Need a little help here

[drizzt_19]

This is something new to me as I have never seen it happen before...I have a corn hatchling that has refused to feed since the day sfter I got her, no biggie there right, I mean I love working with non-feeders, usually have good success...However, I finally got her to take a pink head tonight...Now the big problem, the pink head is stuck in her throat...I mean literally stuck there...Oh yeah, she is having alittle trouble shedding this time around...

Any suggestions on what to do???

[Jason B.]

Did you try to gently massage it one way or the other? Has she ever goten anything down?

[Cindy]

Yikes... that does not look good.... any news?

[Jynx]

As long as she can still breathe, you should be safe from anything fatal. She'll either yak it back up or swallow it herself eventually. You might want to try getting a very slender rod or something to push it into her gullet with if she doesn't get it down herself.

[Spirit]

How long as it been stuck? Poor little hatchling. I'm sorry, I'm of no help here. :(

Keep up posted.

[drizzt_19]

Well thanks to Quigs advice and making me think about it instead of getting panicky, she ate...It appears that some of her shed was constricting her neck and would not allow the pink to go down...

The problem was solved by doing something I had been doing for her every day of the week...Simply letting her crawl through some damp paper towels to help with the bad shed...Evidently the damp towels loosend the shed enough for her to continue swallowing...

Quigs,

Thanks for making me think about it...Sometimes you just gotta take your time and think it through....

[Spirit]

WOW! Glad to hear it was something so simple. But on this topic, eating and shedding at the same time??

At any rate... That's great news, drizzt! :D

[Quigs]

I'm glad it worked out for ya, buddy.

You're right though, sometimes someone on the outside just has to smack ya around a little bit for you to realize what's going on.

I'm proud to be the smacker instead of the smackie, in this case!

:sidestep:

Good luck bud,

Quigs

[Jicin]

Ewww. Yeah i can see the loose skin around her neck... Glad she's oke.

Does your snake always have bad sheds? In that case, have you ever tried a humidity box?

[kiki1555]

good thinkin

i have a quick qus to ask

im gettin a corn snake and im tryin to think of things that arent dead the i can give to like is there a sausage a type of egg or somtin please help if i dont find somtin i cant get a snake!!!

[drizzt_19]

Ewww. Yeah i can see the loose skin around her neck... Glad she's oke.

Does your snake always have bad sheds? In that case, have you ever tried a humidity box?

Jicin,

This is the first one of my snakes have had a bad shed in almost 10 yrs...I figure it has more to do with her health then what it does with the humidity, which by the way is around 65% in the reptile room...Thanks for the heads up though...

[Jynx]

im gettin a corn snake and im tryin to think of things that arent dead the i can give to like is there a sausage a type of egg or somtin please help if i dont find somtin i cant get a snake!!!

You can always buy live food instead of frozen. There are things out on the market called snake sausages. They're made up of ground rodents. I don't know what the website is, but if you do a search on the forum with the keyword snake sausages, you should find something on the topic. Out of curiosity, why wouldn't you be able to get a snake if you couldn't find a different food source?

[Taceas]

As weird as this sounds, after working with several non-feeders this year, I've noticed that when most of them manage to feed...they ALL have "problems" swallowing.

Its hard to describe what I see, but its like they don't know how to coordinate their muscles in order to eat. It appears like they're working their body in front of the food, thereby keeping in place; rather than bending their bodies to "push" the food forward.

It takes them a few times to "train" themselves on how to work their body to swallow their meals effectively. I had one, that once he learned how to swallow his food, his non-feeding days were over and he never looked back.

So maybe it's a learning disability type of thing that keeps some hatchlings from feeding successfully initially. :shrugs:

[Spirit]

Ah, maybe that's what happened with Max's fuzzy swallowing experience. He did NOT look happy to have this thing stuck in his throat, but the next feed went down no problems.

Thanks, Tac... Eased my mind a little there. :)