serpenttongue
Very Well-Known Member
Greetings all,
When I first laid eyes on a diamond python, I was completely in awe of it's beauty. They were such a mystery. I immediately had an interest in them. This interest soon turned to fascination, and from fascination came obsession. I was crazy about diamonds. As a child and teenager I spent everyday after school and every weekend searching for diamonds along the Illawarra escarpment. I'd jump on my BMX and pedal as hard as I could, just to get to the escarpment as fast as I could. I got such a buzz from walking through the rainforest, just knowing i was standing in habitat that supported a population of diamond pythons. But this buzz was nothing compared to the adrenaline rush I would get when I would find a diamond coiled on a branch during the early hours or late afternoon of a summers day.
Such majestic serpents, whose beauty demanded and commanded my attention. So big and so docile. Pitch black bodies with rosettes like golden constellations, surrounded by the peppering of bright yellow spots that sparkled like tiny flashes of light, akin to the stars of a twilight sky. Looking deep into their eyes was like staring into the unknowns of space. The network of veins surrounding their pupils comprised a galaxy of hidden secrets only they knew the answers to. Smooth glossy scales that glide over the skin like silk. I seriously couldn't get enough of diamond pythons! So it's with sadness that I continue on with more information about DPS, as the nightmare I went through has been brought back up to the surface in a more horrifing way.
DPS is contagious.
I have been dealing with DPS for some years now, and have lost around 11-12 individuals. In these instances the specimens have been either wild caught long term captives (pre-amnesty), or captive bred. Long term captives tended to drop off around 11-12 years of age, whereas captive bred specimens would start to get DPS at around 8 years(see My Experiences With DPS Part 1).
I started to see changes with how quickly some individuals were getting DPS. Under normal circumstances (that is, when a diamond isn't exposed to other infected diamonds, and may or may not be being kept too warm) a diamond (6 years and over, wild caught or captive bred) can handle temps that are too warm for quite some time (of course, baking them at 40'c will simply kill them long before DPS has a chance to kick in, so this doesn't count). They do have a certain tolerance to temperatures that are too high, but this tolerance gradually starts to decline. They can handle their first few years without any problems, and behave like a typical morelia. But when they reach 6 years and over, that's when behaviours change and problems arise. However......
There is a time when a diamond can start showing signs of DPS within the first year of captivity. By this I mean that any healthy juvenile or adult can get DPS regardless of temperatures, at a time when one wouldn't expect it. And this 'time' is when they are exposed to already infected diamonds. This means that you can place a healthy diamond (juvenile or adult, kept at optimal 'diamond' temps, bred with purity and unrelated to infected specimens) in with infected diamonds and it will get DPS within the year. One would think that a diamond with DPS got the syndrome simply due to the way it was kept (too warm too long), and that this individual has DPS alone and cannot pass it to another individual that has been kept at perfect 'diamond' temps. However, this is not true.
This occurred to me when I placed healthy young captive bred animals (from different lines, and kept at optimal 'diamond' temps) in an aviary with infected diamonds. Within the year they all started getting broken bones, flabby muscles and started losing weight. The broken bones were jaw bones and ribs, mainly along the forebody. This was not due to any of them falling and injuring themselves. This was clearly due to DPS because it was accompanied by dramatic weight lose, with the inability to gain weight regardless of an increased intake of food. Broken jaw bones seem to be the main one. This usually becomes evident after a feed. More than likely, the large meal puts pressure on the already weak jaw bones and causes them to break. From this moment on, the jaws appear to have an upward bend in them which causes the chin to drop down, giving the gaped mouth appearance. In one case, the jaw bones were being replaced with tumors.
As if this wasn't horrifying enough!
The one specimen that had tumors around it's jawbones was set up inside, but eventually was put down. Another healthy diamond was placed in it's enclosure. After a short period, it too developed broken jaw bones. This went on. Healthy animals that were yet to show signs of DPS, were set up inside this enclsoure, away from the infected specimens outside. But in time, they too succumbed to broken jaw bones. This makes feeding much more difficult, as one could imagine. They can no longer work their jaws over prey items, and end up going without (unless I intervene, and coax the food down the throat).
