Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased my first BP about 3 weeks ago. I read that they are very tough eaters, so I made sure that when I picked mine out that he was willing to eat. And he is, I have been feeding him thawed out fuzzies, and he never had a problem eating them. However, for the past 2 feedings, he has vomitted up his food about 5 or 6 days later. Am I not preparing the food properly (i always make sure it has fully thawed and warm it up a little) or is it maybe his environment, or should i see a vet......thanks for you help

Are you handling him after eating? You should leave him alone for about 48 hours after he/she eats his meal. Handling them between that time can sometimes cause your python to spit back up its food. How old is it?

No, i always make sure NOT to handle him after he eats for at least 2 days, and after the first incident, I havent handled him at all. And even after I feed him, I let him crawl back into his cage, not moving him myself, just so as not to scare him.

I should probably mention that on his first feeding, he was fed a live mouse, while the other two times he had thawed mice. He had no problems eating them though, and hes not regurgatating them until days after he eats

I think a lot of people start their yearlings on live mice and then move them over to frozen gradually. I personally have always fed my python live mice because the local pet store has quality mice (and fed quality food) and are a lot cheaper than frozen.

I'm not sure whether the live or FT mice is causing the regurgitation but I would wait for feedback from other users on this.

Tell me about your cage setup...

Also, do you have a lot of friends/family or you looking in at him all the time? Even pets? Yearling ball pythons take a while to get acclimated into a new environment and I think if he's getting stressed out it may be causing his regurgitation.

Please let me know.

The cage set up is pretty simple, he has a hiding rock that he can comfortably in, a water rock thats big enough for him, wood chips for the floor, and a climbing tree. The temp stays around 87 in the hot end to about 83 in the cool. and the cage is glass. Most of the time he stays in his hiding rock and isnt disturbed at all. I'm starting to think that maybe the FT mice Im feeding him isnt of the best quality, and will try a live mouse on his next feeding. Thanks for all your help

What kind of wood chips are they? This is very important.

To be honest, I bought the set up in one of those complete packages. It was already set up by the people at the store, so I'm not exactly sure what type of wood it is, but they look like the kind that you would find in some childrens playground, with pieces ranging from the size of a finger to that of thin 2 inch shavings

Ah okay, sounds like reptibark. Stay away from pine (pine causes respiratory probs, I like aspen the best)!

My recommendation would be next feeding try a live mouse (small adult, don't waste your time with fuzzies) and see if she takes it..if not, take her back to the pet store because if she's having problems this early on that's bad news. Did you buy it from Petco or Petsmart or one of those? If so, try to return the snake you bought (your cage setup is fine for now) and go to a reputable dealer and get a captive bred one, this way you know the hatchling/yearling is healthy.

I find it funny that Petsmart gets most of their pythons from out of the uS and sells them for 99$, while a reputable breeder within the US usually sells a ball for $49.99, and they are much better quality animals.

Yea, I definetly didnt buy it from PetsMart or Petco. So i'll try feeding with a live mouse, and if still a problem, i'll take it back to the store. Thanks for all your help. This is my first time in a forum, and I'm really learning alot

Wait about a week before you offer food again. That will give the snake`s digestive system time to recover. If you feed too close to a regurge it will nearly always regurge again.

But DO make the pet store aware of your problem ASAP.

Find out where the python came from. If it is a WC, (which is very likely if it came from a pet store)or has been exposed to WC pythons, then thier is a very good chance your snake has a protozoan (SP?) problem. If this is the case, then the snake needs to me medicated with Flagyl (100mg/kg) and you should probably go ahead and do Panacur as well (25mg/kg).

I have recently learned how to "Worm" the snakes myself (As I brought in A LOT of animals this year) after a ten lot I purchased in June began regurging. With just one snake, you don't want or need to go to the trouble and expence of learning. Go to a vet, or insist the pet store take care of this for you.

Do not feed for at least 7-10 days after any regurgitation.

Raise your temps on the hot side some.

Good luck

Hello,

Just wanted to ask you a quick couple of questions. First, how are you warming up the frozen/thawed mouse. I am sure you are not warming it to much, (i mean to the point of actually cooking it but just thought I check). Also try waiting at least seven to eleven days before refeeding after a regurge. Sometimes it is possible to get some frozen/thawed rodents that have gone bad or were not frozen properly. So maybe toss your current batch of frozen thawed rodents and get your next batch from someone you trust. Hope this advice helps and good luck. I dont think you need to give up on frozen thawed just yet, hang in there.

The first thing i thought when i saw the title of this thread was the temperatures. up your temps on both sides a bit. I keep my hot side at abou t90 during the day-85 at night on the cool side at 84 during the day and 80 at night. DO you have a hide on both sides of the tank?Like on eon the cool end one on the hot end?If so,which one does the baby usually sleep on? Youll need some belly heat i suppose,heat has alot to do with digestion. an UTH on the hot side or under the hide will be good for that. just make sure they dont get too ot,some of them tend to. I do frazoen/thawed mice myself. Maybe try a prekilled mouse?Like buy it from the petstore the feeding day and ask the salesperson to kill it for you? I work in a petstore,and we do that for customers upon request(i go find a boy to do it,i just cant do it)Im sure alot of places won't do that though.If your unsure about the stores freezing methods, buy the prekilled mice and freeze them yourself. That way you know whats going on. The parasite thing someone mentioned makes sense. Even CB animals can have parasites. Good luck,hope baby will keep it down next time.

The most common causes of regurg is not enough heat, handling too soon after a meal or parasites.

If you are not handling him after he eats, then you need to look at the other two. Your temps on the hot side could use to be brought up a tad. IT also never hurts to have a new animal checked out and wormed. (Everything that comes into the house, goes into quarentine, gets wormed and the cage treated with provent-a-mite.)

If he is eating f/t fine then don't switch him back to live. Just wait 7-10 days and try refeeding him. This time use a mouse from a different batch of frozen rodents.

** For those of you wondering about retail prices, let me explain the wonderful world of retail. Stores pay wholesale prices for everything, in our example ball pythons. They pay about 20-30 bucks each for the baby balls you see in the store. Since the whole idea of our economy is to make a profit, they need to charge 90 bucks, to cover the cost of the animal, the cost of feeding the animal, heating the animal, rent for the building, electric, water, gas, employees pay...etc.

So you see that, yes they are WC and more expensive than a private breeder. Chances are most private breeders just want to help pay the feeder bill when they sell an animal. They are not worrying about rent, utilities, etc. For example, I sell my baby leopard geckos for 20 bucks each. This doesn't even come close to paying for the upkeep of the babies much less the adults. But I figure that if I can buy a box of crix, in addition to the fun I had breeding the adults, watching over the eggs, and nurturing the little guys until they go to new homes, then hey the box of crix is an added bonus. The same leopard geckos in the stores would cost you 40-80 bucks.

This is an adaptation of a post I sent in response to a similar problem from the boa forum. I am largely in agreement with some of the other posters on this thread:

I would check your temperatures. Make sure your snake has a warm spot to bask in to digest its meal. If possible, provide one in a hide if your snake likes to hide after it eats. After a week, there is no doubth that the main digestive process should be complete, so a regurgitation this late after feeding probably indicates that the food item is rotting in the snake's digestive system, rather than being digested and absorbed. If your snake is not dangerously underweight, I would wait at least a couple of weeks before feeding again. This will allow your snake's digestive system to recover. As an aside, you might want to record the weight of the food item and the weight of the snake at each feeding. If you have problems, feed a smaller percentage food item at a slightly longer interval.

Good luck.