ArvadaLanee
New member
Tonight after feeding Nightmare, he started doing this cute thing where he was rubbing his face on the bottom of his critter keeper. He had just eaten a pinky and then a half pinky, and there was a tiny drop of blood at the corner of his mouth, so I thought perhaps he was trying to wipe his face. but then he lifted his head and I noticed that he had a slight tremor. It wasn't through his whole body, just the top part by his head. He did that for a couple seconds, and then he lowered his head and rubbed his face a little more, and then he raised his head and did the slight tremble again. After that, he lowered his head and started rubbing his face again, and that was it for the trembling. When he raised his head again, it was gone. I watched him in the critter keeper for a few minutes, and he was acting normal except for more face rubbing. I put him back in the viv, and kept watching him. He did a bit more face rubbing, slithered around a bit, acting totally normal. I was curious since I had never seen him do the face rubbing or trembling, so I started searching to see if anyone else had posted about these behaviors. It seems that the face rubbing is quite normal, and he may indeed have been cleaning his face, as well as realigning his jaw. What freaks me out, is that I read some stuff about stargazing, neurological problems, and IBD. (Are those all the same thing, or are there other neurological issues?) Now I am all worried. I have been checking on him every couple of minutes, and he is acting normal. No more face rubbing, or tremors, or anything. He's just roaming the viv, trying to choose a spot to hang out and digest. So please tell me that a tiny bit of trembling, just after eating, could be something other than a problem. Could he have been doing it on purpose because he felt the drop of blood on his face, or because his jaw was misaligned? I am all worried now. Nightmare is such a cool little guy. He is tiny, but has such a big personality! Yesterday, when I was holding him, he was doing his thing, crawling over my hands as I placed them one in front of the other, when all of a sudden, he stopped, and then began to raise his head up and out, directly toward my face. His little tongue was just flicking away, and I swear if I'd have leaned in just a little, he would have licked/sniffed my lips. We looked at each other for a moment, and then he slowly moved his entire body backwards. That is yet another cute thing he has been doing lately. It's as if he just figured out that he can move backwards. I'm sure everyone on this forum cares about their snakes, so I am hoping you all have patience with me and my many questions and ramblings. Hopefully, someone can ease my mind and let me know if I have any real reason to worry, or if I am just being paranoid. As I write this, Nightmare seems to have completed his rounds, having circled the viv a few times, gone into his little moist moss cave twice, crawled through his tube cave, climbed his tree, and has now settled himself in his log hide on the warm side. I apologize if I sound like a total nut. I just worry. I am really hoping someone can ease my mind a bit.
