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I'm sure someone out there may be able to help me. I've recently purchased a juvenile GTP. I bought him at a reptile show in early December. The man I bought him off of said to try and feed him inside of his large plastic deli-cup to make sure he would feed before the end of the day. BAM! right off the bat he ate no problem (that was a live pinky). About a week later I offered him a f/t pinky and after a little light poking and provoking he took that down no problem. Now all of a sudden no dice! He refused that last 2 feedings, I know this is somewhat common for GTP's. But here lies the problem, he is grounded (which most of the reading says that this is common). He is also curled up in a ball with his head in the middle (similar to the way ball pythons do). He also seems to have a little prolapse (just found this out about 3 mins ago). I have him in a small naturalistic aquarium with a heat gradient of 80-90 degrees Farenheit during the day, and about 70-80 degrees in the nite. I use a fogger very sparingly as I prefer the spray bottle method. The humidity is usually between 60-80 percent depending on the time of day. He does seem like he may be starting to shed with flakey skin in certain parts of his body, and I found him curled up in his water dish two days ago. The part that is bothering me is the lack of movement, being grounded, the balled up position, and the just noticed small case of prolapse. Any help at all??

Thanks in advance.

Tim
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1.0 Green Iguana
0.2 Bearded Dragons
1.0 GTP
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2.0 Common Boa
0.1 American Alligator
1.0 Ball Python
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That poor kid doesnt sound too good. You've got to take care of that prolapse immediately or the tissue will die. Here's some info on prolapse: http://www.finegtps.com/Care_sheets.html

Grounding and soaking isnt normal neonate behavior. The flaky skin is suspect too. Sounds like your environment may not be keeping the animal hydrated properly. There's also the possibility of parasites, internal and/or external.

Its really hard to guess what to tell you, but from what I read, I'd start by putting a wet washcloth at the bottom of a plastic container and put him in and put the closed container back in his habitat on the cool side. Dont put much water, just enough to soak the cloth, these guys are more adept at drowning themselves than other species. That will keep the prolapse tissue moist while you work on getting it to retract and will help hydrate him. If you can get the prolapse to correct itself, he may have a chance. If its still there by tomorrow, you'll probably need the vet to fix it.

Could you post a few pix of your setup? That may help pinpoint problems you can correct so this doesnt happen again. The one thing you do that I dont do is night drop the temps so drastically. I dont night drop the neo at all, but that shouldnt cause dehydration and prolapse issues.

good luck.
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Julie
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With young snakes I would not drop temps at all at night and 70 is very low. If you check out temps in most of Indonesia and New Guinea, they rarely drop below 80, even at night. I'd also keep your temps below 90. Grounding is not normal for chondros. Usually there's a reason. I have a couple that will ground periodically after I've handled them for photos or weighing. They will routinely hide afterwards and then come back out and perch at night. After a few days, they will perch all the time. Prolapse is not good. Get the tissue hydrated, try a sugar paste to see if it will retract. If it does, you can put a small fabric bandaid piece over the vent to allow the tissue to stay in place until it heals. The fact that it was starting to refuse meals is also not good. I don't know where you heard that chondros routinely refuse, but in my experience, I haven't found that to be true. Quite the opposite for the most part. They are eating machines. I would take this animal to a qualified reptile vet. If you have any fecal material available for testing for parasites, that would be helpful. Good luck with it.
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5.5~Cornsnakes
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0.1~Sibon Nebulatus
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I have watched temps in indonesia for nearly 10 years and I've seen temps as low as 50 degree. It is summer there now. I've seen day time highs as low as 60. You also have to take into consideration, there are many mountain ranges there and temps cav vary from one locale to the next.

Brandon Osborne
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www.brandonosbornereptiles.com

Looking at the weather tracking map that shows temps at different times, there are a few spots that get low, but the majority of the areas seem to remain fairly high in temperature, even at night.
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5.5~Cornsnakes
3.4.2~Green tree python
3.3.1~ATB
0.1~Sibon Nebulatus
Dogs, cats, horses....
www.franclycac.com

Today I've noticed an average NTL of 76.7 across the board. Again, it is summer and temps are going to be a bit higher this time of year. Temps right now are ranging from 74-81 with 76 being the average. In the winter, temps are considerably lower and sometimes drop into the upper 40s.
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www.brandonosbornereptiles.com

Like everyone else said about the cup with wet paper towels in it. also as far as the grounding goes it could be from the prolapse or not enough security in the cage i just got a neo from rico walder and he grounded himself for about a week or so, i added some plants (pothos)to hang under and he was perched under them in about 2 hrs. Definately see a vet if u havent already about the prolapse tho(that is if u havent treated it yourself)
Stephen