I am glad you are taking a sample to the vet, it is always a good idea to make sure it isn't parasites, even with captive born animals.

With that being said, it has been my personal experience that feeding pinky rats can sometimes cause this. They simple don't have enough "fiber". It is like feeding them cream puffs, they will grow and get fat, but my personal opinion is that they don't have the calcuim an other vitamins that a mouse of the same weight might have(their bones and other organs are not as developed yet). For several years I fed my babies rat pinks because I was told babies grow better eating rats instead of mice. They did grow well, but I had problems with a lot of them having runny stools. Since we have switched to mice I have not had anymore problems with runny stools and I have not noticed any difference in rate of growth either.

Also, if you are purchasing a frozen mouse of the same weight (usually a hopper) they are cheaper by a few cents each, than rat pinks. If you only have one snake this might not make a difference but when you feed as many as we do it can add up. I feed my babies hopper mice, and continue to feed appropriately sized mice, until the snake is big enough for a weaned rat.

Hope this helps and that things come back from the vet fine.



Good luck,

Kathy

[ Show Entire Thread ]