Seriously underweight baby BP won’t eat

[Bellybelly]

Yes, by all means, don't rush it. His digestion will be slow, as will his weight gain. Be very patient.

If the pet store is holding fuzzies for you, be sure to let them know your revised schedule! And double-check theirs. In general, it would be better if you got your fuzzies before the weekend, since they probably sell more on weekends & you don't want them to run out- but I'm not suggesting you feed your snake too soon, just saying.

I’d pick it up today if I knew what to do with a mouse for the next three days… this sounds like a dumb question but what DO you do with live prey that your snake hasn’t eaten, or won’t? You have to take care of it, right…?? My other BP has only ever eaten f/t and in realizing how glad I am that he’s a great eater


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[Bogertophis]

I’d pick it up today if I knew what to do with a mouse for the next three days… this sounds like a dumb question but what DO you do with live prey that your snake hasn’t eaten, or won’t? You have to take care of it, right…?? My other BP has only ever eaten f/t and in realizing how glad I am that he’s a great eater


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Oh no, what I'm saying is that if your snake continues to eat, I'd slowly (adding or subtracting one day at a time) try to get him on a better schedule with respect to the pet store. You can't bring a fuzzy home now & keep it alive for long- they must stay with their mom to nurse. And I don't have that problem, I raise my own rodents, lol. Wish you were nearby, I'd happily supply you- I have too many mice. Anyway, with any luck, this won't be forever.

[Bellybelly]

Well… it won’t be forever…Pepper died tonight. I went to check on him when I got home from work and found him sort of flopped over in the corner of the tank with his head wedge in a weird position… I took him out and he was barely moving, almost completely limp and couldn’t keep his head up. His tongue was flicking and he was trying to give me a squeeze so I called the emergency vet but by the time we got there he wasn’t even moving. Vet did an exam and said he had a very faint heartbeat but wasn’t breathing… I had him put down.

Thanks everyone for all your advice and help and support… I think he just gave up.


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[tempo36]

I'm so very sorry. You tried very hard for this fellow.

[Bogertophis]

I'm so very sorry for your loss... Poor little guy- we all had hopes, but at this point, you did the right thing, to have the vet put him down "the rest of the way"- otherwise snakes can take a long time to pass, unfortunately.

[Armiyana]

Awww. Poor little Pepper.
Sorry for your loss.

[EL-Ziggy]

I’m also sorry for your loss. Unfortunately some animals just fail to thrive no matter what we do. RIP Pepper.

[Bellybelly]

Thanks, all of you. Just a bit of an update, I did go back to the store and raise an issue with the store manager about what happened (and how they care for their reptiles in general,) and they are going to open an investigation with the particular breeder that Pepper came from, the guy was explaining how they use corporate breeders and they send the snakes to them like a week after they’re born and sometimes they don’t even feed them once before they ship them out. I took huge issue with that (I mean, I’m not all that surprised, I know it’s a big box pet store, but I went in there prepared to make a big deal about that.)

Anyway, they did issue me a full refund, and after I insisted on it, are also going to reimburse me for the vet bill, but I mean, that doesn’t fix the fact that they should never have been selling a snake in that condition… I went through all of their snake feeding records too (what they would show me) and they weighed him at 101 grams the week before I took him home, I told the manager there’s no way he was at that weight - a week after he came home with me I weighed him at 56 grams and even accounting for slight discrepancies between different scales, he did not lose almost half of his entire body weight in those two weeks. I had a time stamped pic of when I took that weight and that did get the managers attention because their feeding logs are just written records done by whoever is on staff on feeding night.

I know my little complaints aren’t going to change anything, but I did what I could the manager also offered me another snake as a replacement and I had some words to say about that, as well (in his defense I think he realized as soon as it came out of his mouth that that was the wrong thing to say )


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[Bogertophis]

I'm so glad you let them know what happened & what a sad ordeal this was for you & especially for Pepper. I wish more people would do this- it may not change things overnight, but they want to stay in business so they'd better listen. GOOD WORK! That's awesome they reimbursed you too. Not every store will do so- they'll try to blame the buyer. Who knows, I'll bet that you weren't the first such case, so maybe they'll at least get a better source, & change some policies.

[Snow Balls]

Good I’m glad they gave you a full refund and are paying the vet bill. They shouldn’t have ever bought or sold a snake to you in that condition. I recommend buying from experienced breeders that you look into and do your research on from now on


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