RE: She keeps throwing up.....ahhhh

Well thought I would ask a quick question about a newer Hypo RTB I picked up a few mo. ago, I will begin by saying she has been a wonderful feeder and has never refused a meal. I have been feeding her a crawler mouse every 4 days or so since I picked her up. Like I said a wonderful feeder. Now last week she took a f/t crawler like a champ, again she fed very agressive. She finished it with no prob. then the next pm she threw it up. This has happened 2 more times since then. I feel the lower part of her may be swollen a bit (like there is a residual meal is still in her), Is this a sign of her maybe being constipated. Also a thought of poss. ingestion of some bedding, I currently use aspen for all my snakes. Any sugestions. Please help I am geeting a bit nervous about this and dont want her to lose too much weight. If it truely is constipation or ingested bedding does this resolve on its own or what should I do. Thanks to all who reply......

Give her a couple weeks without feeding to let her stomach get back on track.
Are you sure the f/ts were up to temp??
Crawler mice seem a bit small for a boa, how small is she??

I have never heard of a Colombian boa taking that small of a meal...they usually start on hoppers. Anyway, this "throwing up" is called a regurgitation (regurge) in snakes. Stop all feeding for at least a couple weeks to let her digestive track settle down. It sound like you were feeding smaller meals much too often. Make sure her hotspot is around 92, ambient temps 78-80 and humidity above 55%. You may want to try a soak in some room temp to luke warm water, this combined with keeping temps and humidity up will probably resolve a constipation problem...if that is what's going on.

After a couple weeks, try to feed the same size meal you have been. If she keeps it down, wait another two weeks and then try to feed a hopper. If all is well, feed an appropriately sized meal (leaves a small lump) no more than once a week. I always wait at least two weeks between feedings and all my boas are healthy and growing fine. However, if these steps do not fully resolve the problem, a vet check by a qualified herp veterinarian is in order.

Good luck

I agree that crawler mice are very small, even for a boa, especially after a few months. I also agree that you should wait a few weeks to let her recuperate from the regurgitation. Usually after one regurge, you should wait 2 weeks before feeding again, but since there has been multiple I'd wait at least 3 weeks. Also, with her next defecation, I'd take the sample to a vet to have it tested for parasites. Good luck.

Sorry, double post. I was just going to edit my post to say that I feed all my young boas every two weeks, but will back off to every three once they are taking medium rats.

Again,
Good Luck

I tend to disagree that a mouse crawler is too small for a boa - it totally depends on the size/age of the boa. My baby was only 6 weeks old when we got her and she most certainly should not have been eating anything bigger than a crawler. She ate those at 1 a week for about 2 months and then we upped her meal to 2 per week. She is now 8 months old and eating 2 hoppers per week. She will go up to weanlings in January. She is thriving and getting very big. ;)

BUT that's really neither here nor there at the moment. Sorry about that. To the OP, you should not be feeding every 4 days. Feed only once a week no matter what size prey item you are offering. Definitely wait about 2 weeks before feeding again. Boas can sometimes have a tendancy to regurge and can become chronic so we certainly want to stop this asap. Do what others have suggested: double check your temps and wait the 2 weeks, then offer 1 crawler. If she keeps that down, I would offer a crawler again once per week for the next couple weeks too. Keep her meals at the same size for awhile until she is consistantly keeping them down. Then you can safely up her to hoppers. A few more crawler-sized meals will not hurt her. Regurging again could.

This is just my .02 cents, but it's what I've been told by several very honest and reputable boa breeders and hobbyists. Good luck and keep us posted!

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Originally Posted by Pals BP

Sorry, double post. I was just going to edit my post to say that I feed all my young boas every two weeks, but will back off to every three once they are taking medium rats.

Again,
Good Luck

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Thanks, Should have told you a weight she is really small, I would say the breeder I got her from wasn't feeding her correctly so I thought i would try some smaller meals a little more often. Also she was a bit on the dehydrated side. She is around 80 grams now and would you say that a rat pup is too big for her. Or try in a few wks. what I have fed, then work up from there over the next few feedings, Thanks again I really appriciate the help......

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Originally Posted by Evenstar

I tend to disagree that a mouse crawler is too small for a boa - it totally depends on the size/age of the boa. My baby was only 6 weeks old when we got her and she most certainly should not have been eating anything bigger than a crawler. She ate those at 1 a week for about 2 months and then we upped her meal to 2 per week. She is now 8 months old and eating 2 hoppers per week. She will go up to weanlings in January. She is thriving and getting very big. ;)

BUT that's really neither here nor there at the moment. Sorry about that. To the OP, you should not be feeding every 4 days. Feed only once a week no matter what size prey item you are offering. Definitely wait about 2 weeks before feeding again. Boas can sometimes have a tendancy to regurge and can become chronic so we certainly want to stop this asap. Do what others have suggested: double check your temps and wait the 2 weeks, then offer 1 crawler. If she keeps that down, I would offer a crawler again once per week for the next couple weeks too. Keep her meals at the same size for awhile until she is consistantly keeping them down. Then you can safely up her to hoppers. A few more crawler-sized meals will not hurt her. Regurging again could.

This is just my .02 cents, but it's what I've been told by several very honest and reputable boa breeders and hobbyists. Good luck and keep us posted!

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Thank you so much, I really appriciate all the help, She is about 80 grams now and then she was what I considered a bit small when I picked her up and was a bit dehidrated then also. I was thinking that a rat pup would be good soon also.

