• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

My 6 month old corn snake has vomited part of her last meal, what do I do?

D

DyTW

New member
As the title, my snake has vomited some parts of her last meal. I had her since October of 2019, she was eating and passing her food well. Here are the informations about the husbandry, the snake, and the last feed:

Temp
Hot spot: 29~30C (84.2~86F), the thermostat is under about 3 cm(1 in) of aspen shredding.
Cool spot: ~22C (~71.6F)

Humidity
50~60%

Hides
Hides on both warm and cool ends, another one in the middle.

Enclosure
30cm*20cm*15cm (11.8in*7.8in*5.9in) acrylic enclosure. Three sides covered up.

Snake:
~50cm(18.8in) long, weighted 16.4g
Active and very alerts.
No signs of respiratory infection and has been shedding well in one complete piece.

Last feed:
1 F/T pinkie that weighted about 3.3g, warmed up to about 30C (86F). The feeder was from the same source as her previous meals.
Fed on Sunday(1/12), she accidentally ate a small piece of aspen with her meal.

Poop and vomit:
Pooped and vomited on the same day, Wednesday(1/15). Poop looks normal, discarded without taking picture. Here is the picture of the vomit:
55587415524d2cdf468e758aa3d65d45.jpg

Smells acidic, but not foul. The head and a front lamb can be seen. I poked it open please don’t judge) and it was mostly empty with no bones or organs.

Sorry for writing the informations like a science report, I just want it to be as detailed as possible. Please help me ID the problem so I can prevent it from happening again. At the meantime, what should I do to help my snake recover and feel better?

Thanks a lot in advance [emoji24]
 
Very detailed post! That's the best way to get good help. First off, it's not rare that a snake can vomit and it could be for a number of reasons. I certainly wouldn't think the worst. Perhaps that little piece of aspen didn't agree with her. Generally, the rule of thumb is to leave it alone and do not feed it for two weeks. Just make sure that it has plenty of fresh water. Fresh being key. Try to change it daily if you can.

Keep an eye on her to make sure that she hasn't vomited any more.

After the two week period, try to feed her again. If she vomits again, you may want to take her to the vet.

The vivarium sounds good to me. I wouldn't change a thing.

Please note that I am not an expert, and have only been keeping snakes for a few years. These are my opinions and it's what I would do.

Good luck and again, great detailed post! Usually, you see 'my snake threw up, what do I do' and that's all you have to go by.
 
Order some NutriBAC if you don't already have it on hand (I keep it on hand for a couple reasons, a potential regurge is one of them).

It's important to remember that when you start feeding again (I usually wait about 10 days), start super small.
Regurges are hard on their system, and you do not want to change repeat regurges, because the chances increase for bigger problems, and can be fatal, especially with hatchlings.

For a hatchling, I'd start back with just the head of a pinky, and gradually move back up to a full sized pinky.
Dust the prey with a little NutriBAC on every meal, for at least a few weeks.

Regurges can happen due to a number of reasons: improper temps (too warm or too cool), if the snake is in later stages of a shed process, and cannot get the shed past the food bump, they will regurge and then finish shedding, stress, from handling too soon, etc.

The aspen in your photo looks like it stuck to the pinky after your snake regurged. If you're concerned about your snake ingesting aspen, you can feed in another enclosure, or put the pinky on something like a paper plate so there's no contact with the aspen.

Good luck! Keep us posted!
 
I’ve seen what you described a few time in my collection, mostly with hatchlings. And usually with a snake in early pre-she’d that I didn’t notice. When this happens I skip the next meal and offer a smaller meal in the next feeding cycle.
Usually doesn’t happen again. Some hatchlings may be more prone to do this from time to time but then grow out of it. If it happens 2or 3 times in succession, have a vet examine it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top