Kinks

[Big Mike]

I recently noticed that our baby snow corn has some kinks in her spine about 2/3 down her body. I handle her a few times a week and have never noticed them before. She eats like a champ and is growing like a weed.

Besides her clay-pot-base hide, she had a hand full of film canisters to hide in. She would spend a lot of time curlled up in a film container. I'm concerned that being so cramped up while at this stage of growing so fast might have contributed to the kinks so I removed the film containters and gave her a plastic plant instead.

She does not seem to be in any pain...she did not like me feeling the kink but is calm and inquisitive while handling.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Will she grow out of it? Is this a defect from inbreeding (to get snow trait)?

I wil try to get some pics soon.

[Cas]

I don't think being cramped would cause kinking - certainly not if the snake wedged itself into the canisters... a) she would have had to sit in exactly the same position for a <i>long</i> time for the spine to fuse (think of the way braces are used to correct teeth - takes <i>years</i>), and b) a position tight enough to cause that would probably hurt, so your snake would probably not have done it. She probably had the kinks before and either you just didn't notice, or they're getting easier to notice as your snake gets a little older.

Spinal kinks are sometimes genetic, but are usually caused by a spike in the incubation temps (possibly a low drop as well? not sure... but I believe it's usually high heat). If she's eating and defecating fine, then she'll probably live a long healthy life despite the kinks - and if they're only minor kinks, she could probably even still breed (and the odds are very good that it's not genetic and her offspring wouldn't have kinks).

Dawn

[Big Mike]

Thanks... :)