Reptile & Amphibian Forums

one of my dad's young bullsnakes is showing a couple of similar symptoms to a kingsnake we had a little while ago that enentually died and without having ever really thrived. and when compared to a clutch mate he is not growing like she is. and if it helps the snake having trouble is a male and the apparantly healthy individual it is being compared to is a female. the snake also will willingly take foodl. the symptoms are.
-regurgitation
-what i belive to be odd looking stools

thank you for reading.

What do the stools look like? How old is the snake? What temperature is he being kept? All these factors come into play. Could he possibly have parasites? These are some possibilities.

the stools to me look as if there is some mucus in them, the tempature is unknown but the snake does have a heat lamp on him, as for the age i would have to ask someone to be accurate but from a few months to a year. if a young bullsnake was in a high traffic area of a house would all the traffic from the people stress it out to the point where it is regurgitating and giving off odd looking stools? thank you for the reply.

does the snake act stressed? Does it hiss, strike the glass, etc.
Also is he handled excessively?

he does hiss but really only when he is held and he does not strike at the glass. he takes food readilly but cannot keep it down. part of that problem is his meals may be to large so my dad is going to wait a while to feed him before he feeds him again and when he gets fed again it will be 2 pinkies at a time. but could a location in a high traffic area be the problem. he is exibiting symptoms of the last snake in that location we had that eventually died. is there a difference in growth rates between males and females at a young age? he is not held that often, mostly when there is cage maintinence being done. also recently he passed some stools that appeared to have the foot of his last meal, the foot was intact, but it was only the foot. and we got him somewhere between late march-early april. thank you for the reply.

You should definitely wait 10 days to feed after a regurg and step down the size of the food, not doing so could just lead to repeated regurges after the original regurg, which may not have been a big problem to begin with, could have just been too big or wrong temps or something. Keep it slow with him for now.
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Nick Puder
www.rnpreptiles.com

when i said 2 pinkies that is what we are taking him down to. we tried a small mouse and rat pups, he could take rat pups 1 at a time for a while or still might be able to but 2 pinkies is smaller than what he was used to eating and i also said we were going to hold off feeding for a while. but are there any parasitses that may cause these symptoms. the snake having issuse is has a lot of orange and reddish colors could a mite infestation we did not notice cause this? also are there products out there to help regurging snakes get some nutrients back after a regurge?

I would think mites could cause it, although I also think mites would move in easier if the snake is already ill. Soak him in lukewarm water (not too hot) to help kill the mites and keep him hydrated. I'm not sure about products to help this but parasites could be the culprit the best way to treat would be to get a fecal or the animal to a vet to identify and treat any infestations. Some medicines may help but I'm not familiar with them, a full vet identification would be best though as he would treat specifically for the parasite instead of generally.
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Nick Puder
www.rnpreptiles.com

thank you for the reply. but how can we tell if it does have mites or just soak him to be safe?

never mind about the mites my dad has been keeping an eye out for that all along.