Baby regurg problem

[rhodostom]

Hey All.

I have 1 baby corn. He eats lizard scented f/t pinks very well.
However, 3-4 days later he regurgs them.

He has a hidebox.
He is at about 83F.
I have tried to keep him in a deli cup after feeding to prevent his moving around too much. He still regurged.

I have tried very small pinks as well as larger ones both to no avail.

I have tried waiting 10days -2 weeks between feeding, but he still puked.

Any ideas to get him to keep his food down?

Thanks,
Rhodostom

 

[Tim Madsen]

Things that cause regurge, temp. to high, temp. to low, meal to large, parasites, virus. Your temps. sound good. Things to try, get fecal exam for parasites, try adding GSE (Grapefruit seed extract) to its water at the rate of 10 drops per gallon of water. You can get GSE at health food stores. Change the water every day.

 

[Taceas]

Re:

Another thing I've found successful was breaking the skin on the pink open or beheading the pink. That way they can get their digestive enzymes and acids inside to really digest the meal.

I have one 03 hatchling who keeps pinks down fine when I do either, she just can't seem to digest the skin, so it begins to rot and she regurges.

Another thing to look at are that sometimes I think captive snakes suffer from a lack of beneficial intestinal flora. Mostly from a lack of eating freshly killed prey whose guts are loaded with such bacteria. Frozen foods are mostly sterile in that department. You may try finding a probiotic or powdered yogurt culture and dusting the pink with that before offering it to the snake.

Your temps sound fine, the waiting period sounds fine. I would bet it's got an imbalance or lack of intestinal flora causing issues. Take a fresh fecal sample to a vet and have it analyzed for worms or other parasites.

Hopefully she gets it straightened out. I know what a pain it is to do everything right and it still doesn't work out right.

 

[Rachel]

Re: Re:

Another thing to look at are that sometimes I think captive snakes suffer from a lack of beneficial intestinal flora. Mostly from a lack of eating freshly killed prey whose guts are loaded with such bacteria.

Do snakes have the same bacteria culture in their gut as we do? I mean would feeding probiotics be beneficial? I never thought of this, and as I only feed f/t (not that I've had any probs so far) I would be interested if using probiotics would be good for my snakes.

 

[CornCrazy]

Rachel,
I use probiotics anytime one of my snakes has a problem with regurgitating. I have had good results with them.

rhodostom,
How big is your hatchling? Have you tried feeding just pinky heads? I had one that would regurgitate even the smallest of pinkys so I started feeding it only pinky heads. After a few weeks, it was able to take small pinkys.

 

[rhodostom]

Thanks all for the help.

I'm gonna get some probiotics, and gse and try that.
I am also going to try just giving him a pink head as suggested.
(The snake is big enough to take a large pink easy.)

I'll post updates to let yall know how he/she does.

-rhodostom

 

[rhodostom]

Thanks to those who replied earlier.

I got the GSE and have done as you said Tim. The snake has now eaten 3-4 times on kept them down.

I have no idea what that stuff did, but it did the trick.

Thanks,
Rhodostom

 

[palmerdoom]

Make sure one side of your viv' is at 70 deg. This is optimum temp. for your corn to lay around and relax. 85 deg. on the other side will allow it to warm up rapidly when it needs to. The #1 problem with healthy corns' not eating is optimum temps. A baby wild cornsnake does not eat pinky heads. They don't eat lizzard scented pinkies. They are a creatures of oppurtunity and eat just about anything they can catch and overpower. If your snake will not eat when kept at optimum temperatures and stress is kept to minimum then you need to have a Vet. check for internal parasites.