Made the mistake of handling my BRB too soon..

[Bushido]

Fed her a pinkie on Monday. I still feel that the pinkie is too small for her, but she is very thin, although very long. She's really young. Anyways, I was cleaning some of her substrate out (aspen..), and she likes to hide underneath her substrate most of the time. I brushed across where she was at, and she stuck her head out like 'Hey, what's going on here!?" So I picked her up for no less than 60 seconds just to finish cleaning and changing the water in the bowl. I put her back immediately, and then check on her tank 10 minutes later to see the pinkie she ate on Monday regurgitated on top of the aspen.

[DooLittle]

Bummer! Maybe she is just a sensitive little gal. Hope the next one stays down.

[PorcelainxDoll]

Poor baby i would probabky waitt at least 2 days after she eats to spot clean her cage sshes so young probably the amallest stimulation will affect her.

[Bushido]

Anyone know how quick these baby BRB's take to put some size/weight on? I hate feeding her pinkies, but she's so dern slim.

[mainbutter]

First of all, it is highly irregular for a snake to regurge after 24 hours of keeping it down. Since you were cleaning, I'm going to assume that it is impossible for her to have regurged shortly after you fed her and you just didn't notice until after the cleaning.

That said, here are a couple of notes that may be helpful:

1) Firstly, give her quite a bit of time before you attempt to feed again. A recent feed after regurgitating will possibly cause another. Snakes have powerful stuff in their stomachs to break down whole prey, and they lose quite a bit of it during a regurgitation. It takes a while for them to generate more, and a feeder sitting in a recently regurged stomach can potentially rot.. not good!

2) Make sure our BRB has access to heat. I keep mine cooler than any other snake in my collection in general, but they do need heat. A lack of heat can cause prey to not be digested very fast. Like I said, regurgitating well after the 24 hour mark is quite uncommon because usually the feeder has broken down enough by then.

3) Make sure you are not feeding too often. Feeding too often may also deplete your BRB of the ability to quickly digest food. If you've been feeding every 5 or 7 days, feel free to cut it down to every 10, at least for a little while, and especially for the next two or three feedings.

4) It's quite possible that if you wait 7 or 10 days before the next feed, your snake will be just fine.

As for the size of feeder, keep it small for the next couple of feedings simply because of the recent regurgitation. For the long run however, determining the size you should feed a particular animal is somewhat of an art. With the exception of snakes that have recently regurgitated, plenty of snakes kept in captivity could be bumped up a size without issue, and usually when someone asks the question if their young and growing snake is ready to be bumped up in size, more often than not the answer is 'yes'. For us to give you a good suggestion on feeder size, take a picture next time your snake is swallowing a pinky and post it up here. Saying that she is 'small and young' gives us no perspective on the actual sizes of the feeder in relation to the snake. Additionally, can we assume you are feeding mice and not rats? Pretty big difference without knowing what species of feeder you are using.

As for how fast BRBs grow.. It's slow. I find this is a species that does better when "slow grown". Our pair won't be at a good breeding size until 3 or 4 years old. They are 2 years old now, and the female is putting on a nice growth spurt. The male is a picky eater and only seems to eat every two weeks, and prefers smaller prey.

[Evenstar]

Excellent advice!! ^^^^


I would personally wait 10-14 days before feeding again, though (and if you're currently feeding once a week, wait at least 14 days).

Plus, if you fed her on Monday, today is Wednesday, it was 2 days after feeding that you picked her up - am I reading that right?? If so, that is not too soon to pick her up - especially gently for just a moment. I do not believe you picking her up for that 60-ish seconds or so caused this regurge at all. She was on her way to doing that long before you touched her. Some boas are really sensitive to regurge. Baby boas do not need to be fed as frequently as baby pythons. And they should be nice and thin - rainbows in particular as they are semi-arboreal. Boas are not ball pythons, lol....

Again, mainbutter gave you excellent advice - I would read that over carefully and go from there. And keep us posted!

[PyramidPythons]

I, also, totally agree with the above suggestions. Regurging is extremely hard on any snake because of their very strong stomach acids. You will need to give your baby a couple of weeks to recover from this event. As specified, trying to feed too soon again will only cause another regurge and you'll lock yourself into a vicious loop. Believe it or not, these guys can go a loooooong time without eating, so you won't be hurting your boa at all to give it a little break.

As to the "small and skinny" issue, BRBs are slender, very long snakes. In fact, they are also called the the Slender Boa. Overfeeding your Rainbow will cause it to become overweight and unhealthy. These guys grow VERY slowly. I've had Marius for over 2 and a half years now and he is only now starting to put on some decent size.

Best of luck with your Rainbow! I hope it makes a full recovery from the regurge and that you won't have any more troubles.