Regurge and now failure to eat

[dan803]

I've had Mika for 3 months now and up until now, she has been amazing for me. Always ate no matter what. Out of nowhere, she regurged one of her pinks. I posted a thread about it and now suspect it was because she was in blue even though she has kept down pinks in blue before. She did seem to be going to the bathroom a lot, I was changing the newspaper every day and now put her on aspen so I can spot-clean instead. She is 15 grams.

I waited until she shed which was today, and just offered half a pink. She refuses. I left her in a deli cup in her tub with it but I'm sure she'll just ignore it. It is so unlike her. Her temps have always been the same. Upper 80s.

Feels like a death sentence to me.

[gelshark]

how many days since she regurged to when you offered her this half pink?
you want to wait 8-10 days after a regurge to offer food again.

[dan803]

So I was just wondering what you recommend. Vet?

I don't want to lose another one like this. I had an albino who did the same thing and died shortly after, Granted he was from a Petco who fed him crickets and he was underweight.

[dan803]

how many days since she regurged to when you offered her this half pink?
you want to wait 8-10 days after a regurge to offer food again.

I was told to wait until after she shed but I think she shed sooner than we expected. It was 5 days ago when she regurged. I will remove the pink and wait until Friday to try again.

[carnivorouszoo]

Since you offered food today you should wait at least 5 days to try again and after a regurge the first few meals should just be pinky heads. After she takes those ok give her the bodies for the next 3 meals, then if she is doing well go back to whole pinks. How often do you feed her?

[dan803]

I normally feed everybody on Saturdays, so every 7 days give or take a day. I actually had this girl on double pinks for a while with no problem. I decided to move her back down to single pinks because I felt like I was just asking for a regurge with the double pinks. She's only 15 grams. The first time moving her down she regurged the single pink. Surely going down a size can't trigger a regurge. Just coincidental I guess.

[gelshark]

I would doubt that the regurge was triggered by moving down in food size. The reason you want to wait to feed again at least 8-10 days after a regurge is so that the snake can rebuild it's digestive enzymes, which are lost with a regurge. When you do offer food again (I think you should wait the 5 days like mentioned above) offer something smaller than normal and then feed several small meals about 5 days apart. Slitting the food items also will aid in digestion for when you get back to whole foods. All is not lost, I had one amel a few years back that went through several regurges before getting back on track (I don't have her now, not because she died, but because I gave her to a boy from church that really wanted a snake for his birthday, and from what I hear now she is still doing awesome)

[Karoni]

No one has mentioned this, so perhaps it's not important, but maybe you could try bumping her temps down a bit. You mentioned that they were in the upper 80's, but I think mid 80's is better.

[dan803]

No one has mentioned this, so perhaps it's not important, but maybe you could try bumping her temps down a bit. You mentioned that they were in the upper 80's, but I think mid 80's is better.

I would, but I need to have a hot spot that's good for BPs and corns. I know it's a little higher than most people recommend but the corns are on aspen. The male is always underneath the bedding but this one stays on the top.

Another factor to consider is I am measuring on the flexwatt directly, not in the tub. So it's probably even less than the reading.

The basement is cold. It's been low 60s. They still have a good temperature gradient because the rack was designed to hold in the heat towards the back.

[Shiari]

Are the two snakes housed together?

[dan803]

Are the two snakes housed together?

No, they are in separate 15 qt shoeboxes.

[BloodyBaroness]

You probably need to have separate heating for the corn and BP. The preferred temps BPs live at will kill corn snakes and keeping BPs at the lower temps corns need can cause eating problems for them.

What kind of set up are you using?

[dan803]

I was afraid some one would say that. It's a rack with flexwatt.

[Dreamsnake]

I have an anery that has survived 4 regurges. One thing that I've noticed is she always goes through a shed cycle after each one. Nim has gone over two weeks or so without feeding before because of this, she's always bounced back to her sassy self. Giving them time to recover is essential.

I agree that the python should be taken out of the corn snake rack. Pythons need to be much warmer and corns need a cooler night time temperature.

[BloodyBaroness]

Yeah, they really need to be separated. If you only have one or two BPs then here is a really handy guide on how to set up a single sterilte tub house for each.

Plastic tub set up guide. (http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?113879-My-Plastic-Tub-Setup-for-my-Ball-Python)

This one gets a bit elaborate, but you can use a simple UTH lamp dimer combo to heat it.

I use this dimmer: Home Depot Lamp Dimmer. (http://www.homedepot.com/buy/lighting-fans/track-lighting/lutron/credenza-300-watt-lamp-dimmer-white-51761.html)

It's just too stressful on the snakes to try keep a happy medium for two species that are so different. If you need help with anything let me know. I might have some spare parts laying around I would be happy to send.

[dan803]

Okay, I tried a pink head and she refuses. She came from a pet store who sold me a hatchling that died in a week. Plus she has shed 3 or 4 times already but she hasn't grown at all. She is way too sweet to die on me!