Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought an etb for my husband on April the 10th and we have tried to feed it two times now. We feed it at night and he eats small rat. But then about 4 to 5 days later it throws up the food in the bottom of it cage. Can anyone tell me whats wrong with it or are we feeding him too much? Please help me if you can.

Nanci

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Chris
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Hi Nanci,
Can you give more details about the snake? How big? WC, CB or CBB? If WC, has it been checked and/or treated for parasites?What kind of temps and humidity are you maintaining during the day and at night? How often are you trying to feed?

CraigC

We bought the etb at a reptile show and they said he is wc and that they had him for about a year and he was eating good. We have tried to feed him about every 14 days. I'm not sure about the temps in his cage but I think my husband keeps it 75 to 80 in his cage. I think he is about two to two and a half feet long.

Hope this helps.
Thanks
Nanci

Hi Nanci,
Well it seems from what you say about the temps and the frequency, I tend to lean in the direction of what Joe is saying. We have been through our share of wc animals with ERS as well.

I don't want to depress you, but this problem does occur often with wc emeralds. My advice is to get a fecal done first. Don't feed again for at least a month to allow things to settle down internally. Get a hold of some Probiotic or benebac, which will help replace gut flora. If the puked item was as Joe described, then no matter what you do, you will probably loose the animal. We have worked with emeralds up to 18 months and nothing worked. Another tell tale sign is undigested bone in the stool.

CraigC

Well, in my opinion I use the puked prey it self to tell me if I need to pop the animal in the deep freeze.
Here is a pic of an animal with advanced ERS (emerald regurgatation syndrom) most likly caused by cryptosporangia(spelling? Hardining of the stomach) With pukers in this state it is terminal.
looking you can see the rat is swollen and about 3 times its origional size but not witherd. That is because the rat has been decomposing in the snakes stomach for 7 days!!!!!! also you may notice the rat has not been digested at all, key sign that after a 7 day stint in the stomach somthing is dfinately wrong.

On the other hand if the prey you emerald pukes up is all torn and half digested, you may have the heat too high. If the heat is above 83 degs durning digestion you run the risk of the prey decomposing faster than it can be digested, thusly gas is realeased and since emeralds can fart, BAM puke.

As far as prey size, well you should see a slight bulge after feeding and it should disappear after 4 days.

I hope all goes well, I do have a ton of recent experience with ERS so email me if you need any help.

Thanks
Joe
joe@emeraldboas.com
www.emeraldboas.com