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Gizmo, the lucky dome head

Angelus

New member
This strange little guy has quite the story.

I adopted him for 10 bucks from a local reptile show about three years ago. He had a prominent ‘dome’ on the top of his skull and a few noticeable kinks along his spine. But there was something about him I just fell in love with.

He refused to eat anything for the first two months, living on nothing but water.:awcrap: I tried everything and was sure I was going to lose the little guy, he was so so thin, when I came across a thread on this site that gave ideas how to get stubborn babies to feed, and one of them worked! I washed a tiny pinky in water scented with bar soap (I would have never thought of that!) and he took it eagerly, haha, it was a great day! :cheers: I guess he liked his food really clean? From then on I had no feeding issues.

He started growing and I became optimistic about his future. :) Other changes I began to notice over the months was that his prominent ‘dome’ was diminishing and the kinks in his spine appeared to be straightening themselves out somehow. It was strange but very encouraging progress!

And now, he’s developed into a very handsome snake! No sign of that skull dome he was born with or the kinks. His colors are so vibrant!! You’d never know this was the same tiny, fragile baby I had started out with three years ago. He's even a favorite of some of my family members!

The ugly duckling has turned into a swan!
 

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He had a prominent ‘dome’ on the top of his skull and a few noticeable kinks along his spine.

He started growing and I became optimistic about his future. :) Other changes I began to notice over the months was that his prominent ‘dome’ was diminishing and the kinks in his spine appeared to be straightening themselves out somehow. It was strange but very encouraging progress!
I like his pattern!

I have two snakes that hatched with "dome" on the head and it disappered as they grew.
Non of mine had kinks on the spine and I would not breed one with kinks.
 
Thank you :wavey: I am happy to hear yours grew out of it too! I wonder how common/rare a dome headed snake is...I have not seen any others in person. I have seen a couple on here, but they were all very young.
 
He's looking good! Im not surprised he grew out of it though. Think of it as a premie hatch. He hatched prematurely so wasnt completely developed. Ive had eggs go bad and when I open them up, almost all the babies have dome heads. So, your guy was not done developing before hatching and all he needed was some time to grow and it went away with time. The kinks kinda tell me that there was an incubation problem, maybe not with the whole clutch though. The kinks are probably still there, just not as noticeable due to his size. No matter what though, hes very handsome!
 
He's looking good! Im not surprised he grew out of it though. Think of it as a premie hatch. He hatched prematurely so wasnt completely developed. Ive had eggs go bad and when I open them up, almost all the babies have dome heads. So, your guy was not done developing before hatching and all he needed was some time to grow and it went away with time. The kinks kinda tell me that there was an incubation problem, maybe not with the whole clutch though. The kinks are probably still there, just not as noticeable due to his size. No matter what though, hes very handsome!

That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for the reply! :)

I hope my baby with the same problems will have such a great future ahead of him!

Aw, I hope so too!!! :) It's so sad when they're born like that :awcrap:
 
i also have a "dome" head snake she had kinks and refused to eat so i took her back to the guy i got her (not forever obviously) and she has come back eating (thank god ) but no kinks still has her "dome" though and she isnt growing much at all

picture.php

this is her.

she hasnt grown much from this pic and it was over months ago
 
Aww he turned into a handsome guy!! My little girl with the kink in her spine also seems to have it "disappearing". It's a severe kink though, and definitely still noticeable. But it isn't nearly as obvious as when she was a baby.
 
Beautiful story to match a beautiful snake! So glad things worked out with your patience and hard work with the little guy. Does he have a name?
 
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