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Is something wrong with my snake?

Omi-san Jun 15, 2005 05:23 PM

She's 8 months old.

She hasn't eaten anything in 3 weeks. She completely ignores food when its presented to her. I feed her fuzzies which I buy frozen. She used to go in a frenzy as soon as she smelled one.

She hasn't shedded for over 7 weeks.

She has wrinkles appearing on her skin when she is curled up, it's mostly seen in the last half of her body, never near the upper body, yet.

There's some red near her cloaca and it looks slightly swollen. She had her her last bowel movement yesterday and it was mostly urine and some yellowish nuggets. No blood.

The temperature in her vivarium (a 40 gallons tank) is 77-80F on the cool side and 85-88F on the warm one. The humidity is between 60% and 80% depending on the weather outside. We just had a week long heat wave with high humidity here in Montreal, so it's a been difficult to control the vivarium's temperature and humidity.

She has 2 hiding places for each temperature and a large bowl of water.

I used wood bark as substrate until I suspected something was wrong. Now I'm using paper towels. I change the water everyday and remove feces/clean area as soon as possible.

Other than the things I mentionned previously, everything looks normal, she still has reflexes, she moves normally, she drinks water, her eyes, nose and mouth look good, she's still sticking her tongue out to investigate.

Replies (3)

Stryder Jun 19, 2005 12:24 PM

Sounds like you are doing a great job caring for your snake.
It could be the slight temprature fluctuations that are throwing her off. I assume she has been eating regularly for you in th epast.

I wouldn't get concerned after just three weeks. Snakes are designed to go for long periods without eating at times. So long as she is acting healthy and alert, I think I' dnot fret.

Thanks for caring about her.

Omi-san Jun 19, 2005 07:23 PM

She finally ate yesterday. It was a fuzzie that had been defrosted and frozen 2 times. I read somewhere it it made it smell more strongly. She ate it, not as fast as before, but at least she ate.

It seems like that mouse was properly digested, but the snake evacuated completely white feces, which I have never seen before.

Now if only she could shed...

Stryder Jun 23, 2005 06:01 PM

The whilte feces that you saw are probably urates. Perfectly normal. Kinda like soild unine....

Glad she's doing well. Give her time. Snakes shed on different cycles. She will shed when it's time.

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