Brought home a severely underweight BP baby. Please help me get her back on track

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

I'd just leave her alone ... given she just ate a few days ago and that she's so underweight/ dehydrated? / having injections every three days ? ...

I just don't think you're helping at all by disturbing/ handling and weighing ..


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No, the injections are for my sand boa. I've left her (the BP) untouched pretty much since her last soak. Given that my sand boa baby showed her RI within two weeks of bringing her home, I figure it us prudent to take five minutes and give her a once over to make sure she isn't following suit - and a quick weigh and a few pics while I'm at it. Don't want to go through the effort only to find her dead of something I could have caught if I just looked once a week.

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Okay, i apologise this is dumb but I'm excited for it and not many people I know in real life care to hear. But she struck at her mouse immediately yesterday! Third feeding, I set the live fuzzy in there per usual around 7pm. This time she whipped around and struck immediately, instead of her usual of waiting til God knows whenever she decided it was dafe to eat!

Baby steps in the right direction :D

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That’s cool, my two snakes eat immediately. And strike very quickly as yours has. I’m assuming it’s as good a sign of getting/being healthy as any. :gj:

Good Job tackling a suffering animal.

Sounds like the recovery is on the right track for this little baby now that she is eating regularly.

The once-weekly once over and weight check today. She still looks good, sounds good, and is gaining weight. Her last meal was a frozen/thaw - the pet store sent me home with an adult mouse for some reason (In a box so I didn't notice til I was home) so I thawed one out to try, warmed it with a hair dryer and she took it! I think she's figuring out she likes food, and is hungry. That morning she had her little nose poking out of her hut like she was waiting for food.

She's looking much better. Back in her tank to relax til she eats tomorrow. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d5e61c2662.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...cfe14708df.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4127b46971.jpg

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She still looks SO crinkly...it feels like forever to get weight on a snake like this but that's a very good sign (wanting food & taking f/t). :gj:

You might just be waiting to see if her next shed goes ok, but if not, you may want to consider helping her with that stuck shed. A few runs though a warm, damp towel. Letting her go in a pillow case with a wet towel inside. A good soak. Shed-Ease also works wonders. Best of luck. Good to hear she's gaining weight and taking F/T. :)

I'd be soaking her too (etc.) as suggested by WhompingWillow. Does she have a really moist humid hide with moss?

No humid hide, but every other day I've been misting to getting humidity up. Once she started eating I stopped bothering her as much as possible because she's so scared and shy I don't want her to regurgitate. I figured once I saw her go blue I would stop feeding (none of my other ones will eat when they are in shed anyways) and start soaking every other day to make sure it's a good shed. It's been hovering around 50% the days I don't mist.

Could someone point out where the stuck shed is? I see a little on her head but she's so insanely headshy I haven't tried doing anything about it. Her skin is loose and because of her weight, her scales almost seem loose (they stick out like snake bedhead) instead of sleek against her body and they tend to catch on everything when I have her out, and her skin is so soft and delicate it folds up on itself. Could that be causing the appearance of stuck shed? Or am I just that bad at spotting it? I thought I got most of it when I brought her home but I may not have! I thought a good shed would help the condition her skin is in.

I could add a humid hide but I almost guarantee she wouldn't use it. She hasn't left her hot hide since she was put in the tank - not to eat, poop, nothing save for to drink, which is right outside the door. All the bedding in the rest of the tank is still fluffy and not tamped down like it is where she's crawled over. I believe at the moment she values heat and security over everything else.

I wish you guys could feel her skin. It's hard to describe. Tissue paper soft, loose, I'm actually scared to pick her up, it feels like it'll tear of it's pulled. She is drinking and humidity is good. Her crinkliness has gone down quite a bit as she's put weight on and doesn't have so much extra skin. I'm actually kind of excited for her to shed, I think it will be a big difference. Before she was like 60% baggy skin, 40% snake. It's closer to 40/60 now I think : )

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From the photos you posted, it honestly looks like the entire top half of her body is all stuck shed with the exception of about a centimeter below her head. If you look at her belly and compare it to her top half, you should be able to see the line of stuck shed. That's why she looks so crinkly. To make a humid hide, you could just add damp moss to her existing hot hide. I just worry that with existing stuck shed to that degree, her next shed isn't going to be that great and it will just compound the problem. I'm going to post a few photos in a second of Norm when we first got him so you can see what his stuck shed looked like.