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Old 10-20-2020, 12:24 PM   #1
hypnoctopus
Easiest food to digest?

So unfortunately, I'm working with a baby corn snake that has had a string of regurges. She still weighs 9 grams and is active and alert, so I'm still holding out hope that I will be able to help her pull through.

Basic schedule of events goes as follows:

-First meal with me was a whole pinkie - ate and digested just fine.
-Second meal was 5 days later and again was a small pinkie. Unfortunately shortly after feeding her (maybe a day or two?) I accidentally bumped into her temporary plastic enclosure pretty hard. When I went to feed her the next time, I saw what appeared to be a partial regurge.
-Seven days after the partial regurge, she shed. She was not fed during that time. She did not appear to be in blue when she had her second feeding.
-One day after her shed and 8 days after the partial regurge, I fed her one small pinkie head. She digested it normally.
-Five days later, I fed her a headless pinkie body dipped in nutribac, which she regurged 3 days later.
-Waited 7 days from the regurge to feed her a pinkie head with nutribac, which she then regurged again 4 days later.

I honestly haven't dealt with a regurge in so long that I think I forgot exactly what the regurge protocol was, so other than the initial regurge which I believe was caused by bumping her enclosure, I think the reason she has continued to regurge is not enough time in between regurge and feeding for her gut flora to build back up. So I've added some nutribac to her water dish, moved her to a small plastic enclosure with lots of hides and covered with a dark towel, and with paper towel as substrate. Warm spot is around 87. (Her previous setup was the same as my other snakes, so I don't think setup is the issue here.)

Now my plan is to wait 2 full weeks from her last regurge, and then offer her something absolutely tiny. Like a tiny section of mouse tail or half a pinkie head. But I'm wondering if there is something else I could offer her at that time that might be easier to digest? Like I'm thinking maybe syringe feeding her a tiny bit of raw egg? And I'm also wondering if it would be beneficial to her for me to syringe feed her a slurry of nutribac and water in the meantime to help get her stomach biome back on the right track? Or if the stress of that would not be worth the potential benefit.