Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an amel here who's a year old now, well, probably 14 months or so. I got her and an anery male together last fall as hatchlings. The anery is over 30" now and a beautiful boy! but the Amel (Edana) has never really "taken off". Her first meal here was puked up, as has been probably 3 of every 4 feedings her whole life. She had shedding problems from her first shed here. Some of you may remember her having 3 or 4 retained tail skins at one time? Well, we've solved the shedding problems over the last few months. She's been moved out of her 20g tank and into one of the hatchling boxes, with a slight rise in temp and almost no handling. (she always been a bit of a bi&^% too) She rushes to eat every week, but most times it comes back up within the next 3 to 5 days, then she's stuck skipping a week so her stomach can get settled. She poops, she drinks, and she's been shedding fine. But I can't get her to keep her food down. She's maybe 18" and skinny! I am at a loss as to why she's such a sickly thing. I have 12 corns here now, 13 if you count the runaway, and all the others are growing and thriving, she just never has. 18" at one year? and skinnier than my 03 hatchlings? I've never had to force feed her, she leeps at her food, even in plain sight, and there's been times where she would puke up just a "shell" of a mouse 5 or more days after she ate it, shouldn't it have been digested by then? Could it be she was just a sickly hatchling to begin with, or have I been killing her slowly for a year somehow? I've tried adjusting her temps and humidity, I've tried handling and not handling, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong other than the constant puking. What should my next step be? I'm just lost, I feel like I maybe did something wrong to her or she wouldn't be such a puny thing. Do some corns just never do well?
-----
Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

If you haven't already, my next step would be to get a fecal exam done, it could be any of a long list of parasites. Find a good vet that will do smear for you, you may want to get about 3 done over three weeks to insure nothing is missed. I think my vet charges around $15 per fecal, and then if they find something it will cost more to have either and acid fast test or a culture done. Good Luck!

I'm having a hard time thinking she could have a parisite just because she has been in contact with the anery and a couple others over the past year, and all others are stars as far as health goes. Though I haven't let her get near any of them for the past few months, just in case she did have something. I guess I get to search for a herp vet in my new neighborhood now.. I guess I'm a bad mom for not doing this sooner, I just kept thinking she'd get over it I guess. I do that with my daughter and a good nights sleep cures her just fine (kidding!)
-----
Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

The fact that she has been in contact with your anery could mean 3 very possible things. 1. It is not something transmissable and could be genetic 2. You were just lucky the anery didn't get it or 3. Your other snakes may have the parasite as well but just don't show signs yet. I don't mean to scare you, but sometimes a parasite/or bacteria can be harbored unnoticed in a collection. Some snakes will not have symptoms for a long time, but during times of stress the parasite and/or bacteria may take advantage of a weak immune system. It could be that the first regurge made her weak enough to become really vunerable. Another thing I would do is after a sucessful feeding I'd still wait 10 days before feeding her. It seems like her body is not "tuned" to recieve food everyweek. I'd try feeding her every 10 days twice in a row, then try every nine days for a few times, then eight... until you hopefully can get her on every 7 days without regurges. She'd be better off waiting longer for her meal than regurging so much. I hope she gets better!

You might want to feed her every 7 days indefinitely. Feeding too frequently may be the problem. (It was with one of my snakes.) You already know to wait a week after regurg to feed her again. The same works here. Giving her a few extra days to let her stomach "rest" will be beneficial.

This is of course assuming that you were feeding her more often than 7 days, which is what your message seemed to say. If you have been feeding her every 7 days, you may want to back off to every 10 days or so.

And from what you say, she sounds like she is still very active. I wouldn't worry about her succumbing. I have a friend that has a hatchling that WILL NOT eat more often than every 24 days and it's doing fine.
-----
alstiver@hotmail.com

Currently own:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla Coil)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 '99 American Eskimo x ? mutt (Rusty)

Soon to be added:
1.0 '04 Type II Anery Nicaraguan boa
0.1 '03 or '04 Hypo Nicaraguan boa

she eats now about every 8 days, and has been fed on that schedule all her life, with the exception of a few skips after vomiting. She's a year old and still eating 1-2 day old pinkies and never more often than once a week. She is active, sort of, and has a nasty disposition. She's held in her monday meal so far, I think this time I'll wait a full 10 days before feeding her again. I will get her tested for parasites now though, I guess I just figured if the other snakes didn't get it as well, that it couldn't be something like that. Poor Edana, she really looks pathetic compared to her (supposed future boyfriend) Breaden. I've already decided she won't ever be a breeder. Even if she does pull through this, I don't want to chance passing on an unhealthy gene.
-----
Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

Sounds like regurge syndrome. I have had a corn like that. I received a magical solution for that. Buy 100 pinks. Feed him one pinky every 2 - 3 days untill half the bag is gone. Than feed the rest in two or three pinks every 2 -3 days. After that the stomac has rebuild a complete set of digestion fluids. I know the mice are way too small but his stomac is too sensitive for normal meals. And trust me, after the 100 mice you can go up from fuzzy's to normal sized meals. And I would get a feaces check done.

