Is this a regurge?

[GregF]

I found this behind some foliage in Slithers' viv tonight:

It doesn't smell but it doesn't look like poop either. It could be two separate items or one thing that came apart. Each piece is a bit smaller than a small pinkie. I don't know how long it's been there but I look at that part of the viv pretty frequently, as that's someplace where he likes to hang out.

Here's the history: about two weeks ago, we moved Slithers up from 1 small pinkie, once a week, to 1 large pinkie (3g), every 5 days. He's been fed these larger meals twice, the last time 4 days ago. We are feeding F/T from The Mouse Factory and Slithers weighs ~20g. He has no trouble eating and is always swallowing his food within a couple of minutes of being put in his feeding container. We wait 48 hours after feeding before handling him.

I don't know if this is relevant but ever since going to the larger feedings, he has been in hiding. Prior to that, he would come out and cruise around his viv just about every night. He has also not shed in the month or so since we got him.

So, what do you think? If this is a regurge, could it be the last 2 meals? Being a new owner, I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at. Thanks in advance for your help.

-Greg

 

[tyflier]

First things first...you're going backwards in your feeding schedule.

When you move up in prey size, you should INCREASE the length of time between feedings to give your snake more time to properly digest. My basic schedule for my corn snakes is:
pinks-every 4 days
fuzzies-every 5 days
hoppers-every 6 days
weanlings-every 7 days
adults every 7-10 days(depends on the snake, my desired growth rate, and it's current size)

As for identifying those items...I've no idea. I wish I could be more helpful...

[edit]The one on the right definitely looks as though it has a face. Making a guess, I think it looks like a possible regurge...[/edit]

 

[TWGarland]

i'd saw is there anything else at all it could be? theres nothing i can think of, plus your corn eats pinks, which is what they look like. Approx. are the size of one large pink, thats been split in two, or are they big enough to be two whole pinkies? this will tell you if its been one weeks worth of pinks or two. remember it will probably of loss some of its mass anyways through semi-digestion.

Maybe whats happenned is that by increasing the prey size and decreasing the length of time between feeds your snake hadnt completed digestion before handling. You mentioned you handle your snake 48 hours after feeding, i wait longer (3 days) if i havent seen the first poop after eating, and this waiting longer is more important when increasing the prey size to ensure proper digestion.
Maybe thats why it regurged? do you know all action to take following a regurge cos there are some really good threads on here for that

Good luck
regards
Tom

 

[Nanci]

First things first...you're going backwards in your feeding schedule.

When you move up in prey size, you should INCREASE the length of time between feedings to give your snake more time to properly digest.

I think he moved up because he was feeding a pinky once a week, which isn't frequent enough.

Nanci

Looks like a regurge to me. Was it thawed completely? Are his temps ok- 85F on the warm side?

 

[GregF]

Follow Up

Tyflyer: I thought I was following the feeding chart, in that young snakes can be fed every 5 days and that a large pink (3g) would be appropriate to his weight (~20g). I guess it was too much, too soon.

Nanci: Temps are 83-85 on the warm side and the pinkie should have been thawed. It had been submerged in hot tap water (in a baggie) for about 10 minutes and felt soft. It also had a couple of small cuts in the back.

I'm pretty certain now that it was a regurge. After writing my original post, I noticed that Slithers was very active and moving around his viv. I saw him open his mouth wide and have another small regurge. It was either very small or mostly liquid, because I couldn't find it afterwards. He continued to be active until we went to bed.

I'm going on the assumption that the cause of the regurge was increased prey size and frequency, plus handling. I'm going to follow Kathy's advice of waiting about a week and then going back to tiny meals once a week for the next 3 or 4 weeks, with no extra handling. Since the last time he ate was 5 days ago, it seems like waiting another week should be enough.

I'm really curious about his activity level. Kathy thought he might have gotten more active since his stomach was upset. However, his activity level and behavior last night was exactly like it had been before increasing his prey size. During his first weeks with us, when he was on 1 small pinkie every 7 days, he came out and roamed around every night. On the day we gave him his first large pink, his activity level dropped and he hid almost all the time, until having this regurge last night. Am I reading too much into this?

Wish us luck and thanks for the advice.

-Greg

 

[Nanci]

He's probably active because he's really hungry. That's what Maizey was like when she regurged- looked perfectly happy and heathy.

Nanci

 

[kathylove]

I have often noted snakes in "hunting mode" after a regurge, while waiting out their recovery time, and also while undergoing the required "tiny meal with slow increase in size" time. If his stomach doesn't feel upset, he may feel hungry. But that doesn't mean his body is ready to digest what his brain is telling him to eat right now. Too much too soon, and you will be back where you started.

Although the usual feeding schedule that many people follow may work great for most snakes, a newly acquired snake may not be used to that schedule, or may be stressed from travel and adjusting to a new home, and may not be used to much handling. So it is safest to keep to be conservative in feeding and handling for the first 3 or 4 weeks, and then increase both slowly over the next few weeks after that. And be sure to put cuts into the skin of pre-killed mice to aid in fast and full digestion. (I do that will ALL my f/t mice now, even for adults). Some new snakes require this extra "coddling" and some don't - you just don't know until after you see a problem such as a regurge. I prefer prevention over cure.