Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. I have a young Columbian that we had trouble with several months ago with regurgitation. He was also having shed troubles at that time. We had him all straightened out and he was eating a mouse every week, even ate a small rat one week (my mistake - once you put it in there you can't take it back!) He had a good shed last week. Now he started regurging again. I found a suspicious pile of 'yucky stuff' in his hide last week. We feed weekly. Yesterday he slurped down his mouse, then 30 minutes (or less) later it was back up. I will back off on frequency and size of his meals and get the humidity back up in his cage. He is a late '02, My question is - is this something he may have trouble with his whole life?

Thanks for your input. Amy C.

YOUR TROUBLE. YOU NEED TO SOAK YOUR BOA OVERNIGHT IN WARM WATER TO REHYDRATE HIM. YOU SHOULD NOT FEED HIM FOR AT LEAST TWO WEEKS OR MORE. I KNOW THIS IS HARD WHEN YOU ARE USED TO FEEDING EVERY WEEK. FEEDING EVERY WEEK IS PROBABLY THE MOST WIDELY ABUSED PRACTICE WITH PEOPLE KEEPING BOAS. BABY BOAS SHOULD ONLY BE FED AFTER THEY DEFICATE THEIR PREVIOUS MEAL. BOAS ARE ALL DIFFERENT AND NEED TO BE FED ACCORDING TO EACH INDIVIDUAL ANIMAL. REGURGE WILL ALMOST ALWAYS LEAD TO DEATH IF NOT TAKEN CARE OF CORRECTLY. IF YOUR BOA HAS ALREADY REGURGED 4 OR MORE TIMES IT IS MOST LIKELY TOO LATE TO BRING HIM BACK AROUND. GOOD LUCK AND I HOPE THIS HELPS.

I'll soak him tonite. He seems fine, other than the upchucking. I was shocked, tho that the mouse came back so quickly. He poops, no problem, between meals. I'll also be better about misting his cage. The heat has been on in the house and that dries things out quickly. Thanks for the soaking idea.

Amy C.

Something that was not touched on is what you said in your second post. HEAT. Nine out of ten times, to much heat is the cause of regurgitation or two big of a meal. I know " BREEDERS " that have or have had this problem and have even been in their facilities and it is usually to hot. Your animal should have a hot spot, but it should ALWAYS have access to temperatures somewhere in the mid 70s. This will allow the animal to pick and choose a more variable temperature gradient. Choices, is the key to good health. I also learned this the hard way, but over the years of working with boids, this has proved true time and time again. He may indeed be " beyond repair " but do not feed him for at least 4 weeks and then start him on newborn mice pinkies. Feed him those once every 10 days. If he holds at least four of them down over that month. Move him to hoppers and follow the same regimen until he is moved to his normal size prey. Go to your local pet stores and try to find some bene-bac or Acidophiliz drops to put in his water. That will help sooth his stomach and replinish the good bacteria lost in the regurges. If you cannot find it. See if a local vet can order it. Remeber hot spot with a cool spot somewere in the seventies. Good luck and GOD BLESS.........Johnson Herp

Thanks for the advice. I'll recheck his temps. He does have a warm end and cool end and makes use of both. I think I let him get to dry. Amy C>

Gradients are way underrated. I believe the key to a healthy snake is to provide the choices and then watch your animals behavior. It's tough to break out of the mindset that we have to keep our snakes somewhere between warm and warmer all the time. Ambient "low end" gradient temps of the mid seventies and even into the sixties are fine for all ages of snakes as long as they are given other options and are observed using those options - my opinion. The regurgitation syndrome is intertwined with more than a few variables, only one of which is temperature. I'd love to see more original thought go into resolving this syndrome other than "crank up the heat, and slow down the food." Logic says thats going to be dangerous for neonates and I'm not convinced it's the right direction for any sized boa. Heat stress is a real thing. 'Shadylady' has gotten some great advice all the way around in this thread, I'm not disagreeing with any of the above comments... I'm just respectfully challenging people to look at things from a different perspective. We are missing something important with the husbandry, don't you think?? Does anybody really think in the wild BCC's won't swallow ANY size meal they can? Any ideas?

As always in this hobby, " To many questions, to many opinions not based on fact and what do we do. " As you said, Mark; " Pay attention to what your snake is telling you. " It cannot speak, but actions are much louder than words. If it spends to much time on the hot spot, it is probably to low of a gradient. If it is always on the cool spot, it could be to warm. I like to see these animals do what alot of people have seemingly forgotten that they do naturaly " THERMOREGULATE. " Consistency in temperature is the worst thing in the world for boids " this is especially true with aboreals " and even so with terrestrial boids. They have humdreds of temperatures to choose from at all times. Aboreals are subject to air temperatures and terrestrial boids are developed to take SURFACE temperatures wich vary GREATLY. In the shadow of a leaf, the temperature can be 20 degrees cooler than six inches over and out of the shadow. The ambient temperature in the jungle at any time could be in the 90s, but that does not mean that all the boids are sitting in the 90s! Take your RAYTEK gun out on a ninety degree day and start taking surface temperatures of everything and you will be amazed at what you will find as far as varying temperature. I still believe that there are to many of us trying to to be experts and look smart, I still think that common sense is greater than intelligence. How many baby boas " especially " do you guys think are found in the wild basking on a rock in direct sunlight? Probably SLIM to NONE. Another thing to take into consideration is prey. I believe most neonates in the wild eat amphibians probably more than small mammals. Mice do not occur naturally in South America and are different than rats. I have seen babies puke mice and not puke rats? Sometimes, I think that regurgitation can even be natural; " What is a small snake with a big meal going to do if it gets startled? Regurge, so it can get away faster. " Commonsense applied to proper husbandry will avail many truths. Or we can base everything we know on outdated books that were written by people that still cannot base their writings on ROCK SOLID scientific evidence..........Tootles........Johnson Herp

First you need to wait 7 days from the last time the animal threw up. get a pinkie Rat, as new born as you can get, if the animal is only eating mice get a fuzzy mouse something with as little hair as possible, you need to start with a small food item, while the food is frozen use a razor to cut a slit from the neck down the spine all the way to it's butt, this opening will let the animal stomach acid get in faster and brake down the food sooner, let the rodent thaw and feed, check your temps 82 to 85 is good, wait 10 days and repeat, do this for 4 to 6 feedings and he should be good to go!