Seeking possible answers for surprise and sad death

Fawkes'Family · 06-22-12, 10:44 PM

Fawkes was a year and a half old. He has always been pretty small for his age (about 1/2 the size of a typical corn) despite regular feedings. We got him from a private breeder and were very happy with him.

He was well cared for. Had a heating mat on half his tank with a thermometer to make sure it was at the right temp. He had a log/cave to assist with shedding and water bowl in one half his tank. He was handled regularly and almost acted like he wanted to be around people.

This afternoon/evening we noticed he was pretty listless so I put him back in his cage to avoid stressing him out. Two hours later, he was alive but barely moving. We had tried completely cleaning his tank and he regularly has fresh water. However, nothing seemed to work. Shortly after, he passed away.

We are just really sad and looking for some sort of explanation as to what could have happened.

alessia55 · 06-22-12, 11:02 PM

Welcome to the forum! Please read our sSNAKESs forum rules.

I'm sorry for your loss

Have you tried talking to the breeder? does s/he have any ideas on what might have happened?

Fawkes'Family · 06-22-12, 11:06 PM

We've had him since he was young enough to be ours and the breeder has been raising snakes successfully his whole life.
Thank you though.

Lankyrob · 06-23-12, 05:55 AM

Sorry for your loss, what temps did you keep him at? What substrate? How often was he handled and for how long? How often and what size mice was he fed?

All these questions may help us get toward an answer but if you want definitive proof then a necropsy is the only way to go.

exwizard · 06-23-12, 06:09 AM

I am sorry for your loss and I went through a similar experience with my Bloodred Stripe last year. Rob is right. A necropsy is the only way to know for sure the cause of his passing. Hopefully you still have him and you did not freeze him. Once again, I know how you feel and I truly am sorry.

Fawkes'Family · 06-23-12, 07:30 AM

Thank you for your help and support.
He was kept around 82 degrees on one side of the tank, about 78 on the other.
He was fed around every 5-6 days and after a year and a half was still eating pinkies. Is this normal? He was really small for his age.
He lived on non-printed newspaper. He was handled 3-4 times a week for about 30 minutes at a time. (He seemed to want time outside of his vivarium).

snake man12 · 06-23-12, 07:34 AM

Although you may think that he want's to be handled snakes actually get stressed from the whole experience of being out of the viv. One reason he might be trying to get out is that his temps were a little off

Gungirl · 06-23-12, 07:46 AM

I have heard of a few random deaths and when all was said and done they found the reason to be an enlarged heart. I am not sure if this was the case with your little snake but it might have been..

Snakefood · 06-23-12, 09:08 AM

at a year and a half most corns are at least eating big fuzzy's and sometimes hoppers. But you have mentioned he was very small for his age, so maybe pinkies were the right sized prey. prey should be about 1.5 times the girth of the largest part of your corns body.

Without a necropsy, you will probably never know what it was that happened, but being that he was so much smaller than he should be it sounds like some thing was wrong that caused a "failure to thrive", usually any animal who is failing to thrive dies young, take the year and a half you had with him as a blessing, cause he could easily have died much younger.

mykee · 06-23-12, 01:37 PM

Some animals just die.
No reason.

moshirimon · 06-23-12, 06:48 PM

i had a male albino het. anery corn do the exact same thing. he never grew more than a 2-3 foot, always healthy, always ate, and one day just died. Until this day i have no clue what happened. Sucks that was my first snake

snake man12 · 06-23-12, 08:00 PM

I had an ultra corn that after about six months died, he ate and shed well. I believe corns are very fragile as hatchlings

MojoHerps · 06-24-12, 10:34 AM

Your husbandry sounds like it was just fine. Clearly something was not right with this snake if he was still eating pinkies at over a year. Some animals are just not meant to make it. You could a necropsy but even that may not tell you the reason the snake did not make it. I'm sorry for your loss.

I think in general corns are fairly hardy animals but the young of any species are always more fragile than adults.

Will0W783 · 06-24-12, 01:26 PM

I'm so sorry for your loss...sometimes we never know why these things happen. Like others have said, a necropsy is probably the only way to figure it out. They are expensive, but can ease your mind. It doesn't sound like you were doing anything wrong, but he was strangely small for his age.

helen davis · 06-24-12, 09:49 PM

we are so sorry for your loss!!

-Mr. and Mrs. Davis