No problem, Eric - and I also agree 100% with everything Mark said - he hit on some things I did not.

Another issue which can be stressful to a suboc is photoperiod. In nature, subocs are completely nocturnal, and if they are not provided a quiet, dark night time period they can become highly stressed. I feed my subocs after all of the other species I keep, and leave them with their food in the dark. I have a designated "snake room" which I can close the door to, and which maintains natural photoperiod via a window. I use dim "party" light bulbs to work in the snake room at night, and this helps keep the room fairly dark while still giving me enough light to work by.

There are also some probiotics for reptiles on the market - the best might be Nutribac DF, which can be found easily online. I have used it a few times for young snakes which have regurged once or twice (most likely due to stress), and if there are no serious problems (major bacterial infection or heavy parasite load) it seems like it may help somewhat. If your snake has regurged several times though, this may be of no use to you.

I don't know of any mail order place you might send a fecal sample. You might just start calling vets in your area, or looking online. There are no specific reptile vets, they are called exotics vets - they treat everything outside the "norm", including reptiles. For bacterial infections in snakes, Baytril is usually the medication used for treatment.
-----
-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]