Rehabilitating Punkin

[frankykeno]

I'd like some advice re Punkin especially from those that have rehabbed snakes. Supposedly this snake is around 18 months old but upon comparison to our other snake, Baby, who is 5 months old Punkin is barely much bigger in girth or length. Also noted the following:

1) Punkin's coloring/skin tone is very dull looking and she feels rougher to the touch than Baby does. Almost like pre-shed but eyes are not blue and the previous owners said it had been quite awhile since Punkin shed. If a snake is not eating enough it doesn't shed as it's not growing and needing to shed, correct? Would this cause this old "tired" looking, rougher textured skin? Is there any special concerns about Punkin's next shed we need to be prepared for? Also Punkin's skin feels looser (if that makes sense) not taunt like Baby's. I'm assuming this is due to being underweight?

2) Punkin's muscle tone is more dull than Baby's. Hard to describe but when I hold Baby she feels stronger, more athletic in tone then Punkin. This is something I will speak to the vet about but what does cause poor muscle tone in pythons? Poor nutrition I assume.

3) What sort of size should a snake be at 18 months? I know males are smaller than females. Do snakes get stunted from long term underfeeding and can they eventually catch back up to normal? Please don't think we want to push Punkin or powerfeed, we just want this snake to have a chance to be fully healthy and appropriate to it's age.

4) Punkin was never fed more than one mouse per week (and did refuse sometimes but not often). Any suggestions here? We will offer multiple prey but are thinking to go at it slowly (as in one big mouse, one small mouse per week) at first so we don't overstress her digestive system too fast and cause either regurg or refusals. Should we stick to this plan or is it better to feed a single big mice more often than every 7 days?

Punkin is not in anyway obviously ill or anything like that just sort of not quite right compared to Baby and we're concerned that we educate ourselves on any special requirements that a rehabbed snake might have.

I'm setting up the vet appointments for both snakes. Anything special I need to ask to have checked on Punkin or just the same sort of health examine and sexing I need done on Baby?

The snakes are quarantined from each other btw and we are being very careful about hygiene just in case.


~~Jo~~

[tigerlily]

I can't answer most of those questions, but I can tell about my experience with Dandylion. When I got her, she should have been a couple of months older than my Lily but she was half her weight. She was a couple inches smaller. They only fed her pinkies and fuzzies. At best feeding her two fuzzies a week. Anyway, she was thin but not too bad off except for all the retained shed. (which completely encircled her neck) It took me several weeks of feeding an adult mouse before I got her interested in taking a second. I've only now got her up to two and we'll slowly work towards rats. Best bet, is to watch her behaviour. I think you'll notice a big change once she's secure that her environment will allow for digestion of a bigger meal. Feed her the one mouse and if she still looks hungry offer her the second. I'm sure once you get some decent meals in her you'll notice a big change her.

[pumba]

Man that comparison you gave on Punkin and Baby sounds like the diference between Felix and Loki. I mean right on. Hope everything works out for the little feller.

By the way, since it was braught up. About the multiple prey thing. How exactly do you do that. Do you give one and after it is eaten give the other, or do you offer the second when the snake releases after the kill and before he/she eats the prey? Also, how do you know if a snake wants/needs a second prey, and when do you upsize in food.

The feed I had today with Loki was 1 hopper and it went down rather quickly, After he ate, I wondered about the above question, noticing the rather large bulge in Loki, I wondered if he would be able to restrict on another if offered and interested.

What the heck right, if you don't ask, you may never find out,, right!

Thanks again, and good luck with Punkin.

Cheers
Ray

[daniel1983]

Ray, feeding multiple prey items is simple. All you do is just repeat the process. Once your bp has swallowed the first prey item and has started to move around, just feed again. Not that complicated, I feed both of my snakes multiples right now....Sif gets 3 adult mice and Thor gets 2. Hope that helps

EDIT: missed the second part. A ball python should be fed a prey item that is equally as round as the bp or slightly smaller. If you decide to stop moving up in prey item size, thats when you can offer multiples. For example, I feed mice because that is what is easiest for me. I feed my snake 1 mouse a week until it looked like he could handle an small rat.....then I offered two mice. If that is not clear let me know

[frankykeno]

Thanks Ray, we are sure Punkin will be fine with a bit more food and a very quiet spot in our bedroom and very minimal handling for the first while.

We moved our 5 - 6 month old b.p. Baby up to 1 mice when it was obvious 1 mouse per week wasn't enough for her. Basically she would start lurking (body in hide, head peeking out) and hunting many days before feeding day, instead of a day or two before. So now we offer 2 mice and leave it up to her if she wants the 2nd one or not.

Once she has eaten the first one and is moving around showing signs of continuing hunger we offer the 2nd one. If she goes to her hide and curls up or isn't looking around for another mouse, we just go with 1 that week. We figure she's healthy and has a super feeding response so she'll know if she needs to eat another mouse that week or is good with 1. As Adam explained it to me (hope I get this right Adam LOL) it's better to have an athletic snake with a super feeding response than an overfed one, that is fat or has a poor feeding response/refusal to feed due to overlarge prey or too much prey.

Punkin fed again last night on the breeder mouse we needed to get rid of. I must say it was a big improvement on the first feed which was a quite weak strike. This time she nailed it very hard and was actually looking for another mouse but we will wait and not push her digestive system too fast.


~~Jo~~