Help?

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Originally Posted by Zayra

It's not really a matter of getting my moneys worth, I've grown to care about this snake and I'll do everything in my power to keep in healthy, are you sure I should leave him for five days? Because I've read that leaving them in completely isolation for 2-3 and then feeding a pinky every three days for 5 feedings should get him a lot healthier, and then moving onto a live hopper.

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2 days is quite early. For a new shipped snake that has weight under it's belt and some months I would say 2 is fine. I would wait atleast 3 days, if you wish.
The snake is not in that bad of shape for 2 more days in isolation to do any damage. I say 5 days b/c just remember, if the snake doesn't eat on the 3rd day you have to wait 3 more days until food will be offered.
And when I say 5, I mean offer food on the 5th day. Sorry for not being clear.

Some practice the every 3 days but a snake who hasn't been eating is more likely to eat every 5th than every 3rd. Now the snake should be left completely alone for the first 3-4 feedings. Only reason to bother it would be to clean and check temps. After that the little fellow will be a good routine to feed constantly allowing handling. Once it reaches 200 grams or so and is eating good sized mice the 10 gallon will become it's new home.

He is emaciated (people are saying 'very thin', but they're just trying to avoid stronger language). Make sure you keep the humidity up so he can stay hydrated. The cage is too big. It and the hides need to be smaller. You can put a little plastic shoebox down inside that giant cage, half over the heat pad. Be sure to use clamps on the long side so he can't pry the lid up and hurt himself.

Use hides that he can just barely squeeze into. Feed him a live mouse hopper, at night, in the dark, a couple of days after you get him into a smaller enclosure. If he doesn't eat it within 2 hours, remove it. Try again 2 days later. If that's a fail, then try assist-feeding again. Use a rat pinky or a mouse crawler. DO NOT FORCE-FEED. Force feeding is very dangerous and can rupture the esophagus and kill the snake outright. If you can't get him to assist-feed, take him to a vet and have him tube-fed some Carnivore Care. He is DEFINITELY at the point where getting nutrition into him has to be a top priority.

It's a hopeful sign that you've managed to get one meal into him, and he kept it down.
You didn't say what you assist-fed him with, but the same type of rodent would be the best choice for getting him to accept live. He's already swallowed one, and will be more likely to recognize it as food. Just don't give him anything smaller than a crawler mouse/pinky rat, it wouldn't be enough nutrition to matter much.

Don't give up quickly on assist-feeding. I've had to put the food back in a snake's throat as many as 5 times before they finally gave in and swallowed it. He may have been in worse shape the first time, and thus not as able to fight you. Now he's a little stronger, and will struggle more.

When we assist fed him we gave him a black f/t hopper.
We are going to go tomorrow to get a smaller container to put him into, we already have one smaller hide in there for the time being, is there anything else I can do until then? Also in terms of feeding, I was told to do about six hundred different things, which is most likely for success?

Picky eaters like these that ive dealt with from hatching was tossing in a live fuzzy or hopper mouse over night. Check back in morning and usually after few attempts they eat it on their own or first time. The key is leaving it over night with absolutely no disturbing the snake. This size mouse will do no harm to the snake at all.

If not pre killed fuzzies assisted gets the job done 90% of the time.

Okay, I will call around and find a live fuzzy.

Just for reference, as we unsuccessfully fed him yesterday, in his condition, we should be waiting 2-3 days before trying again?

How often should we resort to assist feeding, I was told in another thread that we should only assist fed once every 2 weeks. I couldnt find a tub that was similar to the one you provided in the picture, the only one I found was a 1.14gallon plastic fish enclosure, but it was taller than it was wider and seemed much too small. I did find a smaller hide, which he is in right now, the opening isnt very tight though.

I wanted to post an update for you guys with some new information.

We tried quite a few of your suggestions and nothing had been working. So we went and spoke to te breeder. In this we found out that all snakes they sell, have been confirmed to eat f/t before they can be sold. He gave us a live one and told us to pre-kill it and see if that works, if not we should take him in for the breeder to watch over for a few days.

We did this, and he did not eat it. So we will be bringing him in to the breeder to see if he can help with his situation. I'm not taking him in to get a new one or anything of that matter, our intention is merely to assure he is okay. That ball is our responsibility and we will not be giving up. He is going to call us, and show us what we should be doing first hand.

I understand quite a few of you were concerned about his size, and I did forget to ask the age of the snake, but he did mention that "at his size" he could safely go 2 months without eating. Not that they want him to, he added.

Anyways, I will keep you posted with this one.

Here are some other pictures, hopefully they will give you a better view of his size.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...yRox/snake.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56...Rox/snake1.jpg

When I sell any of my babies I make sure that you know what you are doing before you leave with that snake. Also if that breeder has one get the birth information and the feeding chart. Maybe that baby already had his schedule worked out and all the confusion and attention just plain freaked him out. The main things you need to be worrying about is food and hydration at this point. If you haven't start writing down everything you do with this guy. That way if you do need to take him to the vet there is not confusion on dates times or what's what. The vet will be able to address things better. Make sure you're keeping him warm and giving him rest and quiet. And when you see the breeder ask them if he can show you the technique he's using to feed I've seen babies be freaked out about a dangling food prey item especially if they are stressed try dragging it on the tub floor so it's a bit more natural. Ask them to show you exactly how he was keeping this animal and try your best to put things back to normal.
Hope this helps
Morgan

Well,

for the most part we looked up a bunch of caresheets and everything before we even purchased the snake. There is just so much contradiction between them, that we really never know what to truly do. We still get the general idea, but apparently not.

The breeder is pretty pissed.

He said that the snake is extremely stressed, and she shys away everytime he even walks by the bin shes in. Apparently, we were trying to feed it too frequently, which came from advice on here, and we werent helping the situation at all.

He has had her over a week, and she has not fed yet, so he is going to wait and hopefully things will turn out better.

The way he described it is that "We messed that snake up." I really dont see how though, we tried to avoid handling in all ways possible, we used newspaper balls, and misted frequently to attempt to achieve optimal temperatures and humidity.

I hope that he can help the snake. We are still very interested in getting her back, but I am hesitant to.. I would hate to think that I am hurting her, or stressing her out to such an extreme level. The last thing I want to be is a poor pet owner.