Now, I wouldn't blame anyone for suggesting that all these diamonds must have had DPS lingering within them anyway, and that it was only a matter of time before the syndrome came to the fore (whether exposed to infected animals or not) and that it wasn't due to being contagious. Well this is what I once thought, too. However an incident occurred that had me convinced that DPS is contagious.
This indoor enclosure seemed cursed. Every healthy diamond that went in it developed DPS (temps were optimal), as though it caught DPS from the diamond before it. After a thorough cleaning with F10, I placed one FINAL snake in there. Within a month or two I noticed this individual had a slightly swollen chin. I checked for any signs of infection within the mouth. There were none. I kept an eye on the animal over the next few weeks and noticed things getting worse. The mouth would be agape and there was significant swelling around the jaws, but again, the mouth was completely free of infections. The jaws continued to worsen and developed an upward bend until they broke. The chin is now slightly agape and hangs low. This individual has broken jaws and will no longer feed itself.
No surprises there, right? After all, this had occurred with the previous diamonds kept in this enclosure. So it is simply another diamond python catching a syndrome specific to this species, from an enclosure that housed other infected diamonds, right? Wrong! This snake in question is not a diamond python - it is a COASTAL CARPET PYTHON!!
DPS is not restricted to diamond pythons. Coastals are next in line, and I would imagine all morelia species are susceptible to DPS. Indeed coastals are more tolerant to higher temperatures, and under normal circumstances it would be a very rare thing to have a coastal come down with DPS. But if exposed to infected diamonds, or an enclosure with perhaps the remnants of the syndrome embedded in it, it will clearly get DPS. So far, this has only occurred by having animals placed inside an individual enclosure that housed other infected diamonds, but supposing DPS is a virus, it could well infect pythons in a 'bedroom collection' even without direct exposure to infected animals, or the enclosures they were housed in.
This is open for discussion.
-ST
When I first laid eyes on a diamond python, I was completely in awe of it's beauty. They were such a mystery. I immediately had an interest in them. This interest soon turned to fascination, and from fascination came obsession. I was crazy about diamonds. As a child and teenager I spent everyday after school and every weekend searching for diamonds along the Illawarra escarpment. I'd jump on my BMX and pedal as hard as I could, just to get to the escarpment as fast as I could. I got such a buzz from walking through the rainforest, just knowing i was standing in habitat that supported a population of diamond pythons. But this buzz was nothing compared to the adrenaline rush I would get when I would find a diamond coiled on a branch during the early hours or late afternoon of a summers day.
Such majestic serpents, whose beauty demanded and commanded my attention. So big and so docile. Pitch black bodies with rosettes like golden constellations, surrounded by the peppering of bright yellow spots that sparkled like tiny flashes of light, akin to the stars of a twilight sky. Looking deep into their eyes was like staring into the unknowns of space. The network of veins surrounding their pupils comprised a galaxy of hidden secrets only they knew the answers to. Smooth glossy scales that glide over the skin like silk. I seriously couldn't get enough of diamond pythons! So it's with sadness that I continue on with more information about DPS, as the nightmare I went through has been brought back up to the surface in a more horrifing way.
DPS is contagious.
I have been dealing with DPS for some years now, and have lost around 11-12 individuals. In these instances the specimens have been either wild caught long term captives (pre-amnesty), or captive bred. Long term captives tended to drop off around 11-12 years of age, whereas captive bred specimens would start to get DPS at around 8 years(see My Experiences With DPS Part 1).
I started to see changes with how quickly some individuals were getting DPS. Under normal circumstances (that is, when a diamond isn't exposed to other infected diamonds, and may or may not be being kept too warm) a diamond (6 years and over, wild caught or captive bred) can handle temps that are too warm for quite some time (of course, baking them at 40'c will simply kill them long before DPS has a chance to kick in, so this doesn't count). They do have a certain tolerance to temperatures that are too high, but this tolerance gradually starts to decline. They can handle their first few years without any problems, and behave like a typical morelia. But when they reach 6 years and over, that's when behaviours change and problems arise. However......
