Regurge

[MacWin]

Well bad news but I am not sure how bad it is.
I was cleaning out Nanners cage tonight and the fuzzy he ate on Monday had been regurged :shock:

It was a F/T and I think I may have warmed it up a little too much because when he was eating it the belly kind of opened up a little bit it was pretty gross but he did eat it the whole way.

I also noticed his eyes were greyed over. Hopefully he will shed before next Monday and will be able to eat. So I guess my question is how much should I worry about the regurge? His behavior seemed normal tonight I soaked him for a minute or 2 and like I said got his tank and all the stuff inside cleaned up real well.

P.S. That was the grossest thing I think I have ever seen and smelled

[JamminJonah]

Regurge is VERY stressful for a snake so I would definately wait at least a week if not two before even attempting a feed again - just keep an eye on all the husbandry stuff and if it happens again see a vet for sure. Nothing to be too freaked about if it's just once and also if he's going into shed. That's just my .02 but it is definately something to keep an eye on ... sorry to hear that it happened to you

[JLC]

I would wait at least two weeks before feeding him again. I couldn't really speculate on what caused it. Warming a rodent past a certain point causes gasses in the digestive tract to expand, which could cause the rupture you described. But I don't think I've heard of that causing a regurge.

How are his temps? Some colubrids are very sensitive and if their enclosure is too warm or too cool, they might have to reject a meal already eaten.

[gozetec02]

I feed fresh killed. Because of that reason. People say how dangerous it is to heat up the rodent too much and how dangerous it is if its ot heated up enough so i just wack a live rodent and do the rat or mouse shuffle depending on who i am feeding.

[Eve]

:? Autch! Sorry to hear that! I also give my corn living rodents for, among others, the reason Gozetec02 gave. The main con on frozen food is the fact that it can contain gasses and/or bacteria which will not settle well with your snake. The other main reason I give life food is that the hunting instincts are kept honed. Last feed the mouse was exceptionally lively and jumped the breadth of the tank to escape Sonny. It took my sweet over a quarter of an hour to get the darned thing, but he looked very pleased after. :wink:

[Stormyva]

Frozen/thawed is the best way to go and will rarely if ever cause issues. I have not heard of over heating causing a regurg either.... typically if it is overheated the snake will refuse it. On the other hand if the prey item was not completely thawed then that could cause a the snake to regurgitate. There are several other reasons to offer f/t..... a f/t rodent is not going to bite and kill your beloved snake and the freezing process will kill most if not all parasites that are on or in the rodent. A live rodent can carry anything and everything that it has come in contact with at the pet store. Hunting instincts is not a reason to offer live, in fact the only person that is enjoying the hunting instincts is you. To confirm that ask some of the ball python owners here what it is like to try and get a ball python to start eating again after it has been attacked by it's prey.

[SatanicIntention]

Speaking of parasites... I just did a fecal on my class's new mouse, Mr. Bojangles and I had barely turned on the microscope light and looked in when I saw abut 50+ pinworm eggs. I didn't even scan the whole slide. I probably should have, since he came from PetsMart and probably had tapeworms and everything under the sun, but droncit will kill 'em all. Muah hahaha LoL Oh, we also did a heartworm test on this dog from the shelter as we always do, and it came up VERY positive, meaning all 3 dots on the Snap test turned blue (bad thing). So we did a DIFIL test and put it under the microscope, and I swear I was seeing a couple sets of pickup sticks there were so many. Poor dog. He most likely gets the pink needle. BUt all the better. Treating htwm disease costs an arm and a leg $400+ so it really isn't feasible for the shelter to pay for it. Sorry to keep talking about nothing, but I thought it was interesting Freezing the rodents is definately the best thing to do, because it will kill all of the nasties the rodent is carrying, unless you have a snake that will ONLY eat live. Like my boyfriend's roommate's snake. Which is why I am breeding those blasted gerbils for the little booger. He had a rat attack him, and I also feel it isn't warm enough in his tank (just has a CHE, nothing else, and no temp/humidity gauge, although he sheds whole), so all he will eat are almost fully grown gerbils, so they aren't very bold yet and bite him. Ok, sorry such a long post.

[Stormyva]

It sounds like you have a challenge with your roommates snake! Ball Python?

[MrsMacWin]

Well for those of you that don't know that Nanners ended regurging 3 meals before he passed away. We will never know what actually caused it.

[SatanicIntention]

Yeah he's a BP around 4 years old. Looks very healthy, sheds great from what I hear and see(whole sheds), good muscle tone, not dehydrated, active, alert and has clear eyes and a clean mouth from what I can see. I haven't had the chance to fully examine him to my satisfaction (ie: opening his mouth), but since it's not my snake, I don't push it. I do get to bring him to school to practice taking X-Rays. We will see if he can "perform" and eat a gerbil (what he is used to) so we can X-Ray him swallowing it. The first snake we tried this with wasn't hungry, and I think the rat was too big, but that's just my opinion. So we will see what happens. I need to do a fecal on him make sure he doesn't have anything, but he always go poo at the most inopportune times... Like on Friday, when I don't go to class, and have the whole weekend to leave poo in the fridge, when it's not good anymore.

I also have to say to MrsMacWin, I am very sorry about Nanners. Poor little guy. Maybe it was an inherited thing. We have something like that going on with one of our rats. I am sorry for your loss.