Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im telling you this female did not eat for well over 11 MONTHS
she started deteriorating and looking terrible so I took relatively drastic action i put her in a sterilite 31qt container instead of her 41qt long. then i gave her weight @ 850g a 3cc shot of vitamin b-12 in liquid form $5.67 at walmarts vitamin section right in her upper 3rd of her body then i tube fed her 20cc mix of pedialyte (unflavored) and HIGH protein dog food followed by 6cc of str8 pedialyte to wash it down.for the food I put it in the blender in a big batch,pedialyte and dog food to break down all the lumps i liquified it for about 2 minutes but left it so it was still able to be spooned it into the syringe i left it as a thicker paste that would press easily through the syringe but would be SLIGHTLY watery to the touch and not leak out of the syringe.this was all day 1 at day 3 i tube fed her again 20cc food mix followed by 6cc str8 pedialyte put her back in the enclosure. the next day i bought a small black mouse put it in her enclosure the next morning the mouse was gone i said awesome so i gave her another mouse that night again gone the next day, gettin better 1 week later i bought her 2 mice both GONE (she ate the first b4 i went to bed)then i added the other GONE.GETS EVEN BETTER last night i bought her a small rat with hopeful expectations hour later rat GONE awesome so i gave her another rat tonight a nice size larger small rat about as big as a dollar bill lengthwise probably at the 200-250 gram mark maybe more.When that rat came in striking distance of her it was all over and done with.She went from NOTHING absolutely NOTHING not even a strike in 11 months to an eating machine in 2 weeks i think this is the missing catalyst that can hopefully make food transition MUCH MUCH less stressfull ordeal on a wild caught specimin im so happy i think she is a special animal as far as colorphase and texture of pattern (satinlike) besides being in a matter of weeks one of my most accomplished eaters shes gonna make devestating babies especially if she proves out please feel free to ask me ANY ?z nyhellraiser@earthlink.net

Kudos and more kodos for your success in this Bro. Only problem I have with the dog food thing is its still mainly meal, corn an/or wheat. A blenderized meat might have been more nutritious. But it WORKED!! and that's what counts. Again congrats.

Quig

THANK YOU Quigs it was a long drawn out battle which i finally won HA. my vet recommended the dog food only because of its super high digestability of the nutrients and absorption rate. actual meat i dont think would have been able to be liquified as efficiently as the dog food thus making it more stressfull im tellin you it was over and done with within 20-30 seconds less stress the better. and it only took 2x and now shes thinks shes jaws hahahaha. feeeed me seymour feeed me

Maybe slow down on feeding her now. I would take it easy at first. Her stomach hasn't had food in it for a long time and is not streched out. Too much to quick and she may regurge. Just a thought.

Kevin

Feed me seymore, feed me!!! LOLOL

Glad she's eatin' but Kevin's right to much to soon could backfire, at least temporarily. Ya did good though. good luck.

Quig

I've heard of injecting vitamin B-12 to get stubborn snakes to start eating, though I've never personally done it. Your B-12 injection might be more responsible for getting your snake back on track vs the liquid diet.

Has anyone else injected their Ball with Vitamine B-12 to stimulate it's apetite?

Congrats on getting your snake back on track and thanks for sharing your experience with us. How did you come up with 3cc's as the right amount to inject?

Happy Holidays!
Python Joe

one of the people who i got 3 of my original females from said he used to give 1cc per 200g so i just followed what he said and it worked he also said that injecting right into the muscle yielded better results than when given orally.Now the b-complex may have been soley the resposible factor i used the dog food to put something in her stomach

$5.76 WALMART VITAMIN SECTION "B" SECTION IT COMES IN A BOX,YOU CAN ALSO GET THE SYRINGES THERE ALSO FOR LIKE 14 CENTS EACH

I had to do something similar for a sick chondro, only I used Pedialite and blended rat pinks. Yep, put them in a small blender and made a healthy meal for the chondro. Much better than dog food.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Thank you!!! I've got a girl that was sold to me as CB that hasn't eaten in at least 10 months (the entire time I have had her). I've tried F/T, P/K and live rats and mice. I'm going to print out your instructions and see if I can get this girl to eat. Off to find some tubing...

get the tubing from walmarts pet section by the fish it will fit the syringe cut a 8-10 inch piece on a CURVE at the end in which the tube is going in the mouth so there are no sharp edges

might i recomend heating the edges of the tubing going into the snake, this will melt any sharp edges so as to avoid lascerating the snakes fragile digestive tract.
i do this with flower pots for gecko hides, i melt the edges with a lighter just enough to soften the plastic and remove any sharp edges
best of luck, and the b 12 is used by the digestiv tract to help moving things along.
that is why reptiles that require uvb can have feeding issues if they dont get the uv they need.
although i would be extremely careful about injecting it, the type shown in the picture above seems to be an oral form, and may not be the best type to inject, besides no one should medicate their animals without experience or a vets supervision.
it is your animals life after all.
the type of b12 shown above is ment to absorb across mucose membranes, and i assume would mix in well with the liquid food anyway, no need to risk an injection.