil reaction in one eye.. The pupil was wide open all the time.. This probably accounted for its extreme nastiness.
It's rarely done by new owners, but its a good idea to check new acquisitions to see if their eyes are functioning.

Snakes will somtimes seme a bit dumb and bump into stuff but they should be able to go around things.
In addition to the eyes, make sure it has a tongue that functions... and that it's mobility doesnt seem impaired.
Impactions and other internal problems can make snakes have a hard time moving properly on rare occasions... give it a good check over

[snakehunter]

Retained eye caps?

[mykee]

Arent's balls pupils always dilated? All I ever see is pupil!