Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, I bought a grey-banded king snake three weeks ago this coming Saturday. She has refused to eat. I brought her back to the store, because they offer help to anyone that bought a snake from them, and they fed her. She didn't eat for them either, but they did something and opened her mouth and started the pinky in. When they brought her out, she still had the little legs sticking out and seemed to swallow it just fine. I drover her home and put her back into her aquarium and she went under her rock and slept. When I got home from work tonight ... she had regurgitated the food. WHAT is going on with her??? Is she ok????? I feel so bad, because she's such a sweet snake. I don't want anything to happen to her.

Well, please, someone let me know what's going on! I've gatta go clean out a dead pinky now ...

They are very often problem feeders at first. There are many different tricks in getting stubborn babies to eat. Such as braining them or scenting them with lizards. The last step taken, when nothing else has worked, force feeding may be the only solution. They should have never sold you a snake that isn't feeding, nor should they be force feeding it when other "tricks" have not been attempted. I suggest getting your money back. If you can't get your money back and need help getting your snake to feed you can e-mail me your number and I'll help as much as I can. There's almost surely a page out there on the net about feeding hatchling alterna. Good luck

How is your cage set up? What temperature options have you provided? What types of hiding spots have you provided?

Regurgitation is never a good thing. I would suspect however that the regurgitation was a result of the highly stressful experience (for the snake of course) of force feeding. How big is your snake? A neo-nate? I got my Gray when he was about 2 feet, and he sometimes goes a month without eating, but is always active and has never thrown up. When feeding time arrives, he is a very active hunter. Interesting thing is he sheds almost everytime i feed him. Skin always looks healthy, so i've over-ruled any skin problems. Anyway, you don't want you're snake to starve, especially if they are neo-nates, adult snakes can go without food for much longer than neo's. I suggest trying the suggestions that earlier posts have given, force feeding is always last ditch effort because it is so stressful on the snake. Hope this helps.

That is interesting that your alterna sheds after every meal? Is that more than once a month? Is your snake really young and growing fast? Years ago when I was in graduate school we had several alterna in the Texas A&M live animal collection that were shedding like that. We discovered that it was from hyperthyroidism. We worked with vets from Texas A&M and the Bronx Zoo, and actually gave some them hormone injections in an attempt to correct the problem. We did not have much success... These snakes were all pretty old as I remember. I felt it was a lot of stress to put them through, but the vets thought they might be able to learn something that would help other snakes in the future.

Well, the food stayed in her tummy for many many hours. I don't know why she all of a sudden threw it up.

That's another thing, she's NOT too active. She likes to hide in her rock 99% of the time. Unless I pick her up and let her hang out with me, she's usually sleeping in her rock. She has ventured out to other areas and slept there too and she has been active at times, but for the most part - she's not very active.

I hope she's ok ... I felt so bad leaving her, but I surely don't know what to do if she's sick!! So, I hope she's better by Monday.

I forgot to answer your questions ... lol

She's 13 inches and just a yearling.

She has a 20 gallon tank
Water dish, tree bark for shedding, fake plants - all under the UV light
Then she has a rock to hide in - under a heat lamp.

I took her in and they're keeping her over the weekend. They think she might have a stomach worm or something like that.

try this link. Hope it helps.
http://www.kingsnake.com/alterna/merker.html

Nathan

This is pretty basic, but...you're not handling her, are you? When I got my baby graybanded, I let him completely alone for a couple weeks, except for introducing food. I was told it would be too stressful to him to handle him till he's settled in and started eating well. I let him get a feeding under his belt before I handled him (about 3 weeks), and then handled only for a very short time (5-10 minutes) about 2-3 times a week till he got used to me. Luckily, he didn't regurge or stop feeding, or I would have stopped the handling for awhile till he was less stressed again.
I know it's hard not to handle them when you first get a new snake, but it pays off. My graybanded is 4 years old now, and wonderful.
Hope this helps!