Digesting Fuzzies

Ok not sure if this has been brought up before or not.

but ok. My corn snake has been eating 2 pinkies with no problem for a while now and pooping like within 2 days, so I thought I would try feeding him a fuzzy to see if he could handle it.

that was on sunday. he ate it fine, it took him a bit longer than with the pinkies.
His stomach was distorted but it didnt look really stretched.

I was going to take him out and play with him today (Wednesday night) but when I took him out it seemed that I could still see a stretched area where the fuzzie was in.

Am I seeing things or could it just be that it is harder for him to digest it.

I also noticed that when I changed the water last night he was hidding under the substrate on the cool side of the tank.

There is no pooh yet.

Should I be concerned, or just wait a couple of more days?

Hola,
Now as far as the digestion of the Fuzzy. Coming from 2 Pinkies to one Fuzzy is a large step. Did you try a Peach fuzzy? Or a Fuzz-Fuzzy? Sometimes the younger snakes coming from Pinkies to Fuzzies have a tendacy to take longer in the digestion of the large mouse. Because of the fact that thier tracts are used to smaller items. Just give it a few more days and it'll be okay. :-D

If after a few days you still have a problem then you might wanna try raising the temp about 2 degree's which will support the digestive system.
Get em nice and warm :flames:

Snakes don't digest fur. The fur is a good majority of what they eliminate. It will take a little longer for them to digest something with fur. In the future I would work it up to a fuzzy with peach fuzzies so as to get it started slow on items with fur.

hmm Ok well I havent checked on him today yet. but I dont know where to get a smaller fuzzy. because where I get my mice, that is the next size up from a pinkie. I didnt realize there was a smaller fuzzie? But then I guess I dont buy them from someone who speciffically breds mice. the one I got wasnt that big, and wasnt really that hairy either.

I tried raising the temp, but the thing is he isnt hidding anywhere near the UTH he has been hidding way on the other side, so maybe its 2 hot and thats why it isnt digesting?

How much bigger than a pinky was this fuzzy? The way you described it as not being that big nor that hairy. It sounds like it shouldn't be too big. It obviously ate it and if it hasn't regurged it by now I wouldn't think it would now.

well you dont have to look for "peach fuzzies" per say. the trick is really just looking for the least developed fuzzies where you buy them, whi are often refered to as peach fuzzies.

you can always...

just shave off the fur with a shick quatro, i hear four blades are better than three.

unch: :crazy02:

The hair isn't the main barrier to digestion, the skin is.

The skin on fuzzies is many times thicker than small pinkies. It takes longer for the digestive juices to penetrate the thicker skin to start digesting. This is why I always put a couple slits in the backs of all food items I feed (frozen-thawed of course). It gives instant access to the digestible nutrients without having to try and get around the skin barrier. Honestly, I think they digest from either the mouth or anus where the barrier is less tough. If you've ever seen them pass a partially digested food item, it's always digested starting from one end or the other, never in the middle or on the side. The skin is way too tough there to penetrate easily. The belly skin, mouth mucosa, and rectal mucosa and skin are much thinner and easier to penetrate.

My advice would be to try and find the smallest fuzzy you can, and put a cut in the skin to help the snake digest faster. As for the lump it still has now, it'll either continue to digest and pass it or it'll regurge, only time will tell.

P.S., this is also why feeding pinky heads or half pinkies works so well getting regurgers going. Smaller meals that are many more times easier to digest because there's a hole in the skin barrier.

Good luck with your little one.