Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey been a while need some help. Just got a neglected hondo from a friend of a friend.

You could see back bone,skin is in good condition,no respitory problems that I can tell yet. Just looks malnourished. Ate small meal first night I got him in. I just think it was fed very infrequently for six months to a year.

How many meals should I keep it on smaller prey is one or two enough? Once I get it eating again on a regular schedule will it grow normally or does this type of neglect stunt growth, just curious?

I picked up an extremely malnurished albino black rat years ago. It was in such bad shape i was fairly certain that it would die at any moment, but i decided to give it a go anyway.

It was big enough to handle weanling rats, but i gave it 4 fuzzy mice for the first meal, and then 2 medium mice for each meal about 4 days apart for around a month. by then it was really begining to plump back up and was ready to take weanling rats.

I also went out of my way to provide the most stress free environment i could. several hides, broad thermal gradient, and kept the front of the cage covered with a towel so any movent in the snake room wouldnt bother it.

After about 4 months it was in perfect condition and donated to a local nature center.

I'd feed it a small meal every 4 days until it gets its weight back. There's a danger to giving it more than it can handle and causing it to regurge.

I was given a starving Pine Snake that was limp when picked up and moved the first 1/5 of its head from side to side in a weird way. There was a temptation to give it a "normal" sized meal, but whenever I did it would throw up, and that only set things back further in terms of recovery.

Hondurans are very tough and if you have patience and give it small frequent meals (as well as cure the respiratory issue) than it can "bounce back" and be a normal-sized snake.

The Northern Pine Snake I mentioned went on to become one of my breeders.

Tim

Third Eye Herp