Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I own one rat snake, a large Everglades rat snake I've had for about a year. I've never really kept a lot of rat snakes; I'm mainly a python enthusiast. So I've got this rat snake. Everything was fine until this winter. When the weather cooled off, he stopped eating. I fed him a couple of times over the winter, and he would eat then regurgitate his food. Very nasty, as you are all aware. Then he stopped eating altogether. Well, about 4 weeks ago, he started eating again. Weather warmed up, he shed his skin, everything went well. He ate one mouse and kept it down. A week later, he ate two mice, and kept them down. So I gave him two more Saturday, and he gurged them this morning. I had been feeding him small-ish rats when he started gurging. So I went back to mice. Thought that might be part of the problem.

What I'm wondering is, what could this gurging be? I don't have a really knowledgeable vet in my communit, but I'll travel to one if necessary. Just throwing this out there to see if y'all have any ideas about what this problem could be. The snake is a long-term captive, and has always been an excellent feeder. So something's obviously not right. But he acts normal; he's not sluggish or lethargic, nor is he too listless or restless.

Any ideas?

RP

Lots of possibles. The most common are: Temps not warm enough for the snake to properly digest (when the weather got cold, did the snake have an available "warm spot"?), Prey items that are too large (especially if the temps are too cool!), Handling too soon after eating (we say 2-3 days, but, again, if the temps are too cool and/or the prey too large...it could take longer),
Illness in general (if none of the above seem true). Once a snake gets into a regurge "cycle" it can become a pattern, so if any of the above are possible problem areas, try to fix it ASAP.
If not, a visit to the vet may be in order. Duffy

I can't improve too much on duffy's suggestions. However, it's a good idea not to feed for at least a week, or maybe two, after a regurge. This is because digestive enzymes are regurged with the undigested prey and may not be replenished for one to two weeks afterwards. I think this may be a primary cause of the regurgitation syndrome already mentioned. Good luck.