This Poor Python

So, my friend's step dad owns three snakes. Two normal ball pythons and a red tail boa. One of their ball pythons, named Dave Strider, is eight years old and roughly only two and a half feet long. How he got this way is that his previous owners, before my friend's stepdad took him in, couldn't feed him often enough and he was practically starved.

...That never changed when her step dad took him in.

The cage was disgusting, there was shed stuck to the walls and grime I didn't even know of. The plastic on the tank was melted for some reason, and the bedding was covered with shed and poop. It looked like they hadn't cleaned it in over three months. The water bowl was covered in algae and the water had changed color because of it. It was a similar scenario for all of these snakes but what made Dave special is that he was still starving. My friend's stepdad feeds him too big of prey for his size since the other two snakes he has are over four feet, and Dave is only half that size or less. He threw up two of the rats it had been fed a couple nights ago as they were too big.

And so I went over to my friend's house yesterday and well, their stepdad offered me to take Dave, as I have two ball pythons already. I told him I didn't have the supplies or another tank and such but he said he'd give me everything that Dave had, including his lamps, logs, tank, etc. But, feeling super bad for the snake of his condition, I took him in hopes that it would work out smoothly.

But, when I was there I had held Dave for the first time. He is a python and is as skinny as a corn snake. I could easily feel his ribs by lightly running my finger against his side. It was bad.

I took him home, immediantly cleaned his cage, getting all the schmuck off of the sides of the glass on both the inside and outside and replaced the bedding. I scrubbed the algae off his water bowl and cleaned his log. His heat lamp isn't as strong as it needs to be, but the only heat bulb I had for him broke and so he needs to wait a bit before getting better heat. This poor guy has been living in possibly 75 degree temperature the whole time he was at that house. I'm changing that.

His cage is cleaned and I fed him yesterday. I'm going to watch him carefully for any signs of illnesses but so far he seemed oddly healthy. He's very active. I'll make sure he digests this mouse before feeding him another. But, my goal for this month is that he gets a bit fatter. This poor guy is so underweight.

I know he's going to make it out of this. He's a fighter to be here for this long.

Rule of thumb for ANY starving creature (even humans) is to feed him slowly! It sounds pretty bad but since I was or am not there, I am not going to come to any opinions... but if he is truly that skinny, you are best to feed him smaller prey for the first month, and up the size monthly, and the frequency. Especially if he is known to regurgitate. Whether there be something wrong internally or that rats were too big, like I said I was not there, but better safe then sorry.

If he has infact been starving i would stick to a weekly schedual so you dont over stress his little body, youll be amazed just how fast he will put on size with the weekly feedings, slow steady forward progress is best with a neglected pet. Im glad he has a new home and a better chance at a good healthy life

So what you're saying is this baby has unfortunately lived up to his name sake in the "lived with neglect and abuse for most of his early life" department. (Sorry, sorry, that was terrible, I'm a bad person).

Poor kiddo. I wouldn't personally get my hopes up on this little guy being able to come back even if you start giving him adequate care. I am definitely not saying don't try; try with everything you've got! But being as starved as he is, plus two recent regurges in a row, be prepared that even if he starts to do better, he might still have too much internal damage to make it long.

That said, definitely go read Smoothscales' post on their neglected rescue Buggsie. This snake has been making an amazing recovery in just a couple of weeks and you might pick up some good ideas of what you will need to do as well. Other tips I can offer is that you may want to feed meals that are a bit smaller than appropriate for the first few weeks while his digestive system adjusts to actually having something in it. Also consider picking up some bene-bac and mixing it into his water to replace the gut flora he'd have lost from regurge.

Good luck!

If he regurgitated less than a week ago then hopefully you fed him a very small mouse, as otherwise he'd likely regurgitate a normal-sized meal. I would give him two weeks before feeding again.

In the meantime get his heat where it needs to be, and definitely get the NutriBac reptile probiotic, you can find it at TheBeanFarm.com for about $10. Just dust a pinch on a damp f/t feeder.

That's the plan. Obviously feeding him too fast and too big is not going to end well. I purposely got mice smaller than his body for this reason.

But, thank you all for the advice and I'll check out that thread. I know I'm not expecting him to come out to be one hundred percent healthy, but I'm going to try my hardest and he looks like a fighter. I got my heat bulb today and it's all set up so he should be feeling better temperature wise pretty soon. I'm going to take extra care of him because I don't know of his health, so I'll be doing my best to keep his cage sanitary and checking on him daily just to monitor how he's behaving.

As of right now, he's a squirmy guy and doesn't seem too stressed out. I'll update everyone on how things go.

If he's been in terrible conditions like that for eight years and is still alive that must mean he was 'maintaining'-- certainly not a healthy maintenance, but if he isn't in the middle of a crash and burn (like suddenly becoming non-responsive or something) that makes me think he may have a decent chance of pulling through with proper care. I try to be optimistic with rescues because I think giving things your best shot as long as the animal still has some fight left gives you the best result. He's not out of the woods by any means, but I think there's a decent chance you got him in time to make a difference.

At any rate, good luck with him and keep us updated!

I wish you all the best in your rehabilitation! Slow and steady is really the way to go.

Although, if he is really as malnourished as you say, I'm not sure I would wait for him to pass waste from the meal - we're finishing up Day 25 here with Buggsie and he's yet to pass anything more than urates and slight brown smear. We also started off super small with rat pinks, partly because we wanted to make sure we weren't over taxing his system right off the bat and partly because he didn't have the strength to handle anything bigger. I would love to see pictures of the snake, as well as progress updates.

I would also suggest caution as well as a good quarantine. He may appear to be healthy aside from the extended starvation, but there is no reason to risk your healthy animals. Plan for the worst, as they say. As much as I would also like to say resist getting attached until you're sure he'll make it, I couldn't keep myself from getting attached to Buggsie even while unsure if he would make it from one day to the next that first week. Although, if your little rescued buddy is actively moving around, he may be better off than you think, even though he's scrawny and underfed. Good husbandry can do wonders for these creatures and they are incredibly resilient, as I'm sure you'll find. I think it took 3 feedings and then suddenly it was like a switch flipped and our little guy went from being as listless as a sock to suddenly being active - moving and flicking his tongue. Hopefully you'll see as big a turn around!

Give your guy some time with good temps and humidity. I hope, for your sake and his, that the regurg was due to the prey being to large and not some other cause. To have lasted so long in such conditions, your new friend is certainly stubborn! Be stubborn with him, and see him through this to good health. ;)

Thank you for all the tips. I'm trying to get pictures but I don't know where the cord is to my camera but I'll keep looking. I'll do as you say, keeping his cage as sanitary as I can, checking on his behavior and monitoring his eating. I'll time the feeding instead of waiting for his foot to pass in case something like as you said happens. Has body needs more of that nutrition so it's reasonable of why there'd be a very small amount of poop.

Good on you for stepping up. I'm sure it's in better hands.

Dave