Safe to feed on paper towel?

[Preita]

Keep us updated. Best of wishes and good luck. Is there anything mineral oil isnt good for? Hopefully all goes well and its just a little bit of fiber.

 

[breedingcolors]

I stopped feeding mine on paper towel some time ago because of that. My female lavender just took the paper with the mouse. I was fortunate enough to see it when the paper was just a bit in her mouth so I was able to get rid of it. I never put their food on paper towel again...

Good luck to you!

 

[Hurley]

Yeah, I never liked how paper towel clings to their food. The glossy magazine pages didn't do bad, but I know they aren't going to be able to crumple a paper plate, so that works for me for in box feeding when I feel the need to do it. I haven't had one ingest a deli cup yet and that is what I use 99 times out of 100.

Good luck with the mineral oil. Time and moisture will help the most. Keep it hydrated.

 

[Shep151]

Good luck with the mineral oil. Time and moisture will help the most. Keep it hydrated.

That's what I was thinking. If that paper towel's going to break down, it needs to be WET. I'm also thinking of tapping a sprinkle of Nutri-Bac in with the mineral oil. See anything wrong with that? :shrugs:

 

[Hurley]

Nutribac would be better given in water. I would imagine the bacteria would be trapped in the oil and not able to do their intended job. I don't know that the bacteria in Nutribac have much of a taste for cellulose, but it can't hurt anything.

 

[Shep151]

Thanks, Connie. I knew bacteria+mineral oil didn't sound right, but couldn't bring the basis forward. They are aerobic, right? No O2, no bacteria?

 

[Hurley]

Depends on the bacteria. Some are aerobic, some are faciltative anaerobes (handle low low levels of oxygen), and some are true anaerobes. The ones in nutribac to my knowledge are aerobic, yes.

Bacteria don't do well trying to function in oil. Think of the butter you can leave out indefinitely, the cooking oil on the shelf, peanut butter, etc. It blocks water and water-loving (hydrophilic) substances from moving in and out of the bacteria and prevents normal activities from happening.

 

[coyote]

Just brainstorming here.

I've been following this case on both forums. Too bad you can't get ahold of some termites. Mash the abdomens up and get him to ingest some.

I also wonder if bovine colostrum would help at all. The bacteria wouldn't be in it, but there are other factors that might facilitate the passage. You can buy it powdered for reconstitution at most feed stores.

One other comment, JMO, 5 to 6 drops of mineral oil a day seems pretty measly. 5 to 6 drops is only about 1.5 tenths of a cc. I suppose it ends up having an accumulative affect, but how long will it have to accumulate at this rate?

ANY progress at all yet?

 

[Shep151]

ANY progress at all yet?

Nope. But looking at the size of the paper towel in him relative to his overall size, it certainly doesn't make any sense to me that it would take less than a month to break that down. (It also makes the idea look ridiculous that he may break it down at all, lol.)
:shrugs:

 

[Drizzt80]

Nope. But looking at the size of the paper towel in him relative to his overall size, it certainly doesn't make any sense to me that it would take less than a month to break that down. (It also makes the idea look ridiculous that he may break it down at all, lol.)
:shrugs:

The other thing is that look how quickly they break down a mouse/rat . . . granted, hair and fur sometimes doesn't get broken down completely, and bone is made of calcium among other minerals and elements which dissolve easier or better, and the paper towel is a wood product. I wouldn't be surprised if he does pass it through just fine, though it has to be really uncomfortable . . . kinda post Thanksgiving mealish uncomfortable :grin01:

D80

 

[dionythicus]

I wouldn't be surprised if he does pass it through just fine, though it has to be really uncomfortable . . . kinda post Thanksgiving mealish uncomfortable :grin01:

D80

Just picture this...we had a husky that ate steel wool. That's right, an entire box of steel wool. He was screaming all day long while he was trying to pass it. The vet had to sedate him and remove it from his poor, bloody bottom. And the damn dog never learned. He would eat anything.

I would hope a papertowel would be less uncomfortable than that.

 

[E. g. guttata]

Nope. But looking at the size of the paper towel in him relative to his overall size, it certainly doesn't make any sense to me that it would take less than a month to break that down. (It also makes the idea look ridiculous that he may break it down at all, lol.)
:shrugs:

Wow! Just jumped on this thread and now I'm kinda worried about your snake. I haven't fed on paper towel for about 5 years or so (I used to do it on the table where they had room to move for 4 of those years, but then the male started getting pissy). I would wonder how mineral oil is supposed to help break down the paper towel? I have never seen any paper product start to fall apart when exposed to oil personally. I kinda wonder a bit about that treatment. I would think that there is something to the nutribac idea, but I'm not sure how well it would work. Just hoping that everything turns out alright.

 

[Taceas]

I was thinking along the same lines of thought as Coyote earlier today.

Paper towel is cellulose, most herbivores have loads of bacteria that break it down. But short of feeding him cow excrement (which is where calves get their innoculation of bactera), I don't know if you could buy enzymes or bacteria commercially that would help.

I would think the calf colostrum would be more for them to be able to break down the lactose and fats in their mother's milk, than for plant matter digestion.

I'm honestly surprised the vet didn't want to manually remove the paper towel. :shrugs:

I dunno, let us know how he progresses Zach.

 

[carol]

I would wonder how mineral oil is supposed to help break down the paper towel?

It may help break it down, it may not, but I believe the main purpose is to keep the towel lubed and his stomach moist. Just think of how much a papertowel could suck all the moisture out of the snake from the inside. It really reminds me of when my horse coliced. To make a long story short, my horse ended up eating WAY too much alfalfa on a very warm day and just was not hydrated enough to digest it, and it turned into a big dry mass stuck in his belly. Since horses are not able to regurgitate, a pile of indigestible food in their belly can be deadly very fast. Of course it was a holiday weekend (major vet bill) so my vet had no assistants, I had to help her pump about a gallon of Mineral Oil into his stomach. After seeing the "end result" it didn't help break much down, it just lubed things up so they could "move along".

 

[Shep151]

I believe the main purpose is to keep the towel lubed

This was my impression as well.

. . . kinda post Thanksgiving mealish uncomfortable

Holy cow, D80, what do you eat for Thanksgiving???? :sidestep:

 

[Drizzt80]

Holy cow, D80, what do you eat for Thanksgiving???? :sidestep:

One turkey flavored bath towel followed by a liter bottle of mineral oil, chugged not sipped. :crazy02:

D80

 

[Shep151]

Looks like something's moving in there, at least. We'll see what emerges, probably within a day or two by the look of it.

 

[Taceas]

Glad to hear he's still hanging in there. Hopefully he can pass it without prolapsing.

Btw, how artsy of you to pick carpeting that matches the color of the snake perfectly.

Gorgeous colors on the little boy, makes me think my normal BP is boring. =P

 

[Preita]

how's he doing?

BTW beautiful red coloring. Reminds me of cut buffalo horn my dad used to carve.

 

[Shep151]

:shrugs:
Tough to say, really. He appears to be moving it VERY slowly (as advised).
He still hasn't passed anything yet, but he's doing very well at keeping himself hydrated. Also, his activity level isn't diminished much, considering he always has a full belly right now.