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[bdiddy]

Hi there everyone,

I just got my first GTP a little over a month ago. It's a yellow neonate, eating well, active, a little temperamental but so far I haven't been bitten. The day after I brought it home I introduced a hopper it took immediately. I've had several snakes before but never seen such an aggressive eater. I was able to carefully extract it from its perch, but it's been damn bitey lately so I've left it alone except for cleaning the cage after defecation, cleaning water bowls, misting, and feeding. I have had a lifelong love of and fascination for reptiles but this is by far my favorite. It fits the Sarong description but most around here are Biak. Guess it could be either, as I live in SE Asia. It's likely farmed, not wild caught, as it is quite young and still a calm good eater. I worked for a vet for 6 yrs and do my own fecal checks every time it has a bowel movement, no parasites so far. You guys wouldn't believe the prices you can get a Biak for around here. Holy crap man I am talking $30 or less for a proven eater. Of course you may have to get a fecal and treat for worms but still, thats not really a big deal in my opinion. My dogs get heartworm plus and twice yearly fecal exams. Anyway it seems you guys have a really negative attitude towards GTP's and especially toward non CB's. I assume with GTPs even captives need regular fecals. I happen to live in their native ecosystem, so dont have to bother with heat pads or major humidity worries, just mist once a day and all is good. I wanted to post in a couple other threads but they are all closed. Do tapeworms really appear as bumps under the skin? I read that in a post here and having 6 yrs experience at a vet clinic never heard of such at thing. My vet wasn't a herp expert by any means just expressing my doubts. Tapeworms are intestinal parasites, why would an intestinal parasite manifest as a bump under the skin? Also I take notice of some here recommending force feeding neonates that are reluctant to take mice. I have to say that is a very bad idea with GTPs, they are much thinner and more delicate than other pythons and boas. Broken vertebrae will likely be the result. Only do this as a last resort, when you have given up and expect it to die. Try dwarf hamster pinkies, especially the chinese hamster types. They tend to really take these as readily as lizards and such. Alternately, find an anole or some such cheap lizard, try that. Should give better chances than force feeding. The tail tease is a good idea though. Get them to strike from aggression, which isnt that hard, they are bitey creatures, and pop off the head if you have to the first couple times, sometimes that can get them started. Sorry to pust so much here, but hey, you guys lock all the originals, what am I supposed to do?

[Aaron_S]

The originals were locked from a LONG time ago. So don't worry about them.

Welcome to the forums.

[Boots]

Welcome to the forum. Just so you know, threads are locked after a long period of time to keep old threads from resurfacing. They are there for information, but can not be added too.

Jason

[bdiddy]

Originally Posted by Boots

Welcome to the forum. Just so you know, threads are locked after a long period of time to keep old threads from resurfacing. They are there for information, but can not be added too.

Jason

That's reasonable guys. Thanks for the quick response. So do tapeworms, an intestinal parasite, really manifest themselves in reptiles as bumps under the skin? I am suspecting that this is some other type of subdermal problem or parasite altogether. My neonate GTP is growing quickly, and so is it's temper. Used to be the easiest thing to take out and handle briefly. Now I've been bitten twice. That is not a problem for me though, I have kept lots of reps and most have bitten me at one time or another, and this guy is a lot easier than my 7 foot long red tailed boa was. That guy bit me once (my fault, was holding a rat by the tail by hand, hey I was young and naive) and wrapped me. He was strong as hell and you can imagine me unwrapping him from my arm, starting at the tail, then trying to extract his very powerful mouth from my hand without breaking his teeth, all while bleeding more than a little, but not exactly profusely. It's funny now, but I wasn't laughing on the day. This guy just hits and retracts, warning and scared. They have some amazing teeth for such a small snake, I guess he is around 2 feet long now and the bite drew four beads of blood. I guess to be a successful snake living your life in the trees of a rainforest you need some impressive teeth to hold onto your prey. At least it didn't hurt. Don't know if I told you before but I am a bit strange when it comes to pain. I was in the navy for 4 years, went to war, worked for a vets a total of 6 years through high school and college, now live in SE Asia teaching science, learn Muay Thai with professionals for my other hobby, and I enjoy kicking hard enough to hurt myself, and even kind of like being kicked and hit (in the ring.) So a non venomous snake bite isn't going to be a big deal to me. I assume when it's grown it will be a different story, but hopefully with size it will lose some of the fear as well. Anyway good to be here and let me know about that tapeworm thing, it's an interesting question I'd like to know more about, will try to research it myself as well.

[Aaron_S]

I have no idea about the tapeworm thing. I've never heard of that. I wouldn't quite believe it because I thought tapeworms were in the intestines. I could be wrong as I'm no expert on such things.

Usually, with green tree pythons they don't lose fear as they get bigger. They'll keep biting. As they get bigger they become more confident that they can protect themselves better with those teeth. Very delicate, bu longer than the average snake. It'll easily make you bleed everytime. You should be extremely careful as when they are larger those teeth are going to go those few extra millimeters deeper than other species.