There is a time when a diamond can start showing signs of DPS within the first year of captivity. By this I mean that any healthy juvenile or adult can get DPS regardless of temperatures, at a time when one wouldn't expect it. And this 'time' is when they are exposed to already infected diamonds. This means that you can place a healthy diamond (juvenile or adult, kept at optimal 'diamond' temps, bred with purity and unrelated to infected specimens) in with infected diamonds and it will get DPS within the year. One would think that a diamond with DPS got the syndrome simply due to the way it was kept (too warm too long), and that this individual has DPS alone and cannot pass it to another individual that has been kept at perfect 'diamond' temps. However, this is not true.
This occurred to me when I placed healthy young captive bred animals (from different lines, and kept at optimal 'diamond' temps) in an aviary with infected diamonds. Within the year they all started getting broken bones, flabby muscles and started losing weight. The broken bones were jaw bones and ribs, mainly along the forebody. This was not due to any of them falling and injuring themselves. This was clearly due to DPS because it was accompanied by dramatic weight lose, with the inability to gain weight regardless of an increased intake of food. Broken jaw bones seem to be the main one. This usually becomes evident after a feed. More than likely, the large meal puts pressure on the already weak jaw bones and causes them to break. From this moment on, the jaws appear to have an upward bend in them which causes the chin to drop down, giving the gaped mouth appearance. In one case, the jaw bones were being replaced with tumors.
As if this wasn't horrifying enough!
The one specimen that had tumors around it's jawbones was set up inside, but eventually was put down. Another healthy diamond was placed in it's enclosure. After a short period, it too developed broken jaw bones. This went on. Healthy animals that were yet to show signs of DPS, were set up inside this enclsoure, away from the infected specimens outside. But in time, they too succumbed to broken jaw bones. This makes feeding much more difficult, as one could imagine. They can no longer work their jaws over prey items, and end up going without (unless I intervene, and coax the food down the throat).
Now, I wouldn't blame anyone for suggesting that all these diamonds must have had DPS lingering within them anyway, and that it was only a matter of time before the syndrome came to the fore (whether exposed to infected animals or not) and that it wasn't due to being contagious. Well this is what I once thought, too. However an incident occurred that had me convinced that DPS is contagious.
This indoor enclosure seemed cursed. Every healthy diamond that went in it developed DPS (temps were optimal), as though it caught DPS from the diamond before it. After a thorough cleaning with F10, I placed one FINAL snake in there. Within a month or two I noticed this individual had a slightly swollen chin. I checked for any signs of infection within the mouth. There were none. I kept an eye on the animal over the next few weeks and noticed things getting worse. The mouth would be agape and there was significant swelling around the jaws, but again, the mouth was completely free of infections. The jaws continued to worsen and developed an upward bend until they broke. The chin is now slightly agape and hangs low. This individual has broken jaws and will no longer feed itself.
No surprises there, right? After all, this had occurred with the previous diamonds kept in this enclosure. So it is simply another diamond python catching a syndrome specific to this species, from an enclosure that housed other infected diamonds, right? Wrong! This snake in question is not a diamond python - it is a COASTAL CARPET PYTHON!!
DPS is not restricted to diamond pythons. Coastals are next in line, and I would imagine all morelia species are susceptible to DPS. Indeed coastals are more tolerant to higher temperatures, and under normal circumstances it would be a very rare thing to have a coastal come down with DPS. But if exposed to infected diamonds, or an enclosure with perhaps the remnants of the syndrome embedded in it, it will clearly get DPS. So far, this has only occurred by having animals placed inside an individual enclosure that housed other infected diamonds, but supposing DPS is a virus, it could well infect pythons in a 'bedroom collection' even without direct exposure to infected animals, or the enclosures they were housed in.
This is open for discussion.
-ST
