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Originally posted by jovamabob

I got my almost 2 year old corn almost a year ago and a friend told me, she thinks he may be blind. I wanted to run the behaviour that led me and her to wonder this past you guys to see what you think.

When i first got him in autumn 2011 he never strike fed and would get to his mouse later on. My girl never strikes usually i dangle infron and she kind of hap-hazardously bumps into it.. In spring/summer though he went through a major growth spurt, put on weight (he was a skinny little boy) and it was then i noticed something was off. He'd coil his neck to strike, but would always only just grab it, and it would always be in places i wouldn't expect. He'd bite to the side and only get half of the head, or would bite completely side on to the head.My male strikes quite vigorously and 9 times out of 10 wont get an end and will grab it by the middle, coil it then spend 5 minutes sniffing it trying to figure out how to eat it sideways..?? lol Occasionally he'd whack his head straight into the floor next to it.My Boa does this He'd eat it as normal once he had hold of it. I also watched him eat when i just left it for him to find a few times and he'd bite at the stomach, or have to adjust himself a lot to get to the right position.Ive watched the boa sniff a fluff for 10 minutes and not work out how to eat it lol! I placed him a few cm in front of a mirror on my wardrobe doors and he'd often go straight into it, My dog does this lol mirrors are just confusing to animals as they are to young children, i ran into several mirrors when i was younger lol almost as if he didn't know it was there. When he was in front of it, literally touching he'd respond angrily, like there was another snake there - coiling his neck, hissing and even rattling his tail! If he was a few cm away there'd be nothing until he was near touching it. Spent many an hour watching my cat attack a mirror thinking it was another cat and my dog licks mirrors when he sees his reflection lol if you place him on a table or a shelf, when the ground stops he'll nosy around with his head till he hits something solid and will follow it. When i put him in his new viv with shelves he spent quite a while trying to figure out how to reach his favourite hide - its like he could smell it but couldn't get a path to it just by following the wall. Both my two will 90% of the time explore there vivs sticking to the walls it's safer there they feel, if you loose a snake the always say look around the edges of the room if they are out in the open they feel like easy preyIn the end he discovered the stick i placed as a ladder and was absolutely fine with getting too it. He will respond to a camera flash but his eyes often can't focus on one thing. I know they don't have fantastic sight anyway and i figure their excellent sense of smell takes over a lot of the time. My friend is in her final year of studying to be a vet, checked him over for me and watched him feed. She said that he seems like he blind but i'd need a reptile expert to look to be sure.

Does it seem like he's blind from what i describe though? A blind snake doesn't fuss me too much - it's easy to accommodate. The shop told me he was bred by monkfield nutrition, which im told is an intensive farm so this wouldn't surprise me if he is.

Thanks! Heres a photo to make sure:

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