On 6/13 my girl found a rat snake that she thought we should keep because it was pretty, or if not pretty, at least unusual. Under some light it looks green, under some it looks gray or brown. Also, on the underside of its neck it has some yellow coloration like you might see on an anery corn (though it is definitely not an anery corn). But there are other weird things about this rat snake. First, it's wire thin. I didn't notice until I picked it up, but it is unusually thin. I would have guessed that it was starving to death, especially since it just went limp when I picked it up, but there was a relatively large food item (I assumed) in its gut. So, we got it a standard rat snake set-up, and put it in quarantine. After it had some water, it started to act normal, so I was hopeful.
On 6/19, when I was feeding the rest of my snakes, I figured I'd feed the new guy, too, even though he hadn't defecated yet. He very quickly ate two fuzzies, which he promptly regurguated while I was at work on 6/20. The night of 6/21 he sort of defecated, but there were only urates. The original "food item" that was in him when my girl first found him is still there, and it is not getting any smaller. I'm assuming he ate a piece of wood or something along with whatever prey item he ate last, that his digestive system is blocked up, and that he's likely to die soon. The animal is acting like a normal rat snake, and even tried to climb up my arm to get out when I changed the paper 6/21. Anyone agree or disagree about the wood chip/blockage theory? Is there anything I can do?
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2.0 Pantherophis obsoletus obsoletus
0.2 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus
