Hello again, all!
For the most part, my three new corns have settled in just fine. There have been a few little hiccups, though, and I am starting to think they might be related because I can't think what else could be wrong.
Here was the scenario. Hester, who I think was born in July, maybe? June? anyway, she weighed 8 grams at the time of the feeding in question. She seems to not gain the same amount of weight as the other two (same age) on the same food, but I was trying not to let that worry me.
She was fed a single mouse pink (approx 1.5 grams, quite a small pink, definitely not even 2 or 3 grams) on the evening of 10/1/2008. The mouse was properly thawed and comfortably warm, and was deeply slit in several places and had its skull punctured. (I wanted to give Hester every advantage I could with the slitting/braining; she is by no means a reluctant feeder.)
She ate it in a flash, rested a moment, etc. I transported her feeding container (her comforting deli cup
) over to her viv and she slithered back into her warm hide. I changed her water before I fed her, so that was fresh and the bowl clean during this period.
Viv conditions were as follows and remained constant. The cool side temps were from 74 to 78 F and the warm side was between 82 and 84 F. The humidity was at about 46%. She was not bothered, jostled, frightened, or interrupted in any way. Her two buddies (separate vivs for all, identical conditions/ranges) were fine and ate/digested perfectly, as has she for all of her past feedings with me.
Forty-eight hours later I opened her viv. I was not going to handle her--I am paranoid and wait about 72 hours before I handle them post-feeding. I was simply changing her water. Opened the viv, no smell, no poo, changed the water, all was well.
24 hours later (this is 10/4/2008 now) I opened her viv to check on her, check for poo, and see if she seemed agreeable to being handled and weighed.
And, boom! The smell hit me. I always wondered how you all could be SO certain I would know a regurge by smell immediately, but now I know. Sure enough, under her warm hide there was what looked *exactly* like the mouse I fed her, only...very shrunken and hollowed out and sort of mumified and grey.
At this point, Hester poked her head out to see what was going on (she was under the aspen nearby) and I saw that she was obviously in blue.
I changed out her water and left her be completely, as is suggested for regurge cases, but I was also keeping a close eye on her to make sure she shed properly. Humidity stayed the same because Greer had just shed perfectly under those conditions...maybe I should have misted?
On 10/6/2008, I peeked into her cage while cleaning her water and saw a small bit of shed. It was her head, jaw, and eyecaps, and a bit of her neck, but that was it. I gently dug around to see if I could find the rest, but, no dice. I fished Hester out and, sure enough, the shed had just torn off and the rest was still on her.
I popped on here and found Nanci's great instructions on how to deal with this, and after a very short soak in water and wet paper towels, Hester slithered perfectly out of the remainder of her shed. She was much happier/calmer/less uncomfortable action after that...
In she went to the cage to continue waiting out her regurge timer...
Two questions.
1) I do not know exactly what day the regurge happened. When I opened her viv to change her water on 10/3, I would think that I would have smelled it...does it take a day or so to start smelling? Anyway, what I am saying is that i guess it could have happened anytime between when I changed her water on 10/3 and when I found it on 10/4...could it have even happened on 10/1 or 10/2? What this question boils down to is, when is her 10 day window up for sure? I was going to count from the latest possible date (10/4) just to be safe, then give her a wee pink's head.
2)What caused this darn regurge? I cannot figure it out! She has been fine under these conditions before, and every time during her "digestion" that I did observe her, she was hanging out in her warm hide as she usually does when digesting. My only *possible* thought is that this was her first shed with me...so could going into blue *immediately* after (or maybe even she was in blue when she ate, I just couldn't see it as clearly as a few days later? That happened with Boris...one day his eyes were sort of opaque/milky, but two days later they were BLUE) have been what upset her digestion and caused the regurge?
Thanks, all. I have tried really hard to use the search function for all of the questions I have had, and they really did answer my regurge procedure and bad shed issues brilliantly...but with this one I am stuck trying to troubleshoot and would appreciate some experienced wisdom.
