Snake vomiting

[Kay.93]

Hi, I am new to owning ball pythons and invest a lot of time and money to make sure my new one is healthy. I purchased a male ball python that is almost 15 inches long almost a week ago. The day I brought him home I fed him one Xsmall mouse because the petstore had fed him one almost 2 weeks earlier that he digested normally. He shed the previous week which is why he did not eat. He took the mouse with no problem and seemed ok up until tuesday evening i noticed something in his tank. Expecting the worst I took that something to the vet the next day who verified that it was indeed vomit. I have not handled him not one single time since I've brought him home to keep his stress level as low as possible. I don't think it is anything bacterial if he was ok at the petstore. Maybe it is the temp or humidity? I was told not to bother purchasing about a humidity guage but ordered one today because I'm worried. Also everything I have read has had different answers about the next time I should feed him. In two days is when I would have fed him but now I'm not sure. Can somebody give me some guidelines?

[SherbieHerp]

I can't really give you much feedback about the feeding concern, but you definitely should have a humidity gauge. Good luck to you!

895

[Craiga 01453]

Hello and welcome. I would advise reading the stickies on this forum about husbandry. Whoever told you that you wouldn't need a humidity gauge steered you in the wrong direction. Let me guess, big box pet store employee? My guess is you have husbandry issues, but vomiting could be more serious than just that.

I'm guessing since the vet identified it as vomit and not a regurgitation that there may be an underlying issue. There could be several fairly easy to identify reasons for a regurge, but vomiting often requires a vet visit, to a qualified exotics vet.

If it was a regurgitation, it could be a husbandry or stress issue, or possibly spoiled prey. But my advise would be to bring the snake to a qualified vet and go from there.

Regardless, you'll probably want smaller prey for the next few meals. Regurgitation and vomiting can really be detrimental to the snakes insides and smaller prey will be easier to swallow and digest.

[bcr229]

Regurgitation is usually caused by too little heat for the snake to properly digest its prey. What are your hot and cool side temperatures as measured with an infrared thermometer or temperature gun, and not one of those wildly inaccurate stick-on analog things?