It’s not often a veterinarian who writes about pets for a mainstream newspaper devotes an entire column not just to a pet snake, but a species that’s not kept as a pet all that often. But Modesto, Calif., veterinarian Dr. Jeff Kahler did just that in a recent piece in the Modesto Bee, where he recounted the story of a wart snake brought to his practice because his eyes had clouded over.
From the article:
Bando is a 3-year-old, 6 1/2-foot snake – and not just any kind of snake. He is a wart snake or sometimes called elephant trunk snake. Bando’s caretaker, Randy, has had Bando for two years, having purchased him from a California reptile dealer.
He is housed in an aquarium that is temperature-controlled and aquatic. Bando spends almost all of his time in the water, including feeding time. His diet consists of goldfish and he is feed once a week. Randy reports that Bando has had no problems in the past two years but recently appears to have developed an issue with his eyes.
Over the past few weeks, Bando’s eyes have become more and more opaque. They are now to the point where Randy suspects Bando cannot see.
Initially Randy thought Bando’s eyes were clouding over as they normally do right before he sheds his skin but even after a shed occurred, the opacity in Bando’s eyes remained. Randy has yet to find a veterinarian to examine Bando so he took to the internet and eventually got me involved.
To understand what might be going on with Bando’s eyes, it helps to understand a bit about the natural history of his species. For you aficionados, wart snakes belong to the genus Acrochordus, which includes three species of snakes. I suspect Bando is a Java wart snake because of his large size.
These snakes are native to parts of southeast Asia and spend most of their time in water. Their diet consists of aquatic life — especially fish — and they have a rough scale pattern, which aids in gripping fish as they coil around them when eating. In my clinical experience, these are very rare snakes in captivity. I personally have only worked with them in zoo collections.
There are many possibilities that could cause Bando’s eye issues. But it is my suspicion that Bando’s eye problem is directly related to his captive environment and, more specifically, the water he is kept in.
Click here to find out what’s wrong with Bando!
Photo: Smacdonald at en.wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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I’m very excited but I don’t know what to name it! Please give me any name suggestions that you think are good, although I don’t want any names named after the ninja turtles, or something like Shelly, squirtle or yertle! ![[:no]](http://i2.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_no.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
I hope that Ocean and Prince (the names of my current res turtles) like the new turtle! ![[:turtle]](http://i2.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_turtle_125.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
Are there any things that Misissipi map turtles prefer? Will all of them get along well? The new turtle is probably going to be around the same age s my current turtles; about 8 months. Please reply as much information (and names) as you can! ![[:please]](http://i2.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_please.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
![[:STN]](http://i1.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_stn.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
![[:ro]](http://i0.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_rockon.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
![[:ohwell]](http://i2.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_ohwell.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
I’ve tried lettuce and bokchoy but all they do is stare at it and ask for reptomin or meat or fruit. I’ve tried feeding them greens first in their meal, but they dont like greens. ![[:help]](http://i2.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_help.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
Can you please suggest some greens that they might like? Also, how can I get them to eat their vegetables? I’ve tried giving them carrot and they ate it, its like they dont like the colour green! Please help! 
One of them is a female and one of them is a male, they are roughly 8 months old, I think. I always watch them swim and all they do is try to escape and look up at me for food. Please help!!!! 