For the most part, my three new corns have settled in just fine. There have been a few little hiccups, though, and I am starting to think they might be related because I can't think what else could be wrong.
Here was the scenario. Hester, who I think was born in July, maybe? June? anyway, she weighed 8 grams at the time of the feeding in question. She seems to not gain the same amount of weight as the other two (same age) on the same food, but I was trying not to let that worry me.
She was fed a single mouse pink (approx 1.5 grams, quite a small pink, definitely not even 2 or 3 grams) on the evening of 10/1/2008. The mouse was properly thawed and comfortably warm, and was deeply slit in several places and had its skull punctured. (I wanted to give Hester every advantage I could with the slitting/braining; she is by no means a reluctant feeder.)
She ate it in a flash, rested a moment, etc. I transported her feeding container (her comforting deli cup
) over to her viv and she slithered back into her warm hide. I changed her water before I fed her, so that was fresh and the bowl clean during this period.Viv conditions were as follows and remained constant. The cool side temps were from 74 to 78 F and the warm side was between 82 and 84 F. The humidity was at about 46%. She was not bothered, jostled, frightened, or interrupted in any way. Her two buddies (separate vivs for all, identical conditions/ranges) were fine and ate/digested perfectly, as has she for all of her past feedings with me.
Forty-eight hours later I opened her viv. I was not going to handle her--I am paranoid and wait about 72 hours before I handle them post-feeding. I was simply changing her water. Opened the viv, no smell, no poo, changed the water, all was well.
24 hours later (this is 10/4/2008 now) I opened her viv to check on her, check for poo, and see if she seemed agreeable to being handled and weighed.
And, boom! The smell hit me. I always wondered how you all could be SO certain I would know a regurge by smell immediately, but now I know. Sure enough, under her warm hide there was what looked *exactly* like the mouse I fed her, only...very shrunken and hollowed out and sort of mumified and grey.
At this point, Hester poked her head out to see what was going on (she was under the aspen nearby) and I saw that she was obviously in blue.
I changed out her water and left her be completely, as is suggested for regurge cases, but I was also keeping a close eye on her to make sure she shed properly. Humidity stayed the same because Greer had just shed perfectly under those conditions...maybe I should have misted?
On 10/6/2008, I peeked into her cage while cleaning her water and saw a small bit of shed. It was her head, jaw, and eyecaps, and a bit of her neck, but that was it. I gently dug around to see if I could find the rest, but, no dice. I fished Hester out and, sure enough, the shed had just torn off and the rest was still on her.
I popped on here and found Nanci's great instructions on how to deal with this, and after a very short soak in water and wet paper towels, Hester slithered perfectly out of the remainder of her shed. She was much happier/calmer/less uncomfortable action after that...
In she went to the cage to continue waiting out her regurge timer...
Two questions.
1) I do not know exactly what day the regurge happened. When I opened her viv to change her water on 10/3, I would think that I would have smelled it...does it take a day or so to start smelling? Anyway, what I am saying is that i guess it could have happened anytime between when I changed her water on 10/3 and when I found it on 10/4...could it have even happened on 10/1 or 10/2? What this question boils down to is, when is her 10 day window up for sure? I was going to count from the latest possible date (10/4) just to be safe, then give her a wee pink's head.
2)What caused this darn regurge? I cannot figure it out! She has been fine under these conditions before, and every time during her "digestion" that I did observe her, she was hanging out in her warm hide as she usually does when digesting. My only *possible* thought is that this was her first shed with me...so could going into blue *immediately* after (or maybe even she was in blue when she ate, I just couldn't see it as clearly as a few days later? That happened with Boris...one day his eyes were sort of opaque/milky, but two days later they were BLUE) have been what upset her digestion and caused the regurge?
Thanks, all. I have tried really hard to use the search function for all of the questions I have had, and they really did answer my regurge procedure and bad shed issues brilliantly...but with this one I am stuck trying to troubleshoot and would appreciate some experienced wisdom.
