Odd behavior when feeding

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MeredithTheNerd
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Odd behavior when feeding

Postby MeredithTheNerd » Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:55 am

I want to preface this by saying that if I thought this was a serious concern, I would of course go straight to my vet. That said, I can worry about pretty much anything, and would feel better if I had someone else's opinion :D.

My BTS is about 10 months old, and I've had her for about 7 months. When I feed her she acts... weird (specifics in a minute). I'm assuming it's just a reaction to eating too much too fast, because she does it most often when I feed her a lot at once - especially superworms.

The most common, and least dramatic things she does are:
1.) An up-and-down motion with her head, like an exaggerated swallow (I think that's what it is).
2.) A very specific, sinuous, left then right wriggle in place.

Less frequently she'll:
3.) Stand/walk around with her mouth held open. She doesn't stick her tongue out, hiss, or do anything else to make me think it's a threat display.
4.) This is the really odd one. She holds her head up and paws at the air in front of her. It sort of looks like she's trying to scratch her ears or the back of her head (I've checked for mites multiple times, very thoroughly. Not a trace. Also, she ONLY does this when I feed her.) sometimes she does this while standing, sometimes she walks in a circle at the same time - counter-clockwise, if I remember correctly.

She only does any of this while she's eating, or shortly after. The rest of the time she acts perfectly normal - active but not frantic; sleeps, but is not lethargic; obviously takes notice of her surroundings; no discharge from anywhere; etc. Although she is the only BTS I've had, and the only reptile since I was a pretty young kid, so maybe I'm missing something. But I have experience with a pretty wide variety of mammals, and "normal" and "seems off" tend to be pretty constant from species to species.

The only other issues she's had are a bit of stuck shed when I first got her (I was able to get it off fairly easily, although she wasn't happy about it), and a very small scab/scab-like-thing on her lip - it isn't inflamed, and doesn't seem to bother her at all. It comes off with each shed, and reappears afterwards, but never gets any larger. I carefully picked it off once - no bleeding - but it came back again. I haven't messed with it since. I've been keeping an eye on it, and I took her in to the mom-and-pop exotic store where I got her shortly after I noticed it to see what they thought - their best guess was that a superworm had managed to bite her, and that as long as it didn't get any worse, it was probably fine.

Sorry about the novel, and thanks in advance for any input!
0.0.1 CB Merauke BTS - "Jean"

Live long and prosper.
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splashy07
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Re: Odd behavior when feeding

Postby splashy07 » Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:35 am

The exaggerated swallow and wriggle thing is perfectly normal. They other things, well, I have not witnessed such behaviors and will let others chime in on that.
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Janella
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Re: Odd behavior when feeding

Postby Janella » Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:46 pm

I agree with Splashy, but never heard of the other issues. If it keeps happening record it and post.
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mb606587
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Re: Odd behavior when feeding

Postby mb606587 » Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:15 am

You mean like this :lol:
FB_IMG_1559786752561.jpg
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Re: Odd behavior when feeding

Postby mb606587 » Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:20 am

As for the scab like thing on the mouth, my Irian Jaya skink has developed that from time to time. It forms almost like a crust and can be difficult to remove. I used to pick it off with tweezers but gave up after it kept re-forming. After a while it seemed to resolve itself.
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Re: Odd behavior when feeding

Postby mb606587 » Mon Oct 05, 2020 10:24 am

Best photo I could find of it. In this case the crust was covered in substrate but was usually a lighter browen color.
Screenshot_20201005-132217.png
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