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I tried to switch my sinaloan over to pre killed with no success. He stopped eating completely, recently he will eat live but within 48 hours he regurgitates it. The temperature has not changed, the prey size is the same as it was, why does he do this? He has lost quite a bit of weight. He used to be able to handle to prey items, no he cant handle one. Help me please.

I don't have a sinaloan, but I have 4 corn snakes, one of which I have had regurgitate and this is what I did to correct it.

First off don't try to feed him again for 10-14 days. This lets his stomach heal from the regurgitation.

You didn't say what size mice you are trying to feed. If it is just a hatchling, after the prerequisite 10-14 days, I would try to feed it half a pinky (Just feed the head. The small size is beneficial and the extra blood may entice it to feed on killed prey). If it doesn't accept the pinky head, then in 4 days offer a live pinky. If he eats and keeps it down, don't try to feed him again for at least 7 days and feed him what he ate before (if he ate the head, this time feed the body; if he ate the live pinky, feed another live pinky).

If it is an older snake you still want to feed prey that is much smaller than what it is used to, but since you didn't say what it's normal prey size is I can't help you here.

Right now, worry about getting him to eat again, not switching him over to f/t. If he eats and keeps down live mice, then keep him on that until he regains weight and he's strong enough for you to try him on f/t again.

I agree with Amanda about giving him a couple weeks to recover from the stress of regurging, then trying a small prey item. Try offering him some f/t pinkies... if he takes those, try scenting a larger f/t food item with pinky blood. If you're not too squeamish, sewing half a pinky to the head of a larger prey item (use cotton thread, as little as possible) works very well in my experience. My sinaloan went off feed for about 4 months this past summer, and that's what I had to do to get her eating again. Good luck!

Nate

I agree with the other posts in giving him a couple of weeks to rest before feeding again. If he takes it and gurges again, take him to the vet. If he refuses, wait a week and try again. If he keeps refusing and loses too much weight, force feed. If and when you force feed, he gurges again, take him to the vet. It's very important to wait at least ten days after a gurg. Regurgitation is very harmful to the upper digestive tract. If you don't give it time to heal, he will just gurg again, causing more damage. Good luck.
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