Baby regurgitation, don't know what went wrong

[hungba]

I have a baby ball python that is in quarantine still, and it regurgitated a meal today, not sure exactly what went wrong?

It has been here a couple weeks and ate fine pooped fine. The temperatures here are very hot now and with all ball pythons it is common to keep them all at about 86F temps with no gradient during the summer, and he has been doing fine that way till today.

He ate last 3 days ago, and it was slightly but not much bigger than the before meal, certainly not any bigger than what I had been told by previous owner was it ate (I err on the safe side). Also, starting the day before yesterday there is a big thunderstorm here and temperatures fell to 80F. I thus put a heat pad under 1/3 of the tub and the high temps were 90 and the cool end was 80F. I thought this was just right? Yet, today it regurgitated. I did move him to a different spot in the room because the electrical cord for the heat pad wasn't long enough, but its basically the same. Humidity did rise above 70% to about 75% intermittently because of the storm in the whole house, and I did switch on a fan nearby which lowered it.

1) What could have gone wrong?
2) What do I do now? From what I understand, I clean everything, just leave it be for a week before feeding again, and feed a much smaller meal, like a pinky mouse? Should I increase/decrease the temps for now?

Geez I don't know what happened it was doing really well and I even thought wow this one will be a fast grower.

[LLLReptile]

Tentatively, it sounds to me as though the temperature spiked in his cage, resulting in a regurge. It is hard to be 100% certain without being there, perhaps he just freaked out due to the thunderstorm and barfed it up, maybe he had a stomach issue, to be honest with just one regurgitation and nothing really clear cut... Could have been a few things.

From here, give it at least a week for its stomach to settle down and relax. I would offer it a meal somewhat smaller than usual, and then give it a full week and see how it does. From there, if its still keeping food down, go ahead and go back to your usual routine and size of prey items, and consider it a fluke. Personally, I'd keep it in quarantine for an extra few weeks, just in case... Just to make sure it doesn't happen again.

And count yourself fortunate! This kind of thing is exactly why quarantine is important. Now you know to watch the snake and make sure it was just a one time occurrence, not the start of a bigger problem.

-Jen

[hungba]

What do you mean that the temperature "spiked" in the cage? Do you mean it went DOWN because of the thunderstorm? Or do you mean it went UP suddenly when I added the heat pad?

[Homegrownscales]

Could have been either or. Both up or down spikes can cause regurges.


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[hungba]

Thanks,

What should I have done? The thunderstorm came and literally the temperature changed within hours. I went out to see a client for work for about 3 hours, it was still 86-87F at the time. When I came back it was already 79 - 80F. Just thunder wind and lightning and suddenly the temps changed drastically, and it will probably last for quite a few days still. I saw the temps and all I thought was to add heat immediately I mean I am not really sure what else I could have done differently, but want to be prepared for the future if something similar happens. It wouldn't make sense to have a heater with thermostat just switched off all the time during the middle of summer? As that kind of stuff only happens every few years.

All the snakes in my main snake room are fine, no regurgitations. However those are all bigger snakes not babies I think perhaps they are tougher. I did the same thing, switched on the heat tape (I have racks in the main room. Just tubs and heat mats in the quarantine room).

The baby seems fine, still strong when held and alert and everything (no I am not handling, just felt it when I cleaned the mess). I have left the heat on as it is still cold although subconciously it is playing mind games because it was when I put the heat pad that this happened.
I suspect that it is because the AMBIENT was not hot enough, just the floor of the hot spot. It is just a single tub there in the quarantine. Whereas in the snake room, there is two racks so just switching on all the heat tape will warm the ambient some as well I presume as there are heat tape in every tub. I added another heat pad along the tub to the side (as you would back heat, but along the side length) to warm the ambient up as well as the belly heat so it is now 84F cool and 88 F hot.

I may add that the snake had held the meal in for 3 days prior to the regurge, and it was already 80% digested it seems. It was a rat fuzzy. Next time, should I go right down to mice pinkies? Or should a rat pink be fine to try a week from now? They don't really sell any sizes in between as far as I know.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, should I give any kind of supplements to the snake? I have a friend who keeps corns only and he says when his snakes regurged he put something called nutribac in the water. I am not keen on adding these kind of things though as my vet had told me that this kind of thing usually is not what they are advertised to be and can actually be harmful as pet products are not regulated like human products are.

[LLLReptile]

Just bump down to a rat pink for the next feeding (a full 7 days after the regurge), and take it easy from there.

One regurge is not always a sign of a huge problem, sometimes things just happen. I doubt the environment is always 100% perfect in the wild, the snakes are likely equipped to deal with a random issue that is unlikely to repeat. I don't see a whole heck of a lot you could have done differently, so just relax, keep it in the back of your mind, and watch the snake to make sure no further issues develop. It'll probably be just fine.

I personally would not add any supplements to the water or diet, not all snakes like drinking water with stuff added to it and it's better to just let the snake settle down and do its own thing.

Relax! It'll probably be just fine.

-Jen

[hungba]

Thanks, I'll just leave it alone for the week.

By the way in the above post I said I had heat tape in every tub what I meant was the heat tape running under all the tubs of course not inside. Don't want anyone to read that and think you should put heating stuff inside the tubs!

[hungba]

One thing that's a little worrying is that now the observatory predicts that after the storm, for a few days the temps are going to rise drastically to well over 90! I will turn on the airconditioner but gosh darn it what's with all this crazy weather recently.

[heathers*bps]

Thanks, I'll just leave it alone for the week.

By the way in the above post I said I had heat tape in every tub what I meant was the heat tape running under all the tubs of course not inside. Don't want anyone to read that and think you should put heating stuff inside the tubs!

I knew what you meant, but thanks for clarifying

I agree with Jen. I'm sure things will be fine. Just give the little guy time alone and try a rat pink in atleast 7 days. Please keep us updated on how he is though, ok?

Btw, where are you from?

[Salamander Rising]

I knew what you meant, but thanks for clarifying

I agree with Jen. I'm sure things will be fine. Just give the little guy time alone and try a rat pink in atleast 7 days. Please keep us updated on how he is though, ok?

Btw, where are you from?

Here in western MD, we're having the same lunatic weather.

I'm back and forth from turning off the heat because it's roasting in their room to rushing back an hour later when a storm drops the temps 30 degrees in a matter of minutes.

And later, I'm back out adjusting the thermostats again.

This has been going on for weeks.

It's madness.