Severe Malnution in BP Help.

[DakotaB]

Alright so a friend of mine just rescued around 40 bp's. One of the younger ones is suffering from severe malnutrition. He is very sluggish and kinda rolling over. But keeps showing signs of a fight. He force fed him some canned hollistic dog food mixed with water and we put him in a shallow dish of water. I couldnt tell if he was drinkin but thats too suttle anyway.

Is there anything that we can do or is it a loss cause?

Thanks everyone.

just dont want to give up on this guy.

[Vypyrz]

I have heard of people making "Pinkie Puree," and feeding it to weak or stubborn eaters. I've never had to do it personally, so I'm no help there. Hopefully someone with experience doing that will chime in. Good Luck...

[Annarose15]

Have you given him a few days to settle in and offered him food (small) to eat on his own?

[DakotaB]

Didnt think of that but its about the same as canned chicken. Might try that tomorrow though.

thoughts on mixing reptical herptivite in with it. I dont this the calcium one will do much but if we could get some vitamins in him.

[wolfy-hound]

Pinkies are easy to puree into a slurry.

I used a slap chop and a frozen pinkie, or you can use a 'pinkie pump'. Be aware that at a very late stage, it may not matter what measures you take, as the poor little guy may already have organ damage that is irreversable.

If you want to make a 'pinkie' delivery syringe, you can use a large syring(no needle!!!) and a piece of tubing used to tube-feed animals. Use a fairly large tube so the pinkie slurry can go down through it.

Your first thing to try should always be whole prey, to see if he will strike and coil it. If he'll eat on his own, don't stress him by force or tube feeding him.

[DakotaB]

We have a pinky pump. He just got these guys yesterday. All range from hatchlings to 5 foot adults. The previous owner had some issues going on and was paying someone else to care for them. well he hasnt feed in over 2 months. we have gotten all to eat but this one.


There is no way he would be able to strike on his own. His movement is extremely slow. Basically all he can do is roll over.

I have seen these guys look alot worse, he still has meat on him and not bone skinny.

Ill just throw some in a magic bullet with a bit of water and some reptical. If that doesnt work im afraid he is just to far gone.

[Annarose15]

We have a pinky pump. He just got these guys yesterday. All range from hatchlings to 5 foot adults. The previous owner had some issues going on and was paying someone else to care for them. well he hasnt feed in over 2 months. we have gotten all to eat but this one.


There is no way he would be able to strike on his own. His movement is extremely slow. Basically all he can do is roll over.

Depending on his age and weight, two months or so really isn't that long. If he's that uncoordinated after getting a chance to settle into proper conditions, then malnutrition may not be your problem.

[wolfy-hound]

If he just got them yesterday, he shouldn't be feeding them immediately. I understand with a extremely malnourished snake, you want to get nutrition in quickly, but now you also say he's still "got meat on him" so there is probably something else going on.

Moving all the snakes has been bound to have caused a lot of stress, and getting them settled in should come before feeding. For most BPs, 2 months can be a voluntary hunger strike, so feeding can wait(again, sometimes it's needed immediately).

[Vypyrz]

Just curious. Is it by any chance a Spider?

[DakotaB]

He weighs in at 89 grams but with his lenght compared to some of my guys he should easily be at 150-160. Im not really sure how long he was told around 2 months. Now thats without food and water. All the snakes are underweight but just not this bad. All stuck live prey within 30 seconds but his one didnt even move.

If he makes it threw the night im gonna try the puree. ill try to get pics tomorrow to show you guys what he looks like.