110g from 330 ~,~

Yes yes the title does say 1/3 the weight ~,~ Hunter has eaten once in around 3 months, I picked him up today to put him in the feeding cup and was like WHOA, so I decided to weigh him, 110g. Last weigh was April ish and he was 330. I put him in the tub with a mouse scented by shaking it in dirty woodchips, he looked at it and proceeded to poop on it, like usual. The "solid" part of the urates is normal, but its mostly a pile of yellow slime, sticky apparently cause it was glued to his tail ~,~ After he pooped he released some semen plugs and has proceded to sit there, staring into space.

Hes still active as normal, but his spine is sticking out and he looks horrible. Anyone have any ideas or tricks? I've tried 99% of the stuff from the site, cept the tube feeding a "mouse shake" throwing a mouse in the blender would make me puke for like a week and no one else will do it either ~,~ What would be better, baby food or high fat kitten food?

I'll just remind people that I have NO access to a herp vet, and in fact no vets in my province will even see a snake. ~,~ And I know its not the mice, Treasure eats mice from the same batch and just broke 400g.

Could his hunger strike be stress related? Since he absolutely hates me? ~,~

Oh darn, that's bad news. How old is Hunter? He could just be feeling sexy instead of hungry.
I can understand you noy wanting to blend mice, if it's any help at all I've now graduated to chopping a fuzzy into 4 pieces and shoving them in 1 at a time using the empty inner from a biro. If you do try force feeding this way, the trick is to learn the 'I have 4 working hands technique' and open the corn's mouth while it wildly gyrates to get away, get the mouse portion over the breathing tube to the back of the throat, and push it in far enough that the snake can't then work it back out.
I hope you don't have to do this when you are already worried about stressing the snake just by handling him, but it does work to get some food in, and gets easier with practice

Dads getting me a syringe and feeding tube from his office later (hes a doc) I sooo don't want to stress him out, but I'm worried hes going to die ~,~ The only way he calms down is if I put him in the tub and let him watch TV ~,~ Sits there ofr hours staring at the TV and if I turn it off he flips out.... maybe he needs beer and pretzels... ~,~

I didn't realize how thin he was getting until I picked him up today, his skin is actually hanging off him *cry*

I'm sure on my saga thread, aha, just checked, Cflaguy talks about someone forcefeeding their herps with a special mixture, you could pm him?

read this tread Carol gave us some great advice and it worked great!
Our has ate once a week since then
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34448
Tim

My male is routinely going off food for breeding season, often for 3 months at a time. He has rarely lost more than 50 grams. I'm astounded that yours has lost so much weight in not that long a time. Mine was out and crawling almost constantly too. Are you certain that your original weight was accurate? If he's looking thin though, you might want to get him looked at. The slightly slimy stool is not unusual for them after not eating for quite some time. My male had the same thing after I took him out of brumation. You might even try live to jumpstart his appetite. I hate to feed live because of the risk, but it might be worth it to try to get him going and then phase to stunned then try f/t again.

I agree on trying live if you have not already. Maybe try an active little hopper so he can see the movin and groovin. :shrugs:

And if you haven't already tried a live rat pinky, that would be another good possibility. Very few of my snakes will refuse a live rat pinky when they've gone off food for any number of reasons.

If you do resort to tube feeding him, you might try something like baby food chicken. Maybe get some calcium powder and vitamin supplements to mix into it. Beats pureeing mice...

I have had adult males (especially young, smaller males) that have gone off feed so long in the spring that they really started losing weight. And I have actually had some die. If his spine is sticking out and he has lost 2/3 of his weight, you will have to force feed if you want to save him (unless one of the other suggestions earlier actually works). He will not be able to digest large meals now that he has declined.

One easy way to force feed an adult is just to use some f/t pinks or fuzzies (whatever will go down without much stretching of the mouth and throat), put a little butter on the nose, and push it right down his throat. You can inject some vitamins, calcium, and Nutri bac before feeding if you like. Put some cuts into the item to make it easy to digest.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to sit in a chair and restrain the lower body between your knees. Use one hand to restrain the neck and the other to push the pink or fuzzy into the mouth. You can use a finger or fingernail to open the mouth. Use a twirling motion to work the item into the snake's throat, then massage gently until it is a couple of inches into the throat. The snake will usually work it down after that, but if he starts to spit it out, continue the massage. I use my index finger to push the back of the mouse down his throat to avoid anything hard or rough in his throat (like a pen or other long object to push with).

Hope that makes sense - it is easier to do than describe, lol!

If he is unable to hold down the small meal (he should have no problem unless he is really debilitated), then you will have to go to the liquid meals.

Good luck!

He ate an adult mouse a couple weeks ago, no regurge or anything, but thats it in the 3 months. I'll take some pictures and see what you folks think. Dad doesn't think hes very thin, but the only "normal" feeding snake I have is Treasure who is 1.5 years old and 400g... maybe hes not as skrawny as I think? I'll get some pics tonight if I can! The herp vet I called in Montreal said if hes still active all the time then hes probably not as starved as I feel he is. I'll try feeding him tomorrow before I go on vacation.

Thanks for the replies folks =)

Can't get the pic to post at a decent size, trying to do stuff on moms comp and her programs suck LOL. Anyhow, sent it to a few people from here via email, and they all say he looks fine =) What I thought was his spine is a muscle ridge? I dunno ~,~ He doesn't look like the "skinny" snakes I was directed to pics of. Guess I'm just an over protective mommy! Thanks again for all the replies, now I just need to get him to eat!

GOOD NEWS! I came back from my trip and Hunter seemed to be looking for food, when I put his mouse in with him he played with it a bit, then left it. I figured it would be another no eating week, but I put him in a room by himself in the dark, and when I checked I saw a lumpy snake and no mouse *GRIN* SO happy! He doesn't appear to have lost any more weight while I was away either =)

well that sounds like a start, poor fella

:cheers: Go Hunter!

Think hes going into blue too, oddly, since he just shed 3 weeks ago. Only time he goes into his hide is when hes in blue tho and hes been in there all day. I checked him twice, no regurge, so I'm very happy. Hes been in the nice bright kitchen for 2 weeks, and will be returning to my room tomorrow, going to give him his own light source, perhaps his photo period was messed up... keep heving problems with thet, my room is quite dark *sigh* Looks like its time to buy some light hoods for the tanks! Lemme see thats 3 X $57 X 1.166.... ugh. LOL Time to ask for an early Christmas present, again!

thats excellent to hear hes eaten for you, i hope he keeps it up

He ate again this week! YAY!

Wow! You guys are on a roll! I'm so glad for you! I know what it's like to have an animal wither away from not eating.

Gintha said:

He ate again this week! YAY!

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Good snake! Fingers and toes crossed..........