Weird behavior

Hello, I am a new snake dad. I got my first snake in November 2020. The night I brought him home he regurgitated his food the reptile shop had fed him that day. 2 weeks later he died. They offered me another anery corn snake that hadn’t missed as much meals. She was doing great until she had regurgitated her food 2 weeks ago. She’s been kinda acting like my first snake did before he died but I could just be paranoid. She’s still eating her pinky in about a minute. My first snake the only meal he ever ate in my care took him like 10 minutes. When I got juju (the 2nd corn snake) she had shed right before I got her on November 30th. It’s January 31 and she still hasn’t shed. Am I doing something wrong? Am I going to lose her like I lost my first one because she regurgitated? I’m stressed out and paranoid! It doesn’t seem like she’s growing much since I got her. Should I go up to 2 pinkies every week? Her feeding card that she had from reptile shop started on 9/12/2020 so that would make her almost 5 months old.
She’s got a humid hide and I’m always checking the temperature. Ever since she regurgitated I got a red light to put on at night so the hot side is constantly warm now. She used to come out and explore but I have noticed she is hiding more often now. Maybe she has done all the exploring she needed and now is lazy? I just don’t want to lose my baby like my first corn snake. She is flicking her tongue fast and it’s still forked. I’ve been keeping an eye on everything. I just don’t know why she isn’t growing much or hasn’t shed in 2 months of having her and if she is going to die from regurgitating her food like what happened to my first baby corn snake.. I’m constantly worrying about my baby

she looks exactly like this. I can post an actual picture later if need be

Do worry yet. A regurgitation and being less active may mean the beginning of a shed cycle. Skip the next feeding and check once a day on his/her color fading and cloudy eyes. If you see the color fading leave the snake alone until after it sheds.
If it doesn’t go into a shed cycle feed it after you skip a week of feeding.
Good Luck.

She’s eaten like 3 or 4 times since she regurgitated. Most recent was about 36 hours ago and there’s no lump anymore like it’s been digested. Her eyes still look normal and it doesn’t seem like she’s grown much in the past 2 months. Then again it’s hard to notice growth when you look at them everyday

So question for you Frank. Do snakes survive regurgitation most of the time and my first snake was just a rare case that it caused him to pass? Is there a good chance my Juju will survive?

For peace of mind, I suggest investing in a scale that can weigh in grams. This will help you monitor growth and give you a better picture about appropriate prey size.

Good luck!

Tonya

Thank you tonya. I will definitely do that! Do you have a link to a chart or something to tell me how many pinkies based on weight and when I need to go bigger?

Nicktendo said:

Thank you tonya. I will definitely do that! Do you have a link to a chart or something to tell me how many pinkies based on weight and when I need to go bigger?

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I am a fan of the munson plan (use the search function in this forum to find it). I modify it a bit for breeding females, and some individual snakes. What I like most about the guide is that you get an idea of the appropriate size prey based upon the weight of your snake, no matter how often you feed her. It's difficult to purchase mice online, or even from a local store, that is 1 1/2 times the width of your snake if you cannot visually compare. I'm sure that the people at petco would frown upon me pulling mice out of their freezer...k_01:

For how how often I feed, it truly depends upon the snake and my work schedule. I loosely follow the chart and shake things up all the time. I make a plan at the beginning of the week and try to meet those feeding schedules. Watch your snake, she'll give you cues and you'll know when she starts to look a little thick, or lean for that matter. Every snake is different. I've heard many reputable breeders say that slower growth is better and healthier for your snake.

Good luck!

Tonya

Regurgitation can be pretty serious in baby snakes. Sometimes it is just two strikes and they are down for the count, so you have to be careful.

What I used to do when I had a baby regurge, was to put it on a regimen of feeding it just a single very small decapitated pinky mouse head for the next three meals. In a pinch, you could use a small section of mouse tail as well. That seemed to allow their system to stabilize enough for them to take a full meal. I tried to feed them on a 5 to 7 day schedule, depending on the work load.

I also would sometimes administer a very tiny dose of Flagyl (Metronidazole) that seemed to be helpful. Sometimes moving a baby snake to a different area exposes them to different bacteria in the water, which in some individuals can cause digestive problems.

Rich Z said:

I also would sometimes administer a very tiny dose of Flagyl (Metronidazole) that seemed to be helpful. Sometimes moving a baby snake to a different area exposes them to different bacteria in the water, which in some individuals can cause digestive problems.

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This is what I have heard as well, but it doesn't really make sense to me. Metronidazole is an antibiotic (as in, kills bacteria), and the reason a snake will get into a regurge cycle is because the beneficial bacteria in the stomach has been depleted, so how does administering an antibiotic help? I guess maybe it just helps 'reset' them? Not trying to say you're wrong, just something I've been wondering about.

Flagyl is not just an antibiotic - it can be used to treat certain parasitic infections (Giardia, amoebic-based, etc.) that can lead to regurg, too.

Flagyl can also be an appetite stimulant too, FYI. Not too sure how many people know that little nugget.

hypnoctopus said:

This is what I have heard as well, but it doesn't really make sense to me. Metronidazole is an antibiotic (as in, kills bacteria), and the reason a snake will get into a regurge cycle is because the beneficial bacteria in the stomach has been depleted, so how does administering an antibiotic help? I guess maybe it just helps 'reset' them? Not trying to say you're wrong, just something I've been wondering about.

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My guess is that if the gut becomes overwhelmed with "bad" bacteria, you may have no other choice but to "reset" the bacteria load. And it may be why my earlier stated regimen seemed to work, because the very small meals helped introduce the "good" bacteria back into the gut without overloading the system with too large of a meal. Merely speculation, of course. :shrugs:

Where would I get this flagyl and would it tell me how much to give my baby corn snake?

There’s a pic of my baby

I know this is my first snake but she just seems small to me for almost being 5 months old. What age should she be going to fuzzies? Because right now she looks no where near the size to swallow a fuzzy

Age isn't really a very good metric for determining feeder size since the snake's size is almost entirely dependant on how much and how often they're being fed. The best thing to do is weigh her with a kitchen gram scale to determine which size prey would be best.

Rich and LyraFamily, thank you both for your explanations - makes total sense.

Will they all weigh differently too? Going to pick up a scale today to weigh her and will update this thread with how much she weighs and maybe someone can tell me if that’s in the range of a 4.2 month old corn snake

She weighs 7 grams to me this seems under weight but I feed her every Tuesday and Saturday 1 pinky. Could this mean she is sick from the regurgitation that occurred about 2 weeks ago

She possibly regurged because you are feeding too often. Some will feed as often as every 4 days, but that's power feeding for rapid growth which is not good for a reptile. Most people feed every 5 to 7 days.