Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,
Last night as I had just lay down and was about to turn off the light, I looked over at my sand boa tank and saw a snake crawling across the top of the screen. I thought it was the new baby I have in there, and was wondering how on earth he got out, but looked closer to realize that this snake was far too dark and long to be the new one (who is a snow). Ran over and discovered that it is my sand boa that escaped back in April, whom I had pretty much given up hope on ever finding again. I am so happy, I've had this snake since I was nine years old (16 years now!) and was just devastated when he disappeared and I couldn't find him anywhere.
He's extremely skinny, but looks remarkably well for being gone so long and without food and easy access to water. I'm guessing he must have been drinking out of the cat water bowl because he doesn't look as dehydrated as I would have expected. For the first couple months he was gone I'd set up little water bowls around my apartment for him, but gave up on that a few months ago, figuring he must be long gone.
My question for everyone is how would you recommend getting him back on food and up to a healthy weight? He goes off feed for several months every year, so long streches without food is nothing new, but he's never been without this long and is so terribly skinny. When he got out of his tank he was already a couple months into his annual spring no-feed, so I believe the last time he ate before disappearing was in February. I gave him a pinky last night which he ate without hesitation, but nothing more as I didn't want to overload his stomach and cause him to regurgitate. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Angela
P.S.-He got out after my cat collapsed the screen when I forgot to put back the mirror that lives on top of the screen just precisely so she can't do that. I repaired it, but evidently not well enough as he managed to push a small hole up in the corner and get out that night. I put him in a small temporary tank last night, and will clean up my spare 20 gal for him this evening when I have time. Thank goodness for extra tanks!

Wow that's great, I'm glad you found him after all that time. As far as getting him back to a good weight, what was he eating before? I would at least small adult mice.

It's good that he took a pinky and as long as he doesn't regurgitate it, I would feed him at a normal interval of 7 days. Slowly increasing the food item every 2-3 weeks, until you got him back to what he was eating before.

I've only had experience with this once, but I'm sure someone else on here will have some more ideas for you.
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1.1 Anery KSB
1.2 Snow KSB
1.2 Normal KSB
0.1 P. Albino KSB
1.0 Albino KSB
1.0 Rufescen KSB
1.1 Snow Albino King
1.0 Cali Banded King
0.1 Jungle Hypo Boa
0.1 Golden Retriever

He was eating between small adult mice and large hoppers before. I'd give him small adults frozen-thawed, but sometimes if he'd been a few months without eating and wouldn't accept the frozen adults I'd offer live hoppers, hoping that they were slightly less dangerous to him than live adults. I'm slightly paranoid about offering live animals, but sometimes to get him back onto feeding that's all that would work... The live he'd accept every time.

No biggie. Start out with small frequent meals and just keep increasing the size. He's probably not the worse for wear. Dehydration would be a bigger problem I would think.

I've lost sand boas for 6 months before. Good thing you found him when you did. He would have been getting cold pretty soon.
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Travis Rose
1.3 Rough Scale Sand Boas
1.2 Indian sand boas
13.33 Kenyan Sand Boas
X.X Nervous Rats
X.X Paranoid Mice
0.3 Dogs
0.2 Cats
X.X Fish
0.1 Very understanding wife
2.0 Future Snake Lovers

Yeah, mine go missing and turn up all the time.

Based on his age and size I'd feed him a pinky or two every couple days until he starts looking a bit better and as everyone suggested slowly increase the size of the meal and the intervals between feedings.
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Mark Huntley
Sand Boa Morphs

Sand Boa's
2.1 Rufescens
3.6 Albinos
0.1 Hypo Albino
2.1 Dodoma
1.0 Nuclear Meltdown
0.2 Flame
10.22.14 Normal (orange)
7.16 Anery
4.3 Snow
1.5 Yellow Snow
0.1 Splash Albino
1.0 Splash Anery
1.2 Orange Stripe Het Anery
1.1 High Orange Stripe
1.0 Yellow Stripe
1.3 High Orange Tiger
4.5 High Orange
1.1 Snow Paradoxes
0.1 Albino Paradoxes
1.1 Javelin Sand Boas
2.1 Rough Scales
1.1 Indian Sunsets F3

Western Hognose
12.7 Normal Hogs
3.2 Green Phase
2.2 Extreme Red het Albino

2.1 Boston Terriers
0.2 Sooners
1.3 Rhode Island Reds
0.3 Barred Rocks
0.2 Range Hens
0.1 Favorite Wives
1.1 On the fence in-laws
2.1 Rug Rats

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Yes poor guy, winter would've been much worse than summer with no heating pads. What a lucky snake. I thought he was a goner for sure when I found his tracks under a futon I keep stored in the closet and then a small hole nearby in the corner of the carpet, figured once he was under there it was all over. I was on my hands and knees patting every inch of the carpet for weeks, trying to find him. I even looked into getting a woman with a bloodhound to come and try and find him, but it would have cost a few hundred dollars that I didn't have. He's lucky my cat is old and now just finds it interesting to watch the reptiles and doesn't make any effort to smack them around or eat them.
The pinky has stayed down, so I think I will offer him another tomorrow evening, and then just gradually increase the size like everyone suggested. Thanks for the help everyone!

My advice to you is to soak the snake in about 1/2 inch of room temp water for about 5 minutes. That will go a long way for hydration.

Then like everyone else said, smallish meals for first 3 feedings or so, or when you can tell the snake is back to normal.

I lost a yearling for about 6 months, found it again in a linen closet under a towel. The snake looked exactly like when it escaped, maybe a tad larger. It was during Fall and Winter, so I bet he didn't do much because of the cooler temps inside the house - e.g. didn't burn alot of calories. Sand boas are very tough snakes.
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Mark