[bdiddy]

That's alright so far as the bleeding goes. I train Muay Thai with pro Thai Muay Thai fighters in Thailand. A little blood or even pain for that matter isn't a big deal to me. I've had kidney stones three times in my life, once I had no health insurance and needed to save money, so I drank coffee, a couple beers, and lots of water, paced around the house, sweated, took cold showers, until it passed. It wasn't fun, and I never wanna do it agan, but I'm just saying even a six foot gtp bite isn't going to bother me that much. My concern is the risk of injury to the animal. It is a little of a shock though, they are so darn fast. It's too bad getting bigger won't make it confident enough to lose fear of me. My friend had a reticulated python that was almost as calm as a puppy, it never bit anyone from hatchling to adult. Mine is a two foot long neonate and both times it bit me it drew blood. I don't take it out and handle it that much. I'm a scientist with a love of reptiles, I have a dog and daughter to play with. I just take it out once or twice a week, the set up I have I can usually clean bowel movements and replace water without taking it out. I worked for a vet for 6 yrs, I have a lot of trouble believing tapeworms would cause a bump under the skin as well. I assume the bump on mine comes from the shop where I bought it, they fed live hoppers so my snake probably got bitten. I only asked because someone posted that bumps under the skin were tapeworms, and I had to confirm or deny this seemingly outrageous claim, but the thread was closed.

[Aaron_S]

As I said, don't quote me on the tapeworm thing, but I am leaning towards it not being true without any facts.

If you had a six foot GTP and after you ensured the snake didn't have any injury, I'd be taking a close look at your hand for any damage done to nerves or whatever else is not far underneath the skin.

[bdiddy]

lol ok mate you win. I have been bitten by a six foot boa and it's an experience I doubt I will ever forget. I won't be looking forward to it but I expect it will happen sooner or later. As I said I don't think of it as a toy or something to carry around to look cool etc, and I only take it out once, maybe twice a week or if it has a bad shed, to give it a bit of a swim and walkabout the yard, etc. Generally I give up pretty quick, before being bitten. Nerve damage to my hands is laughable, you should see the punishment my hands go through in my four day a week Muay Thai training sessions. Knocking my shins on a table used to make me use all my Navy training of expletives, today I just keep on going. I have no nerves left in my hands or lower legs. Still, dont wanna injure the snake, and dont like being bitten even when it doesnt hurt. The little buggars growing fast, looking great, and getting really active. It's my favorite reptile I have ever kept by far, I have just about forgotten about my urge to get a chameleon and some tegus.

[Aaron_S]

GTP's are right at the top of my list too. Pretty amazing snakes.

It may get accustomed to the cage cleaning, and the limited handling sessions. As you said you quit before it bites. It may continue to work that way into adulthood. Good luck to you! Post pics if you can.

[citysnakes]

tapeworm larvae can appear in subcutaneous tissues and are pretty large so i would assume that the larvae may manifest itself as "bumps under the skin" although i have never actually seen it.

[bdiddy]

Wow I was not aware of that. I knew that they lived in the intestine, attaching themselves with the headpiece, and consisted of lots of body sections. I knew these body sections held the eggs, and that when mature they would break away and pass out of the hosts body, where the eggs went through part of their life cycle in a rodent or a flea. If the infected rodent or flea were swallowed by the appropriate animal, a new tapeworm would form. I'll go do some research on this, I'm a chemist but biology is a great interest of mine as well.

[bdiddy]

Originally Posted by citysnakes.com

tapeworm larvae can appear in subcutaneous tissues and are pretty large so i would assume that the larvae may manifest itself as "bumps under the skin" although i have never actually seen it.

I thought that perhaps you were mistaken, but then I actually went and did the research and found that you are correct. Although other things may cause bumps under or in the skin, tapeworm larvae also can. The medical account I found was as follows:

Herein, we report a rare case of subcutaneous sparganosis in a 60-year-old Japanese woman. She had a 2 cm × 2 cm elastic-hard, subcutaneous nodule, which was the larva of a tapeworm, and a surrounding granuloma in her internal thigh. It was thought that she became infected by drinking water contaminated with the worm. She was definitively diagnosed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). After excision of the lesion, the titer of ELISA showed clear decline; therefore, we could conclude that she had been completely freed from sparganosis. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound sonography of her subcutaneous nodule demonstrated the characteristic signs: a band-like structure in the MRI and a coiled linear hypoechoic body in a clear, oval mass in the ultrasound sonography.

This is an abstract from a medical journal and be found at Wiley InterScience, and can be accepted as fact. Thanks for the good info, I love learning something new.

[Brandon Osborne]

Yes, tapeworms can be found under the skin as small bumps. The only way to eliminate them is by making a small inscision and pulling them out manually. I have seen it before and I would speculate there is no way to rid them fully.

Brandon