Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here to visit Classifieds
Click for ZooMed
Click for 65% off Shipping with Reptiles 2 You

REGURGITATING ARGENTINE BOA

OKC_Exotics Oct 17, 2007 03:14 PM

I have a 6 year old female Argentine Boa that's just over 8 feet long. The last 3 meals she has eaten she has regurgitated after 3-4 days. She has an undertank heater as well as a mercury vapor bulb above her to keep her temps up. The basking spot is around 98 and ambient temp is 82. She has never had any problems before and her set up and food has not changed. I feed her a XXXL rat every week. I plan on getting her to a vet soon to see about internal issues she may be having. Any one else with any suggestions? Thanks.

Replies (5)

SoCal-619 Oct 17, 2007 03:52 PM

If you tried her one week after her first regurg that would probably account for the last 2. A regurgitation is really hard on the digestive system of a snake, you should wait a minimum of 2 weeks before you try a small meal after any regurg. If she is used to having XXL rats wait at least 2-3 weeks and try maybe a medium or smaller just to get things working again. If she has never given you trouble before and is in pretty healthy shape 2-3 weeks without feed will not hurt her one bit. Its a slow long process to re-coop from this but you have to give her time to recover properly before her digestive track will be up to full strength.

NCBoas Oct 17, 2007 08:57 PM

Although I don't believe it is actually the problem.. You can try lowering your hot spot down to 90 degrees.. 98 is a tad high and could be the cause of her regurgitation.. As the other response said, you've got to give it a while before you attempt to feed a boa after regurgitation.. Three weeks should be good but offer something smaller, like a medium to see if she keeps it down. Have you recently switched rodent suppliers?

OKC_Exotics Oct 18, 2007 05:42 AM

Thanks for all your replies. I will lower her basking spot a bit and wait a few weeks before trying again. I haven't changed rodent suppliers or anything. Since she seems healthy in every other way I'll just wait and try feeding her something smaller in a couple weeks. Thanks again for everybodies help.

EricIvins Oct 18, 2007 05:44 PM

I wouldn't lower the basking spot ( Just make sure you have a proper temp. gradient ). In the past Ive had Argentines bask untill thier body temperatures were up and over 115 Degrees. The only time I had a problem with pukers is when it started getting cooler outside and my basking temps were too low. Once I figured out that the thermostat wasn't producing the temps it was displaying, the problem was fixed. You do have to wait awhile untill you feed them again or else you will end up with chronic pukers. Once that happens you will have a very hard time turning them around, and they will waste away fairly quickly.

danktat Oct 18, 2007 12:39 AM

...want to try to add a little "beneficial bacteria" to that first meal or two back from the regurge to assist in getting the gut flora back in balance. It will assist in the digestive process.
-----

Site Tools