Corn Snake Sneezing

[OntheLeuc]

My bloodred motley corn is three years next month, and I've noticed this issue for a while, but honestly haven't had an idea on how to go about it. She's been sneezing for a bit, and it got better over the summer months, but as it's getting colder here again, and the room she's in gets chillier, I've noticed it getting worse. She'll sneeze at least once a day that I notice. There is no mucus or blood spray to suggest it's respiratory and if there's no reason to, I can't afford to take her to a vet.
She's not on a regular feeding schedule, so doesn't shed as regularly as she probably should be. Her 40 gallon is normally low to mid eighties with her light on, but gets cooler at night when I turn it off. She always has an undertank heater on, but seems to be avoiding it for hiding in the foliage at the other side. I moved the foliage closer to where the lamp hits during the day so she gets a bit more warmth, but nothing has helped with the sneezing. She uses aspen shavings for bedding. Someone once suggested a black light lamp?
Any help is appreciated.

[Lankyrob]

My carpet python used to sneeze once a day on a random cycle and we werent sure why until we started recording it on the calendar and realised that he would do it about a week before going into blue and would stop as soon as he shed.

[formica]

the fact that she moves according to the decor, is an indicator that the enclosure needs a bit of tweeking to make her more comfortable, and that the heating may not be setup quite right.

how many hides does she have access to? sounds like she is a bit timid, and may be better with more, at diffrent parts of the encosure, to give her a wide range of temperature and hiding opportunities. perhaps 1 cool, 1 cool and humid, 1 in the middle, 1 warm, and 1 warm and humid. Cant hurt to add some more foliage decor aswell to give her a bit of extra security, so that she can hide according to tempreture, rather than worrying about being secure.

is the UTH on a thermostat? is the enclosure raised slightly to allow a small air gap below the UTH and enclosure? the enclosure could get too hot without these (or too cold RE. thermostat), especially with a heat lamp aswell, which isnt really needed with a correctly setup heat mat.

What tempreture does the substrate/enclosure floor get to when the heat lamp and UTH are both on? and when just the UTH is on? needs to be checked with a digital thermometer, prefrably an IR gun type

once those things have been checked, have you tried a diffrent substrate? she may be sensitive to the dust from aspen, try coco husk, coir soil or cyprus mulch, or even newspaper, although with her apperntly timid nature she will probably prefer something she can burrow into a bit

corns are mainly active in low light, dawn/dusk, they dont really need UV, i've never used it myself, and I dont think it could help with the sneezing either way

[sharthun]

My corn will sneeze a couple times in shed as well. Usually happens when i take him out of his enclosure.

[OntheLeuc]

Originally Posted by formica

the fact that she moves according to the decor, is an indicator that the enclosure needs a bit of tweeking to make her more comfortable, and that the heating may not be setup quite right.

how many hides does she have access to? sounds like she is a bit timid, and may be better with more, at diffrent parts of the encosure, to give her a wide range of temperature and hiding opportunities. perhaps 1 cool, 1 cool and humid, 1 in the middle, 1 warm, and 1 warm and humid. Cant hurt to add some more foliage decor aswell to give her a bit of extra security, so that she can hide according to tempreture, rather than worrying about being secure.

is the UTH on a thermostat? is the enclosure raised slightly to allow a small air gap below the UTH and enclosure? the enclosure could get too hot without these (or too cold RE. thermostat), especially with a heat lamp aswell, which isnt really needed with a correctly setup heat mat.

What tempreture does the substrate/enclosure floor get to when the heat lamp and UTH are both on? and when just the UTH is on? needs to be checked with a digital thermometer, prefrably an IR gun type

once those things have been checked, have you tried a diffrent substrate? she may be sensitive to the dust from aspen, try coco husk, coir soil or cyprus mulch, or even newspaper, although with her apperntly timid nature she will probably prefer something she can burrow into a bit

corns are mainly active in low light, dawn/dusk, they dont really need UV, i've never used it myself, and I dont think it could help with the sneezing either way

She has access to a log which is under the lamp at one side of the tank, foliage which is in the middle, and then there's more foliage on the cool side of her tank. I do know it's rather dry in the room/tank, but I'm not sure if adding some moisture would help? She also just shed last night, it's never rotated around her shedding schedule, it's a constant thing, once or twice throughout the day.
The UTH is not on a thermometer, there's just a sticky one on the inside of her tank near her log. The tank averages around 85 when both the UTH and the lamp are on, depending on the temperature of the day/room. It goes under 80 during the night when the light is not on.
I just may try changing her bedding, as that's the only thing I haven't tried that I suspect is actually the problem. I'm just worried, as she's been moved, I try and provide enough heat, but somewhere around 82F is probably average and I was concerned that she might not be warm enough. Are allergies to a certain kind of bark common?
Thanks for all the help!

[formica]

by sticky thermometer, do you mean an analog dial or strip? these are often massivly inaccurate, your tank culd be reaching 150F and you may never know, the strips measure the temperature of the glass, they only work effectively for tanks filled with water, the dial versions measure air temperature, which is also of little use for checking basking temps, you need to know the temperature on the ground, both air temperature and glass temperature (esp) will be allot lower than the ground, especially with a heat lamp and mat on full blast

First up I suggest switching off the heat lamp, and leaving it off, and get a digital thermometer and a thermostat to regulate the heat mat, I think you will find this improves the environment no end with a stable 30C basking spot at the UTH, you will have a much happier and more active snake - dont worry to much about your corn getting cold, with a heat mat she will get enough warmth, getting too hot is more of an issue, especially for a temperate species like Corns (cool end at ~21C on the ground, warm end 30C on the ground and she'll be very happy and active)

by all means try out a substrate change, but you really must get proper temperature measurements and control

for humidity, I'd recomend a humid hide, stuff 2 hides, one cool and one warm, with moist moss, easiest method

[sharthun]

Originally Posted by formica

by sticky thermometer, do you mean an analog dial or strip? these are often massivly inaccurate, your tank culd be reaching 150F and you may never know, the strips measure the temperature of the glass, they only work effectively for tanks filled with water, the dial versions measure air temperature, which is also of little use for checking basking temps, you need to know the temperature on the ground, both air temperature and glass temperature (esp) will be allot lower than the ground, especially with a heat lamp and mat on full blast

First up I suggest switching off the heat lamp, and leaving it off, and get a digital thermometer and a thermostat to regulate the heat mat, I think you will find this improves the environment no end with a stable 30C basking spot at the UTH, you will have a much happier and more active snake - dont worry to much about your corn getting cold, with a heat mat she will get enough warmth, getting too hot is more of an issue, especially for a temperate species like Corns (cool end at ~21C on the ground, warm end 30C on the ground and she'll be very happy and active)

by all means try out a substrate change, but you really must get proper temperature measurements and control

for humidity, I'd recomend a humid hide, stuff 2 hides, one cool and one warm, with moist moss, easiest method

^^^^^^^^^^

[Brett943]

This may be a dumb question but is the "sneezing" similar to hiccups? My girlfriend's one corn will sometimes get what I would describe as hiccups when he is out of his enclosure being handled and just wondering if this is they same thing you are describing. Sorry not trying to hijack your thread.

[Hotchkiss]

My king makes a sneeze/hiccup/short hiss sound when she doesn't want to be taken out... Does it 3-7 times then stops. I'm curious about this, Anyone have an idea on it? (Sort of on this topic and I didn't want to start a new thread

[OntheLeuc]

Originally Posted by Brett943

This may be a dumb question but is the "sneezing" similar to hiccups? My girlfriend's one corn will sometimes get what I would describe as hiccups when he is out of his enclosure being handled and just wondering if this is they same thing you are describing. Sorry not trying to hijack your thread.

If it is any kind of hiccups, it's not what I'm used to. I'd associate hiccups as being multiple repeats of something, while my snake only does it once, and it sounds like what I'd expect a snake sneezing to sound like, lol. I've been hearing it for long enough that I'm concerned, but there's also the fact that in the duration that I've heard her do it throughout the day or later at night when I'm in the room, I've seen no ill effects and no signs of sickness.
It's because of that that I'm not as worried as I could be, although I do try and monitor her tank for signs of mucus spray or anything. She breathes clearly, doesn't show anything when I look around her nose and mouth, eats fine, although I have an irregular feeding schedule due to the location of the nearest pet shop and the fact that I'm not the one who drives, for the moment.
Anyways, that's enough of a ramble from me lol. No worries about hijacking, glad to hear anything that could be related.

[Brett943]

OntheLeuc- Definitely something different than what I'm experiencing, thanks for the reply and I wish you the best with your corn.

Brett

[OntheLeuc]

Originally Posted by Brett943

OntheLeuc- Definitely something different than what I'm experiencing, thanks for the reply and I wish you the best with your corn.

Brett

Thanks, best of luck to you and yours!

If anyone wants to discuss sneezing/hiccuping on this thread, go right ahead!

[Alexa]

This is probably going to sound kind of silly, but have you held her up close to your ear to listen to her breathing? A healthy snakes breathing shouldn't make much sound, if any. I just ask because I would expect a pretty advanced RI to cause mucus spray or something similar, but early ones can have very subtle symptoms.

It doesn't seem likely, since this has been going on for a while, but it never hurts to check. Also, there are pretty inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometers at walmart and other stores that would really help with the temperature monitoring. For $10-20, you could get something much more accurate than those stick-on ones.

[shaunyboy]

myself and a few other carpet keepers i know, stopped using aspen as the high dust content was causing mild repiratory symptoms

cheers shaun