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help! snake acting weird

B

blackorchid77

New member
right now my snake has its mouth open for around 5 minutes. I think he might be sick or regurgitating food. HELP!

i got him from a local classifieds and the guy kind of ripped me off (with other things) so im not sure if the snake is sick too. he said he fed him the day i got him, but i handled him that day because i bought him. im not really sure if he really fed him or not as he lied about a lot of other things. ive been handling him once a day since i got him. i think its my fault for handling him and I am worried.

Ok right now he reguritated his food. i feel so stupid.
what should i do?
 
First, take a deep breath. Regurgs happen. That in and of itself is not an emergency. The best thing to do for the snake right away is to make sure his temps are right, he has a good hide and access to water then leave him alone. It is possible he is sick and will need a vet, but if it were me I would leave him be for a week then try to feed him again and see how that goes first. If you have other snakes he should be quarantined from them until he gets a clean bill of health.
 
Did you see black stuff come out of his mouth? Because snake poo is typically black...
 
i have some pinkies in the freezer i could feed him but im a bit confused how to feed him 3 at once. how to you feed a snake 3 small mice at once, do you feed it one after another? how does that work.

he feeds on adult mice normally.

is snake vomit actually black? it was really dark looking like really dark brown it didnt look right.
 
By smaller meal I think they meant to feed him a small meal (not just smaller feed items) at first until you know he can keep them down. I think feeding him one pinkie would be a good test for the next time you feed then if he does well gradually feeder big items until you work back up to a normal sized mouse. To feed more than one, just offer a second one once he's got the first one pushed all the way down.

Snake vomit isn't vomit per se. It is the partially digested (or decayed) remains of their last meal. It smells terrible and is dark greenish and slimy (at least the only one I've seen looked like that). Sometimes you can see fur and sometimes not. Poo will be dark and comes out along with pee which is white and sometimes watery, but often solid. Do you have a picture by chance? They might help us identify it.
 
I believe they mean one at a time. I have found when feeding multiple mice its best to wait about 10 minutes between offerings to give them time to get the first one down where it belongs. I have also found they will tell you how many they want, but then again, I have had snakes in the past that would just eat and eat. If you keep dropping them in, he would keep eating them, so you dont want to overfeed. This is what works best for me and my crew here, which Im expanding by 2 more corns this weekend. I cant wait. Just my opinion and my .02. Thanks for reading, Jon.
 
jon31072000 said:
I believe they mean one at a time. I have found when feeding multiple mice its best to wait about 10 minutes between offerings to give them time to get the first one down where it belongs. I have also found they will tell you how many they want, but then again, I have had snakes in the past that would just eat and eat. If you keep dropping them in, he would keep eating them, so you dont want to overfeed. This is what works best for me and my crew here, which Im expanding by 2 more corns this weekend. I cant wait. Just my opinion and my .02. Thanks for reading, Jon.
Click to expand...

Your post may be confusing for the topic starter 'cause of bad information. With a regurgitation it's important to not handle or feed the snake for 10 days. Start with 1 smaller food item than he normally gets and give every week a bigger and bigger one untill the snake is eating food appropriate for the snake's size. Also corn snakes are opportunistic eaters, they eat them selves to death if you keep providing. NEVER let the snake decide how much food it gets.
 
You need to follow regurge protocol. (do a search)

Don't handle the snake until it is keeping food down.

Hopefully it was just a regurge due to stress and your little one will be fine in a few weeks.
 
no i dont have a picture but the way you are describing the vomit sounds like what it looked like. i was thinking of feeding it 3 pinkies next week. so you can just feed one after another right? like wait 10 minutes or something between each pinkie?
 
nevermind my three pinkies went bad in the freezer...
I think my snake normally eats adult mice, so ill feed it medium mice next time? would it be okay to feed him medium mice 4 times in a month and then go back to adult mice? i dont want to waste medium mice, i think they come in a box of four.
 
Like Naagas said, above, it would be good to do a search on regurge protocol and follow it. For example, it's recommend that you feed a pinky head first, then the body, etc. I'm sure some people have been able to feed their snake a regular meal after it regurged and it was fine, but I like to play it safe and follow the procedure. I followed it with my snake Mango and she seems to be doing fine. If you wrap the medium size mice in two freezer bags, they will keep until your snake can safely eat them.
 
If he normally feeds on adult mice, I would feed one hopper or fuzzy, ten days after the suspected regurge. I would cut a minimum of five slits down the back of the mouse, shallow just through the skin. This will make it easier to digest. Personally, I would cut five slits on the back, left and right side and powder the meal with Nutribac, for all meals for six months. You gradually increase the prey size back up to what he regurged, after correcting the factor(s) that made the snake regurge in the first place, which in your case would be feeding followed by handling and then moving to a new location and then handling. A snake should not be fed within five days of transport, at a minimum, and should not be handled within 48-72 hours of feeding.
 
Yes I have no idea why the guy fed him the day he gave him to me. He was a really bad seller. He actually ripped me off with other things too.

i think i am going to start feeding him hoppers first one month then go up to adults. Im not really sure what type of mice he normally eats because the guy told me he ate medium rats, but im not sure if he is right because he lied about a lot of things. personally my snake looks like he couldnt eat medium rats his head is really small. He is 2 years old and ive been reading that they normally eat adult mice or small rats.
 
If he's only two years old I doubt there's any way he could eat a small rat. I have a very big snake who *can* eat a small rat, but I give her jumbo mice. When you get back to feeding regularly keep in mind that the food item shouldn't be much bigger around than the snake at his widest point. The two year olds I have eat a hopper or a small mouse.

Just feed one small item for his next meal. Giving three pinkies is not a good idea. They freeze well so just save the extras. Imo its better to underfeed a little than to overfeed.
 
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