HELP HELP HELP! zed not fed since jan

[hazel]

my corn snake zed has not fed since january...in march zed went all floppy thought she was ill.... found a vet who would see her and they thought she had blood poisoning and kept her in and gave her antibiotic injections. she seemed better but still had not eaten and i took her to another local reptile vet (who i couldnt contact that day in march) to see what he said. he gave her nutriants and said bring her back if she doesnt eat.....few weeks later still not eating so i took her back to the vet who gave her a blood test for liver and internal problems by taking blood from her heart...much to my horror! these tests were all ok and he could find nothing wrong and said just keep trying.... a few weeks later over the course ov about 10 days she laid 17 eggs....i since found out that they dont eat when they are pregnant but i still cant coax her to eat.. she is 8 years old and this is the 1st time she has laid eggs....she was overweight but is now really thin...i am quite despairing....can anyone give me any ideas help or info.....thanx thanx...p.s she only takes live

[PSYCOSNAKEMOM]

Does anyone else think that she might just be old? How about the eggs were they fertile? sam ~~~~~~~~:~

[Milleniumtat2]

Im no expert, but when my female was gravid, she stopped eating altogether, and after she layed her eggs, she still refused food. But as soon as she shed post laying, she has been eating good since then. So just give it a little time, and watch her for signs. She will eat when she is ready.

My male glossy snake refused food for almost 8 months, then all of the sudden he has been eating every week. Weird huh?

Best of luck to you.

Betsy

[Susan]

Have you tried small live prey, such as fuzzies or small rat pups? Because of her condition, I would only offer her frequent small meals, not large ones. And definately try rat pups if you haven't already. Most of my snakes find them totally irresistable when they have stopped eating for whatever reason. You could also try a feeding tube, straight metal with a round ball tip. An easy to find and use food source is Ensure or a generic equivalent. Vanilla flavor seems the best choice. I've used this in the past with great success. It supplies liquid and nutrients that are easy to digest, goes quite easily through the feeding tube and is about the least stressful method of force-feeding. On an adult snake, I started with 6 ml a feeding every 7 days for a month, then went every 4 days for a few weeks. Before force-feeding, I would always offer a small rodent meal. My adult showed some improvement by the time I went to every 4 days, and finally ate a newborn rat pup before the second month was finished. He would eat a rat pup about every 7 days thereafter but I would occasionally suppliment him with a dose of Ensure until he started eating increasingly larger meals and put weight on.