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Originally Posted by Taxiballbreeder

Thanks, Should have told you a weight she is really small, I would say the breeder I got her from wasn't feeding her correctly so I thought i would try some smaller meals a little more often. Also she was a bit on the dehydrated side. She is around 80 grams now and would you say that a rat pup is too big for her. Or try in a few wks. what I have fed, then work up from there over the next few feedings, Thanks again I really appriciate the help......

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I'd say at 80 grams you could at least upgrade to hopper mice (smaller meal), or adult mice (larger meal). If you prefer rats a rat fuzzie would be fine too.

With any snake that has a regurge you need to wait a good couple weeks for them to heal, they can hurt muscles and the digestive fluids can burn their throats. When you start feeding again feed a smaller sized prey for the next meal, if they regurge this, then a vet trip should be the next move. There might be some under lying cause, and you shouldn't wait.

I hope things turn around for the better for you. I recently lost my young male right after a regurge.

I would wait two weeks then feed again. I have heard that Boas have slow digestion so feeding every four days is to much. That may have something to do with yours regurgitating. I only feed mine once a week. I have been doing this since I got her.

Just my 2 cents

-Wait 3 weeks before feeding.
-Feed a prey item that will leave a slight lump in your snake. If your little boa is 80 grams, try a larger rat pink or small fuzzy rat.
-Feed every 10-14 days.

The reason I think that your boa started regurging is that she started growing and on top of feeding too often, the prey was too small. This happened to me when I first got into boas, and after switching to a larger prey, my snake quit regurging. The only thing that I could figure out as to why, is that when the prey is too small, they don't get full, so instead of taking a rest to properly digest, they continue to actively look for more food and the activity causes them to regurge what is already in their stomach.
If I read your post correctly, you've had 3 regurges in approximately 1 week. I would wait about 21-24 days before offering a meal again. Your snake is going to need time to recover, and replenish the digestive fluids. I would also take a look in her mouth just to make sure there is no damage from regurging the preys and acids.
Something else that I do for my boas, since they seem more prone to regurges than BP's, is to give them an extra day between feeding and handling, so I give them 3 days. Good luck, and keep us posted on her next feeding.

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Originally Posted by Taxiballbreeder

Thank you so much, I really appriciate all the help, She is about 80 grams now and then she was what I considered a bit small when I picked her up and was a bit dehidrated then also. I was thinking that a rat pup would be good soon also.

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You're getting a little bit of conflicting advise with regard to prey size and I'm sorry to add to that as I tend to slightly disagree with going bigger at this point in time. There are LOTS of good people out there and everyone here is wanting to help you. I do have a couple of professional and medical contacts I can put you in touch with if you'd like some additional information. PM me if you are interested in that.

My baby is 220 grams and she is eating 2 hopper mice right now once a week. She is doing remarkably well on that. I would still suggest that once you've waited the 2 weeks, you should feed the size prey you have been at 1 per week for 2-3 weeks and then up her prey size to something more appropriate. This will not overload her gut too much too soon. :gj:

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Originally Posted by Taxiballbreeder

Thanks, Should have told you a weight she is really small, I would say the breeder I got her from wasn't feeding her correctly so I thought i would try some smaller meals a little more often. Also she was a bit on the dehydrated side. She is around 80 grams now and would you say that a rat pup is too big for her. Or try in a few wks. what I have fed, then work up from there over the next few feedings, Thanks again I really appriciate the help......

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If she is 80ish I would get a rodent that is 8 grams. That keeps it around the 10% rule. There bodies are so thin at that age. Its better to be a bit smaller than than too big.

For her next meal go with something smaller. Maybe 6 grams or so just to ease her back into it.

I have no advice other then LISTEN TO WHAT THEY ARE TELLING YOU!

I own a 'chronic regugitator' boa. He has been a chronic since he was 6 months old (he is almost two) We had to drop down to pinky mice for a while and work up until he stopped.

he has now gone Since August without a regergitation and can eat two small mice or a 4 week-5 week old rat pup. one every 14 days. He is only about 2 and a half feet and not too big around.

again. take these people advice, I WISH when it started here, I would have asked and not ignored it.

So I didn't check my old threads for a long time so I didn't realize more people have responded to this post,Sorry. I wanted to give an update on things with her. She is doing great now and putting on the weight. It took some time, But now she is on a 7 day schedule and gaining weight. Thanks to everyone who gave advice to me. Worked great. Thanks again.

That's good to hear she is doing better but I'd back off to every 10 days at least(boas have slow metabolisms), this is news to me that boas are prone to regurges? Maybe it just seems that way because most people don't know how to properly care for them and don't bother to research I guess? They aren't pythons and don't metabolize food as such, a decent sized meal every feeding is better then two smaller meals every feeding just my $0.02. Good luck, hope she keeps on the right track for you. :)

Thanks for the update! Glad to hear she's back on track. :gj:

Boas are not technically prone to regurge. That is simply an easy way of saying that many people don't realize that boas are not pythons and tend to overfeed. Boas do have slower metabolizms and need more time to digest their prey than pythons do. Baby boas should never be fed more than once a week - even brand new neonates - and an appropriate sized item is more critical with boas than with pythons. If these particular critiria are not met, the boa will likely regurge. That's why many people say they have a tendancy to regurge - because they are more likely to regurge than many types of snakes. ;)

Again, glad your baby is doing better! How about some pics?? :D