Marcel

>>I have an amel here who's a year old now, well, probably 14 months or so. I got her and an anery male together last fall as hatchlings. The anery is over 30" now and a beautiful boy! but the Amel (Edana) has never really "taken off". Her first meal here was puked up, as has been probably 3 of every 4 feedings her whole life. She had shedding problems from her first shed here. Some of you may remember her having 3 or 4 retained tail skins at one time? Well, we've solved the shedding problems over the last few months. She's been moved out of her 20g tank and into one of the hatchling boxes, with a slight rise in temp and almost no handling. (she always been a bit of a bi&^% too) She rushes to eat every week, but most times it comes back up within the next 3 to 5 days, then she's stuck skipping a week so her stomach can get settled. She poops, she drinks, and she's been shedding fine. But I can't get her to keep her food down. She's maybe 18" and skinny! I am at a loss as to why she's such a sickly thing. I have 12 corns here now, 13 if you count the runaway, and all the others are growing and thriving, she just never has. 18" at one year? and skinnier than my 03 hatchlings? I've never had to force feed her, she leeps at her food, even in plain sight, and there's been times where she would puke up just a "shell" of a mouse 5 or more days after she ate it, shouldn't it have been digested by then? Could it be she was just a sickly hatchling to begin with, or have I been killing her slowly for a year somehow? I've tried adjusting her temps and humidity, I've tried handling and not handling, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong other than the constant puking. What should my next step be? I'm just lost, I feel like I maybe did something wrong to her or she wouldn't be such a puny thing. Do some corns just never do well?
>>-----
>>Dianne
>>AKA IcedGoddess
>>0.1 Snow (Ruby)
>>1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
>>0.1 Amel (Edana)
>>0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
>>1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
>>0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
>>1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)
>>
>>1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
>>0.1 Child
>>1.0 Boyfriend
>> IcedGoddess Creations
>> Castle Serpents
-----
Marcel Poots (Holland)
'Where is your crown King Nothing?' James Hettfield

She's been eating 1-2 day old pinks since I got her. Thanks for the suggestion though. I think I'm ganna give her a starvation week now that she held down this last one, and maybe she'll be better through the next year. She just doesn't look like she's ganna last a whole nother year.
-----
Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

I had a male guyana redtail that regurged for a little over a year.I did everything known to man including $1000 worth of medical treatments.It was a neonate when i purchased him and he never grew more than 3 inches before he died.The fact that your snake is growing and it can hold down some meals is encouraging.On the other hand it will always probably be a delicate snake to deal with....Paul.

I too have a puker. A beautiful anery boy I got as a hatchling last year. He started off great, he even ate two pretty good sized pinks there for a while, then he started puking periodically. Then he started puking every meal till he got so bad that he was puking a mere hour after eating. I felt so sorry for him. He acted like he was starving... and would practically leap outta the cage for the prey. I finally quit waiting the 7-10 days as suggested and gave him a new born pink right after he puked. He kept it down. I gave him another one a few days later when he came out hunting... and he kept that one down too. So I continued giving him one when ever he'd poke his head out of his hide with that 'feed me' look on his face... even if it was the next day. Slowly I increased the size... and as long as I don't offer him anything with hair on it... he keeps it down... so far, anyway.

I have no idea what's going on. I've read other posts about people with these puking snakes and they say they don't seem to ever thrive. Perhaps it's a liver malfunction or something, I don't know. If any one finds out what's going on.... please post the results, ok? I wish everyone luck with their little pukers.

I LOVE these forums
MissHisssss

Thanks, I'll start feeding her more often (all she ever gets is tiny pinks), maybe it's when she's empty that she can't deal with it? I don't know, she just looks so sad It's so hard to look at her and believe she's the same age as my Anery, he's HUGE in comparison.

Good luck to the rest of you with pukers too, Edana kept this last mouse down....keeping fingers crossed for next week
-----
Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents