Clarice Regurgitated

[materwitch]

This has been a bad 24 hours for me. Starting with a sleet/rain/snow last night that coated the roads in slick stuff that my daughter had to be out driving in at 5am in a car she has never driven in the winter. Followed by be woken up by my roof leaking and the certainty that I will have to wipe out our retirement account to fix it. Crowned with the Cherry of my sweet little baby Clarice regurgitating this afternoon.
I am almost certain my husbandry is ok. Her tank has 2 hides, one on top of the uth area, one in the center and a bunch of fake grass to hide in on the cool side. Plus some leafy garland running from the warm to the cool side. The temperature Ron the warm side fluctuates between 81 - 87 degrees F and the cool side is around 71.
I believe her pinkie was just too big. Also she rolled on her side for a second when iwas putti g her back in her viv acter feeding on Sunday. And I feel horrible about it. I ws so proud this morning that she was out and about exploring and using her newest hide, now this.

I am heart broken. I feel like the worst snake mom ever and like she is doomed now. I am literally tearing up right now just thinking about her poor sweet little face.

I have been reading up on the feeding protocol for after a baby regurges, and I intend to wait 8 days before feeding her just a pinkie head for the next 2 feedings, followed by feeding her half pinkie bodies for the 4-5 feedings after that, with no handling.
Then if all is well, and no more regurges, I will resume her normal feeding and handling.

I do have one question regarding the no handling. ... does no handling mean I need to feed her in her viv instead of her feeding tank to avoid absolutely any handling what so ever.

 

[materwitch]

Sorry about all the typos...it's my tablet keyboard acting up.
I left out that she is tiny at around 4-5 grams and just over a month old, but I'm not sure when exactly she hatched. Plus I'm feeding frozen/ thawed , but the store I got her from had been feeding live.

 

[nicolefowler2005]

I wouldn't feed in her viv because she could digest some of the bedding along with it which could potentially be even more harmful than the regurge!! Just handle her as little as possible I would say


Nicole

 

[Karl_Mcknight]

According to the Munson feeding chart, a snake your size ( 4 to 15 grams) should be eating a 2 gram pinkie. Your snake is on the small end of that being just about 5 grams, so it might be a good idea to just feed half a pinkie or at least the very smallest pinkie you can get. Are you weighing your feed items as well? You probably should be with a snake that small. Once your snake gets up to 9 or 10 grams, then you won't have to worry so much and feeding a whole pinkie will probably be ok.

If your snake only weighs 4 to 5 grams and you happened to get hold of a 3 or 4 gram pinkie, then that could very well be the problem.

 

[materwitch]

The pinkie I fed her was wavering between 2 and 2 and a half grams. In retrospect I'm still thinking it may just have been too big. And I'm definitely going to cut back to a half pinkie....once I get her to hold down a couple feedings worth of just heads.
At this juncture I'm at the point of totally terrified.

 

[Nanci]

I'm sorry this is all happening at once! Especially the roof. I just had a roof scare last summer- but it turned out once I got up there that there was just one small ding in one shingle and all I had to do was seal it. Patching the ceiling wasn't bad, either, using a patch kit.

So, Clarice. She isn't doomed because of the regurge, _unless_ she already has some condition that wasn't caused by you. She could have been born with a defect that hasn't shown itself until now. How many successful feedings has she had for you?

Causes of regurge are feeding while blue (or when the snake is just going blue, but you can't tell yet), prey too large, habitat not warm enough for digestion. Less common causes are parasites (would be rare in a captive-bred, never fed live hatchling), disease, bowel obstruction. I wouldn't worry about any of those at this point.

What to do now? Skip the next feeding. Then feed a pinky head. Then 1/3 of a pink. Then 1/2 a pink. Then the other 1/2. Then the 2/3. Finally a very small whole pink, either slit through the head and 3-4 times down the back, or cut in half, feed both pieces.

Be very careful not to feed her when she is blue. If you can't see that she is, you would also know when she has a larger than normal weight gain from one feeding to the next. She should be shedding about once a month.

Adding a powdering of Nutribac probiotics to her meals would be beneficial.

So, take a deep breath- I know it's difficult when it's the first time dealing with this. Unless there is something wrong with her that you don't know about, as long as the regurge was caused by either too large a prey, or she's blue, she should be just fine, as long as you're careful to start out small and very gradually work back up to the size she should be eating.

Also- I don't even bother feeding double pinks any more. I just sort my pinks by size and feed from small to large, then the same thing with fuzzies, and so on. That way you don't have a big doubling in size of her meals.

 

[MysticExotics]

I agree with Nanci and Karl.
Sounds like the pinky was just a little too big for her.
Don't beat yourself up, it happens.

If you follow the regurge protocol, your snake should recover just fine.
I keep NutriBAC on hand at all times, just in case.

Sorry about everything else that is going on as well. I hope everything pans out for you soon!

 

[materwitch]

Thank you for the encouragement, she has only been with me for 2 and 1/2 weeks but I'm totally attached to her already. She has had one other feeding with me and it was a success. She's pooped a couple of small poops, well I assume they were good sized poops for her size, but compared to what my big guy does they were teeny lol.
I'm trying to not even go near her tank so she can destress, but I did catch a glimpse of her out and about and having herself a drink of water....I'm thinking that's a good sign.

However...now my phone and TV service are out....lmbo when it rains it pours. But as long as my little girl keeps on the path to healthy and happy I'm thrilled ��

 

[materwitch]

Okay, so today was her first feed since she regurged...I gently and quickly scooped her up and put her in her feeding deli cup with a warmed pinkie head. I put the lid on, then placed her in her back viv(warm end) and stepped back as far as I could but still close enough to see what was going on. She circled the cup once, found the head and immediately but gently took that head, and within 3 minutes it was gone. So I left her alone in the unlit room for about 45 mi6utes, then checked her, the food bump is halfway down her body, so I removed the deli cup lid, but I'm letting her decide when she wants to climb out of it herself, that way she's being handled the least amount possible. She has this look on her face like 'Ma, are you forgetting me here' but I don't want to handle her any more then I have too.
So fingers crossed she keeps this head down.

Thanks again for all your help and support...I'm lucky to have all you noodle lovers here who understand.

 

[materwitch]

She was out and about exploring last night. The food bump is gone and she pooped...yay! So far so god , I think.
A few more days and I'll give her another head.

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