| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| WealdO |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 10:58:14
Cannot find this posted anywhere.
I have just taken charge of my sons snake as he is travelling. He has now been gone 6 weeks and fed before he left.
The snake is a female about 5 years old. It is roughly 3 foot in length. Kept in a vivarium with 1 hide placed over a heat mat. There is an additional lamp over the hide but this is not used consistently in the summer. This is the same set up used for the last couple of years.
My son said she feeds easily and was giving her 3 small mice every 10 days. He defrosted the mice in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Since he has been gone I have left food on a number of occasions but apart from 1 mice it does not get taken. I remove after a day. Sometimes I have enticed her to strike at the food but she quickly leaves it. A week ago she shed her skin.
This weekend I cleaned out the vivarium, wiping down all surfaces with baby wipes. This is the first time I handled her. I had been removing dirty areas but these have been almost non existent.
In the hide was a mouse which i assume was the one i thought she had eaten.
Yesterday I returned with food and wanted to follow my sons procedure exactly which meant feeding the first mouse in another tank. On looking in the hide there were 4 pink, hard, egg shaped things. These are about 1.5 cm long. Are these very old regurgitated food? If so why has this happened and advice please. If not what are they and advice please.
Many thanks for your help.
|
| 16 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| WealdO |
Posted - 31/05/2011 : 13:23:19
Many thanks to all who responded. I am much less stressed now and will work on improving the environment.
You seem to have an excellent community here! |
| mikerichards |
Posted - 27/05/2011 : 11:32:26
Turns out I am worse with computers than I am with snakes as I cannot find a way to add photos.
The vivarium is 3 feet long with glass at the front. The base is covered in chippings. There is a hide one end over a heat mat. In the middle there is a branch and at the other end a water bowl.
The snake has been housed in this way for 3 years. The only change I made last weekend was swapping the branch and water bowl as I read that change interests them.
Anyway the snake has produced 2 more pellets since yesterday. The new ones are white and soft - I assume they harden and go darker when exposed to air. They do not smell at all. Is it possible that she is regurgitating food months after it ate? She has eaten max 3 mice in the last 6 weeks. if food had been in the stomach for months then it would have rotted, and most likely poisoned the snake, usually a snake will only regurge food in the first 48 hours, any later is rare, but not impossible, however, it usually only takes about 5 or 6 days for the food to pass through completely
At the weekend i handled her for the first time. Previously only my son had done so. Not that I would know but she seemed unhappy at being handled and part was pulsating (breathing?) quite a lot.Quite often, if they can smell food they go into a kina excited state, where they breathe really fast and deep, if not that then she could be panicking a little if shes not handled much at all. The best advice i can give in this situation, is absolutely do not handle unless its a life or death scenario, you could put her off laying, especially if she feels threatened, and thats bad. only handle if you plan to take her to the vets.
Appreciate the advice on having 2 hides,regulating temperature, providing larger food etc (all of which I will address) but nothing has changed in her habitat for years.With regards to the 2 hides thing, a lot of people do things differently, you gotta do what works for you, you do not HAVE to have 2 hides, you dont HAVE to have any, but the more you have the safer the snake is made to feel whilst meandering around the viv. personally, only 2 of mine have hides, and they are fine with it, and infact, bolder. So the 2 hides thing is not set in stone at all.
Regulating temps, do you have a thermostat to set the temp? if not the its strongly advised that you get one, you can get one from a reptile inclined pet shop, or online somewhere like 888 reptiles, for a heatmat you can use either a mat stat dimmer or pulse stat, but for a light you can only use a dimmer stat, otherwise you go through bulbs like nothing else on a mat stat, and with a pulse stat, you have a disco going on!!!! There are a few options of manufacturer of stats, personally i only use habistat, but thats me, microclimate are ok, although i dont like them, there is also lucky reptile, which to be honest is a bit of a misnomer, I dont feel the snake would be that lucky to have one!
Thats all assuming you dont have one! if you do, great, its also worth investing in a digi thermometer, couple of quid off ebay, dont trust the dials on the stat!
How long can they live without eating?
a lot longer than it takes us to panic about it! a healthy adult can go for 6 months or more, however, a female thats just laid is considerably shorter, 8 weeks maybe.
