Non-feeder fed then regurged

[sarae]

I'm aware of the normal regurge protocol, but this situation is a bit different.

My little 4g non-feeder amel, Celia, ate a hamster pink for the first time on her own 48 hours ago. She had previously been fed tails and syringe-fed.

Today there was a stinky regurge

I'm planning on waiting the standard 10-day period before feeding again, but not sure where I should go from there... I don't have nutribac, will acidophilus powder work? Should I feed a half-tail or full tail or syringe-feed a smaller amount?

I was so excited that after 6 months of life, she finally figured out what to do with food... now i'm worried for her all over again

 

[Hallie]

I know it probably isn't what you want to hear, but that doesn't sound promising...

Does she still have good muscle tone or does she have 'squishy belly'? Every nonfeeder that I've had that started eating after that long and then regurged didn't make it. These snakes all had squishy bellies and from what I've experienced (and after talking to Kathy Love about it), babies that develop soft belly muscle tone don't survive.

Hopefully that won't be the case here. If she does make it through the regurge protocol, I'd probably feed just small tail pieces or tube feed her about 1/3 the amount you were giving her before.

 

[ratsnakehaven]

I'm aware of the normal regurge protocol, but this situation is a bit different.

My little 4g non-feeder amel, Celia, ate a hamster pink for the first time on her own 48 hours ago. She had previously been fed tails and syringe-fed.

Today there was a stinky regurge

I'm planning on waiting the standard 10-day period before feeding again, but not sure where I should go from there... I don't have nutribac, will acidophilus powder work? Should I feed a half-tail or full tail or syringe-feed a smaller amount?

I was so excited that after 6 months of life, she finally figured out what to do with food... now i'm worried for her all over again

I have a little amel Miami that only weighs 10 grams that I got about 2 months ago. It can take a f/t pink pretty easily; but the pinks weigh about 2 grams. Your 4 gram snake couldn't eat that much at once. That's 50% of its weight. What I would do is cut the head off a frozen pink, thaw it, and just feed the head. Next time try to feed the body...and so on. I'd feed about once a week and hope that your snake can put on some weight.

 

[sarae]

I have a little amel Miami that only weighs 10 grams that I got about 2 months ago. It can take a f/t pink pretty easily; but the pinks weigh about 2 grams. Your 4 gram snake couldn't eat that much at once. That's 50% of its weight. What I would do is cut the head off a frozen pink, thaw it, and just feed the head. Next time try to feed the body...and so on. I'd feed about once a week and hope that your snake can put on some weight.

I'd tried that before. She wouldn't take any f/t. This was a dwarf hamster pink, smaller than my 2g mouse pinks. (I've never had any luck feeding anything just a head.. is there a technique that I'm just not getting?)

 

[sarae]

I know it probably isn't what you want to hear, but that doesn't sound promising...

Does she still have good muscle tone or does she have 'squishy belly'? Every nonfeeder that I've had that started eating after that long and then regurged didn't make it. These snakes all had squishy bellies and from what I've experienced (and after talking to Kathy Love about it), babies that develop soft belly muscle tone don't survive.

Hopefully that won't be the case here. If she does make it through the regurge protocol, I'd probably feed just small tail pieces or tube feed her about 1/3 the amount you were giving her before.

She doesn't really have much of a belly to tell. She's a very active snake, so she's not really loose skin like Zephyr was.

Any suggestions on how to go about the regurge protocol with this little one?

 

[ratsnakehaven]

I'd tried that before. She wouldn't take any f/t. This was a dwarf hamster pink, smaller than my 2g mouse pinks. (I've never had any luck feeding anything just a head.. is there a technique that I'm just not getting?)

Here's the technique I use for ones that are really stubborn. Get a deli cup and put a little water in, just enough to get the pink wet. Separate the head/body of the pink and thaw and put in cup. The cup is better if you can't see through the sides, just the top. Leave the snake in the cup some time. Cover up if you want with towel, or whatever. Leave overnight if necessary.

PS: Sometimes it doesn't work for a reason. Not every baby snake is meant to survive. Sometimes there's something wrong we just can't fix. Best of luck though...

 

[kathylove]

That is really tiny!

I would probably syringe feed 1 cc egg yolk or pureed ferret food every 4 days until it gets to 8 or 9 gms or so, before trying to feed whole animals again. That extra food could kill it, but if so, it wasn't going to be able to survive anyway. If you can get some kind of probiotic, it couldn't hurt. I have never been able to get any vet to give me a certain answer on whether probiotics for one species will help another, but it can't hurt. The Natural Gold Pretty Pet ferret food does have several species of probiotics in it - good for ferrets, possibly good for herps, too. Remember, if you heat the probiotics, you will probably kill them. So keep temps under about 100F or so on anything that has probiotics in it.

 

[sarae]

*nod* I'll go back to syringe feeding after the 10 days. So far she's still perky. I haven't seen Natural Gold ferret food. All we have is the 8-in-1 canned ferret food here. I usually use Hills Science Diet A/D dog food. It doesn't have any probiotics but I'm sure i can find some somewhere.

If i can get her weight up to around 10gms, i'll try ratsnakehaven's suggestion. I believe diallo was up at 10g when I finally started him on whole food again.

I know not every snake is meant to make it, but I want to give her the best shot possible!