Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two small sinalaon milks that eat great,usually. But for about the last month or two the male seems to be growing while the female doesn't seem to be, he is actually surpassing her in size. But on to my question: she has regurgitated (sp) the last two mice I have given her. Is it something to worry about? I have had snakes regurgitate before,not very often but it has happened. My concern is that she doesn't seem to be growing in proportion to my male of the same relative age. And this isn't going to help.

I guess my first questions would be what temps do you have in it's cage and what kind of substrate is your snake(s)on? Are they in an out-of-the-way area so that they aren't stressed by traffic around them when they are digesting their meal? Are they being handled within 1-2 days after feeding? An answer to your problem would be easier to figure out with this info.

My milksnake is kept in a ten gallon in the same room as the rest of the snakes.She is on a converted bookcase that holds a total of 8 tanks with the narrow end facing out. As for substrate I use shreaded aspen I beleive it is kaytee brand. I run a strip of heat tape along the back of my tanks that runs about 95 degrees the tank never gets that hot though, the amient temp is usually whatever the rest of my house is usually about 80. She also has a moist hide that is buried in the substrate just incase she wants it even cooler. I have my corns and my other milks in there and they are all doing fine in their respected setups. I only have one other hide on the hot side one of those half cocunut huts but usually she just buries herself. I don't really do anything different with her than the others, feeding day is Sunday and I don't even change there water till I get home again Monday night they go almost two days w/o much contact.

Well, it still might be a good idea to take a temp measurement at the bottom of the hides she stays at, if it goes much above 88 degrees or so, you may want to rethink using that heat tape. Your ambient temp is good for when it's on the surface of the substrate, but substrate can act like an oven and cook your animal. If it is too hot, the snake is being forced to make a choice, feel secure but too hot, or feel exposed and comfortable temp wise. If your temps aren't too high in the hides, then it may be a gut impaction if it swallowed some of the bedding during a previous feeding. I'm no vet, but that seems to be the most likely ideas. You should see a vet though. Best of luck to you.....

I don't know if it makes any difference but I don't use the flexwat as an UTH I use it as back heat.I run 11" down the back of two side by side tanks with a 1/4 in. divider beween the two tanks. I was thinking more along the lines of an impaction or even possible parasites. What is involved in the vet portion if it is an impaction do they give some sort of meds or is surgery the only option. If she ingested a piece of aspen she can't digest it?

I've never had a pet with an impaction, so I really couldn't say what the remedy would definately be, although surgery would probably be involved if the impaction was bad enough. Better to be safe than sorry though and invest the money in the vet visit. Good Luck!

I would bet that it is the temps being too high. If your heat tape is about 95, and your ambient temp is 80, that, in my opinion, is too high.

Get rid of the heat tape and keep your snakes at your ambient temp of 80. I keep mine at 78-80 with no heat sources on any cages and they do great.

Also.....how long was it between the times it puked and the times you fed it afterward? Give your snake 2 weeks after puking before offering it food again. It needs time to get its stomach juices working properly again and every time it pukes, it loses just that.

Hope this helps.
Take care!
Billy
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Genesis 1:1

I took my snake into the local herp vet and she said just that. Try lowering the heat or even removeing it, that my snake would be fine w/o the heat most of the year, being from California. And the basically by feeding her only a week later that my snake probably was lacking the ability to properly digest anything which resulted in her body expelling the mouse even though my snake wanted to eat. If she doesn't eat after two weeks then I'm supposed to go back for a more extensive exam whatever that mean$.