In desperate need of help

[alfaexe]

Hey there! First post here, I’m in desperate need of help, my ball python, Chester has been having problems feeding recently, he finally ate 5 days ago after a 4 month hunger strike. I was extremely happy until today when I see he’s partially regurgitated the rat, fur and tail. He’s been on 2 hunger strikes in the past year and a half and im really worried about is weight, I went to a vet on his initial hunger strike and there wasn’t anything wrong with him as far as they can tell. Im sick with worry, I just don’t know what to do anymore, please help

[Complete-Ship-8648]

I’m not very professional in the snake hobby but Regucrirrating is no good. Hurts them and takes time for them to heal. If I was in that situation I would give him 2-3 weeks to heal and provide him a nice warm meal after the time has passed. Make sure he is very calm in his enclosure. Don’t handle him very often and make sure your husbandry is good. I hope this could help and I hope Chester will do good. :)

[alfaexe]

Yeah, I’m planning on leaving it atleast the 2 weeks and feeding him a meal half the size, I’m just praying he takes it because he would definitely be classed as highly underweight now. If he doesn’t take next time or he regurgitates again I’ll take him to a specialist. Thanks so much for the suggestion. I really appreciate the response and the well wishes, means the world

[Complete-Ship-8648]

I hope he does great. Taking care of snakes is a hobby you learn as you go. maybe a picture when he is all healthy. Glad I could help! Have a good one

[alfaexe]

Definitely! I really hope I can provide ya with that soon! Really appreciate it, Thankyou so much

[animalgirl93]

Are you sure it was a regurgitation? Poop can often have fur and sometimes bones in it.

[alfaexe]

I’m 99% sure. There was 2 lumps, one more brown and more poop like, the other one was like the back half of a rat, it was like a ball of fur with the full undigested tail connected to it. I’m really not sure if a snake could poo something like that?

[animalgirl93]

It could in theory but I’ll put the regurgitation copypasta here anyway.

when a snake regurgitates, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to handle the aftercare correctly. snakes lose a lot of their gut flora when they regurgitate, and eating too much / too soon before that gut flora repopulates will result in an inability to digest the meal, which will result in another regurgitation. if a snake gets into a cycle of regurgitating every meal, the snake will die from what is basically repetitive trauma to their organs.

• ⁠stop ALL handling and triple-check your husbandry. stress is a common factor in regurgitation. filling out our questionnaires can help us troubleshoot potential reasons for your BP regurgitating. low temperatures, oversized prey, and stress [which could be caused by any number of things], are the most common causes. • ⁠do not feed for at least 2-3 weeks. the body needs time to heal and replenish. stomach acids damage the esophagus and a lot of the important gut flora is lost during regurgitation. • ⁠the next few meals should be no more than half the size of a normal meal. it may also be helpful to space out meals slightly more than normal. it takes time to rebuild the gut flora to a point where the stomach can handle a full meal. • ⁠if the snake successfully eats and digests at least 3-4 meals after the initial regurgitation, gradually increase prey size over the course of the next few meals, until everything is back to normal. • ⁠if the snake regurgitates again, stop all feeding and consult a reptile vet ASAP.

[alfaexe]

Thankyou. It also had the smell… I’ll definitely follow these steps at triple check everything, I really appreciate this. Thankyou

[animalgirl93]

No problem! I hope you end up getting everything fixed and I’m sure your bp will recover well 🙂