Any more thoughts will really be gratefully received even if it is take her to the vets. Worth doing, but not until you think she has finished laying |
| mikerichards |
Posted - 27/05/2011 : 10:55:47
If your son has had her five years, has he bred her in the last year or so? in that picture 3 are infertile, but the other two look to be fertile, which would indicate that she would have been with a male in the last year! However, its not in the realms of impossibility for the seemingly healthy ones to be infertile also.
To be honest, if you are not ready for incubating, waiting for snakes to hatch, then have the fun of getting them to feed, then i would recommend that you freeze the eggs within 48 hours of them being laid, the orange ones you dont need to worry about, they are not fertile, and have no chance of being fertile, however, the white ones do. Corns eggs do nothing for roughly 48 hours, then the embryo starts to form.
Its your choice though, there are many many guides on here about how to setup an incubator, how to incubate the eggs etc.
My only other piece of advice would be to take her to see a vet once you think she has finished laying, purely to be sure that shes finished laying. There have been quite a few instances of snakes not laying properly, and not finishing, and it does subsequently kill the snake, so its worth being sure.
Good luck with it |
| lee2308 |
Posted - 27/05/2011 : 10:40:48
she will be off her food for a while until shes laid them all,i would put a nest box in for her to lay the in.You can use a old ice cream tub with a hole in the top with some damp moss in |
| WealdO |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 22:14:47
No chance that she has been with a male. So what do I do? Just leave any others in the hide? Should I continue to offer food and is that why she is not eating? |
| Invalid User |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 22:11:29
They are eggs!
Has she been with a male snake at all, white eggs usually mean fertile!! |
| WealdO |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 22:09:10
hope this works!
|
| lotabob |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 21:03:09
Photobucket is good and easy. Once you get your head round the fact that the pictures arent on this site but they are on another site but you have a code so it displays here then its easy. |
| lee2308 |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 20:52:47
With out the pics its hard to say if their eggs or not,heres a how to on posting pics http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14 or you can email them to me and i will post them for you. |
| thistle |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 20:26:38
I'm still really new to snakes, but can't these egg shaped things be.... well ..... eggs? If she was gravid then that may be what has put her off her food. |
| WealdO |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 20:18:14
Turns out I am worse with computers than I am with snakes as I cannot find a way to add photos.
The vivarium is 3 feet long with glass at the front. The base is covered in chippings. There is a hide one end over a heat mat. In the middle there is a branch and at the other end a water bowl.
The snake has been housed in this way for 3 years. The only change I made last weekend was swapping the branch and water bowl as I read that change interests them.
Anyway the snake has produced 2 more pellets since yesterday. The new ones are white and soft - I assume they harden and go darker when exposed to air. They do not smell at all. Is it possible that she is regurgitating food months after it ate? She has eaten max 3 mice in the last 6 weeks.
At the weekend i handled her for the first time. Previously only my son had done so. Not that I would know but she seemed unhappy at being handled and part was pulsating (breathing?) quite a lot.
Appreciate the advice on having 2 hides,regulating temperature, providing larger food etc (all of which I will address) but nothing has changed in her habitat for years.
How long can they live without eating?
Any more thoughts will really be gratefully received even if it is take her to the vets. |
| tarotpodge |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 17:35:30
I had a northern pine who used to regurgetate whole undigested feed. even though her tempreture was within the normal range i found that raising her tempreture by a few degrees stopped this problem. maybe check what you viv tempreture is.
|
| WealdO |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 17:16:38
Thanks for the feedback. I will post pictures tomorrow. |
| FiestaSTLou |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 13:33:46
deffo need 2 hides and if she is 5 years old i would suggest upping the prey size and feeding 1 every 2 weeks instead of 3 smalls every 10 days? our 2 yr old is on smalls and they are getting to small for her. :/
as nitro said do u have any pictures of the set up for us to see :) |
| Only1Nitro |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 11:41:55
Do you have photos please
thanks |
| lee2308 |
Posted - 26/05/2011 : 11:39:54
They are more than likely regurgitated food and i would imagine the reason for that could be that you only have 1 hide and being in a new home does not feel secure so is choosing saftey over temputure regulation.What are your temps like? |
|
|
