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Second snake, second regurge

B

Brieana

New member
My first hatchling regurged a couple months ago. I figured it was because her tank was being heated by lamp light and was dipping down into the low sixties at night. I ran out and bought a UTH and a dimmer the day I found the pinkie. Another hint that it was the cold was because the pinkie was almost fully formed, although she had eaten two days before it happened.
She ended up dying eight days later, the day I was going to try feeding her a pinkie head.

I mourned for a few weeks and made a mistaken impulse buy at petco on January 30th. I got a male amel and have been having fun bonding with him. I fed him Monday night and have left him undisturbed until just now. Inside his hide, he was sitting next to a regurgitated pinkie. It's very digested compared to how undigested my previous snake's was. The pinkies were purchased at the same mom and pop pet store. They were leftovers from a purchase for my first hatchling.

He ate last week with no issue and as of Monday, he hadn't pooped it out yet.

He's in a 10 gallon with aspen, fed in a separate container. His hide is around 80-86 degrees. The UTH isn't adhered to the bottom of the tank because otherwise it gets too hot. Right at this moment, it's 84 on the glass under his hide.

So I'm wondering what I could have done wrong this time? If he dies, I think I'm going to give up on corns for good. :(
 
feed him in his tank, feeding him out of a tank will only cause unnecessary stress.

how are your ambient temps? it doesnt matter how hot the floor is if your air temps are too low

also, it might be the pinkies, try buying them somewhere else if you can, and then see what happens.

also remember to wait a while before you feed him again, a regurge can cause some serious stress and you want to give their digestive system a chance to balance itself back out. personally i would wait three weeks
 
feed him in his tank, feeding him out of a tank will only cause unnecessary stress.
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Plenty of folks feed outside the normal tank, It's especially recommended if there's a substrate which can be accidentally swallowed (aspen, in this case). It's not inherently stressful for the snake.

how are your ambient temps? it doesnt matter how hot the floor is if your air temps are too low
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I have to completely disagree with that. Unless the snake is equipped with a helicopter, it will not be in midair in the tank :) The air temps are a red herring. It's the temperature on the floor surface - the part of the tank with which the snake is in constant contact - which needs to be the priority.

With a UTH on a dimmer (rather than a thermostat) plus a heat lamp (sounds like there's no control on that one), then there's a greater risk that the floor is too hot and your thermometer is wrong.

Overheating causes regurges as well. Do you have a second thermometer - digital or infra red - to double-check? The plastic dial and cardboard strip types can be wrong by 20 degrees either way.

also remember to wait a while before you feed him again, a regurge can cause some serious stress and you want to give their digestive system a chance to balance itself back out. personally i would wait three weeks
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I agree with this. If you find the "Regurge Protocol" in the FAQ stickied at the top of the feeding section, it contains detailed advice put together by Kathy Love. I think it advises waiting ten days and boosting gut flora with Nutribac in the meantime.
 
i only talk about ambients since that is the air being breathed in by the snake, and cool air combined with the length of the lung/s can dissipate heat from the body, but thats only if its too low.

and as for feeding outside of tank, a little piece of aspen isnt going to hurt, think of all the dirt and muck that they swallow in the wild, im sure they can handle a piece or two in captivity. o fcourse you dont want the rodent to be covered, or have significantly large pieces swallowed. as for stress, i guess im used to ball pythons, they dont like that lol
 
Plus- it is quite rare for a snake to die from a regurge, providing he didn't have an already-fatal condition such as an obstruction or serious illness which caused the regurge. If the regurge was caused by feeding in blue, inappropriate temps, stress- and managed properly- it is a serious matter, especially for a newbie with a first snake, but still should not have resulted in death. What I am trying to say is- if your first baby regurged and then died so quickly, most likely he was going to die anyway. Try to view the second regurge as completely unrelated, except I think I would get a whole new batch of pinks.
 
cmack91 said:
i only talk about ambients since that is the air being breathed in by the snake, and cool air combined with the length of the lung/s can dissipate heat from the body, but thats only if its too low.

and as for feeding outside of tank, a little piece of aspen isnt going to hurt, think of all the dirt and muck that they swallow in the wild, im sure they can handle a piece or two in captivity. o fcourse you dont want the rodent to be covered, or have significantly large pieces swallowed. as for stress, i guess im used to ball pythons, they dont like that lol
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Ambient air is more crutial for ball pythons than it is with corn snakes.

These are wc snakes their bellies are use to dirt and muck. a piece of aspen can cause a lot of damage actually. Some have vet bills to prove it.
 
Just go slow with your baby. Like others have said, follow the "regurge protocal" and get some nutribac.

Nanci, is correct. The other probably had something going on before the regurge ever happened.
 
Thanks for all the information!
I did read Kathy Love's regurge protocol when it happened to my first baby. I have some probiotic (Naturvet) powder for my dogs, can I use that or should I find some nutri-bac? I know I can dust the pink with it, but should I try and feed him some in the meantime?
He's not shedding, his thermometer is a digital probe sitting on the glass and I'm not using the heat lamp anymore, just the UTH.
He spends all his time sleeping under the newspaper that lines the tank right next to the heat pad. That's why I found it odd that he was sleeping in his hide with the pinkie when I checked on him last night.

As for my last snake, she seemed really dehydrated when I found her body. Her neck skin was wrinkled, even though she had access to clean water. I should have realized it sooner, but I was trying to leave her alone to keep her stress down.
 
Nutribac has reptile-specific organisms.

How big was the pink compared to the snake? Now when you feed him again, you should start with a pink head.
 
cmack91 said:
i only talk about ambients since that is the air being breathed in by the snake, and cool air combined with the length of the lung/s can dissipate heat from the body, but thats only if its too low.
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You *do* realise that corn snakes are often active at night, when the temps can be in the 50s but the ground is still warm, right? My corns have never had a problem with the air temp in my house because they have adequate belly heat.
 
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