first regurge by 2-year Kiki :-(

Executive summary:

My Kiki had her first regurge. She is over 2 years old and more than 4 feet long. Would it be ok to give her an adult white mouse after 10 days? Or should I start with fuzzy etc?

More background info:

i haven't been here for quite a while. my two corns (Kiki and Struppi) have been doing very well. Especially Kiki, my elder one, has always been extremely easy-going, friendly, and eating like a champ, never missed a meal and never any problem. she is now over 4 feet and 3 inches, and as beautiful as ever.

Kiki has grown so much that even adult white mice would be too small for her. Therefore I moved her up to f/t rats. She had the first one alright. When I fed her the second one, I had the feeling that it is a little big for her, but she has kept meals in that proportion to her body size before. So I thought she would have no problem with this one.

She is usually a picture-book snake. Yawns, drinks and goes to sleep after eating. However this time, she wandered about even after the big meal, and didn't seem to want to settle down. Today 36 hours after the meal, I found the rat in her terrarium, only the skin digested. It was a horrible sight and a even worse smell. She hid herself looking a bit upset.

After I cleaned her terrarium, she came out to find fresh water, and had a long drink. Now she is searching up and down the terrarium. I bet she is hungry... but I will definitely wait another 10 days to give her the next meal. The question is just how big the next meal should be?

Thank you for reading this long post and thanks for your reply!

Ahhh...poor baby and ewww ICK! I've had puked up pinkies and can only imagine a regurged rat...uke01:

If it were me, I would give her a large fuzzy or small hopper for her first meal, then wait another 10 days, give her a weanling, 10 days, small adult etc, until she's up to her normal food size.

Since she's as big as she is, you don't have to be quite as conservative as with a hatchling but I'd still take it slow and easy.

Good luck

Widget, thanks a lot for your advices. i will be conservative and do that. yeah a regurgitated rat is more disgusting than words than describe. :awcrap: i couldn't eat or drink anything for the last couple of hours. have to open all the doors and windows to ventilate.

Update: Kiki just made a big poop. Maybe she hasn't fully digested the last rat when she had this rat. But she did already poop once after the first rat

The rule of thumb is to feed a prey size that is at least half as small as what was regurged. Could you, after she is recovered, maybe feed her two small mice vs one rat? And I'd be slitting the mice for easier digestion until she is back to normal feeds. And Nutribac from Kathy Love wouldn't hurt- just dab some on the mouse before feeding.

yes my 11 month old regurged a pinkie last week and that was bad enough the smell was awful, anyway she is better this week and have fed her ok on a single pinkie not 2 as usual.

Nanci and Claireree, thank you for your advices!

Update: Kiki has pooped another time today! A small poop, but she is very unactive now and her terrarium smells very strange. I am sick worried, wondering if she is having stomach problem. Would she need antibiotics?? Please help... I love Kiki so much. I can't imagine what I would do without her..

Is it possible she is going blue? Did the new poop itself smell bad, or just like snake poo? Is it possible you're smelling lingering odor of the regurge? Unless you are quite concerned that she is ill- she feels limp, isn't behaving normally- I'd just wait the ten days and try the small meal and see if it stays down. It is not at all uncommon to regurge after too large a meal. If you had the feeling the meal was too big, it probably was. But, if you are going to lose sleep over everything, just take her to a vet for your own peace of mind.

I'm guessing that the prey was too big for her. I've been feeding my guy rats for a couple of years now, but my source seems to be growing the rats bigger. He really struggled with the last one, but I wasn't going to try to take it away from him. Right after that he went on his annual hunger strike and just broke it two feedings ago. The first feeding was just a small adult mouse, but when I went in Sunday for additional food, I decided to try him on a rat pup. It went down easy for him, but still left a small bulge. I think I'm going to stay with those for him. Just a thought.

Nanci, i will wait. she is hiding a lot but otherwise nothing unusual in the behavior. the odor is still there, though. as for the peace of my mind, i would rather have some gray hair than causing stress for Kiki by moving her around to a vet. i'll just wait... touch time ahead!

Ginger, thanks for your advices too!

it's great to have a place to vent my feelings. i won't talk about the problem with my friends coz they won't get it. you guys understand me :cheers:

Hi!
It's not unusual to my snakes to poop twice, often the first time "normal" fecals and the second time the skin/fur of their prey (it was quite scary for the first time, they only do it with fuzzys & up, perhaps their skin/fur ist tougher?)

You could also regard color and consistency of the poo: Unusual color (eg. green or light brown) and fluidity could indicate digestive problems, everything else would just be variation of normality.

For example stinky, fluid poo was a sign for flagellates in one of my snakes - but it could also reason in stress, temp changes...

Keep monitoring her without stressing her and keep an eye on her poo :toiletgra but don't worry. She's a big girl and will make it

ChiaraMom said:

Today 36 hours after the meal, I found the rat in her terrarium, only the skin digested. It was a horrible sight and a even worse smell.

Click to expand...

Eww, gross.

You should have posted a pic. Sounds morbid, I know, but my corn's never thrown up a mouse and I was curious what it looked like. If it was still intact, I'd imagine it was fairly painful for your poor snake to regurge it.

regurge rat is way worse than mouse. she may have puked because a rat has more nutrients than a mouse, and mabey her system hasn't caught up with it yet. iffin an adult pukes while being fed an adult mouse, i'll wait ten days, and then feed a hopper. Looking at a slimy, stinky pile of a former creature is not fun!