Need some advice after regurge

[TribalWolf77]

Our two latest additions to the family were purchased at Petco on February 1st. Each is housed in its own 10 gallon viv, adequate heat, water, hides, Aspen bedding. The current feeding schedule for the little ones is one pinkie every 6 days. Lil' Red has fed 3 times with no issues. Phantom has fed twice, the second it swallowed very slowly, and has refused his last meal (Monday night).

Our kids watched in horror yesterday morning as Phantom regurged into his water bowl. Once the water bowl was disinfected and fresh spring water was added, he/she took a nice big drink and curled up on a leaf in the plant.

My plan is to wait until a week from Saturday to try to feed again (1 pinkie head). Also, I don't want to handle for 2 to 3 months, so that means putting food in the viv. I was going to offer it on a paper towel so no Aspen is ingested. Is this a good idea?

I also want to suppliment with a probiotic. I could not find a local distributor for Nutribac, so I picked up some Bene Bac (it's another probiotic suppliment for birds and reptiles). I searched the interwebs for hours last night looking for instructions on how to add to drinking water to no avail. I did read that I can coat the pinkie head with the powder before feeding. My concern is that this stuff smells very fruity, and I'm afraid Phantom will not eat the food. I think this stuff is tailored more toward herbivores.

Does Nutribac have a smell? Should I express order some of it instead? Can I add either to drinking water, and how?

I greatly appreciate any advice I can get. Thank you.

[torsten]

I would wait for longer than a week if i was you, i would advise that you wait for 10-14 after the regurge.

I have never heard of Bene Bac but i would advise sprinkling some over the rear half of the mouse and offer the mouse head first to the snake or slit the skin and put some inside the mouse.

it might be a good idea to slit the skin of the mouse anyway to help aid digestion for a while, also you may wish to feed it a smaller meal than normal, either a very small pinkie or half a pinkie.

What are the temperatures in the tank at ground level above the heater? are both hatchlings in the same viv?

[Nanci]

You can get Nutribac from Kathy Love: http://www.cornutopia.com

Any snake I have ever fed Nutribac to, on a mouse, hasn't looked twice. You probably want to feed in a separate container, though, because the Nutribac is very sticky, and that makes the snake sticky, so it has to have a rinse before going back into the viv. Like sticky enough to be glued to the feeding container. I have treated two regurges by feeding in a separate container, rinsing the snake, and returning to the viv, one for a year and one for five months so far, and neither has ever repeat regurged.

[TribalWolf77]

Thanks for the responses.

No, each of them is in a seperate viv. Hot end is usually around 86, cool end is around 72.

A week from Saturday will be 11 days since regurge.