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I have a 1 year old mexican milk snake. Recently he has been very picky with what he eats. Its now been about 2 weeks since the last feeding. I gave him a small mouse yesterday and he killed it, but did not eat it. Today I put in 2 fuzzys, neither of which he has touched. I did notice that he has sand in his mouth and he keeps sticking head into the sand with his mouth open. Is this normal? How long can he go without eatting? Any help would be great, thanks!

I'm no expert, but I don't think it is a good thing to keep most snakes on sand. I don't think it is normal for your snake to open its mouth in the sand. You might consider putting it on something else like aspen chips or paper towels. Maybe paper towels for awhile, so you can keep an eye on its fecals to make sure it is ok. Derek

Thanks, I'll try taking out the sand and see how it goes.

with sand as a substrate they can get impaction from ingesting it, same with aspen, so if you have a loose bedding it may be a good idea to feed it outside of the cage, in a box maybe.
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

I took the sand out today, and tried feeding him tonight. It was a no go. He also seems to be rubbing the left side of his mouth against rocks and the side of the cage, as if he was teething. It doesn't seem normal, but i'm not sure. Also tomorrow will be 2 1/2 weeks since he had anything to eat. Should I be worrying? Thanks for any help you can give.

Hey Bozo is he trying to shed? Offer him a couple pinkies.

No, not shedding. He did that about 3 weeks ago. I did try giving him pinkys this time, and he wouldnt touch them.

Which is treatable by a qualified, experienced reptile vet. If he has been ingesting sand when he has been eating, or if he has been ingesting sand just by being kept on a sand substrate, I would strongly advise taking him to that vet very soon. Impaction can be fatal.
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phflame
kingsnake.com host

bozo,
i don't think the fasting is the problem--a healthy snake could go a couple months without feeding and without difficulty. Your problem is the ingesting of sand. As soon as you see sand in its mouth, remove it from the sand (which you've done) and do your best to clean out its mouth & throat. It MAY be that your snake's about to shed; but a more likely explanation for it rubbing the corner of its mouth, the morning after you observed its mouth full of sand, is that it senses the foreign matter and is trying to get rid of it. Maybe have a friend help you. Get a little bottle that could spray water; use a toothpick to open its mouth; sweep out any sand you can see, gently, and spray some water in to try to flush out more sand. Do this with the head held DOWN, so anything that's flushed is flushed OUT of the mouth, not down the throat. And as advised in another post, you might need to see a vet to deal with any impaction that's taking place. As you're going thru the mouth-cleaning process, be gentle, and remember the snake's teeth curve back into the mouth so as you're trying to push stuff out of the mouth, you're moving against the teeth. And take your time: it doesn't all have to be swept out in one or two swipes. If you get a little each time, you're making progress, and you're helping.
Good luck!
terry

>>I have a 1 year old mexican milk snake. Recently he has been very picky with what he eats. Its now been about 2 weeks since the last feeding. I gave him a small mouse yesterday and he killed it, but did not eat it. Today I put in 2 fuzzys, neither of which he has touched. I did notice that he has sand in his mouth and he keeps sticking head into the sand with his mouth open. Is this normal? How long can he go without eatting? Any help would be great, thanks!

Hey thanks for the help, the sand is his mouth is more serious than i thought. i thought i had washed it all off last week, and he was in his cave all weekend, so i figured he was just stressed out and needed some alone time. i took him out today and he doesn't look good. His color is very dull, as if he was in the shedding stage, but i really don't think he's shedding. i held his head and looked closely and the sand appears to be solid around his mouth. I picked out the sand with a toothpick but i couldn't keep his mouth open to look and see if there was any in his throat. Is there anything I should do for him at this point? I called the vet and unbelievably enough they said they don't deal with snakes. Let me know what I should do, thanks again!

you can go to this link to find one in your state.
ARAV vets

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phflame
kingsnake.com host