A few thoughts and pointers........

Subject:

Comments:
: : I have a pair of Eastern Indigos. I have them in Neodesha cages sitting side by side to each other. The female is doing awesome and eats everything. The male is thinner and is also a great eater but tends to eat one food item at a feeding. I fed them both last week. The male took a medium rat. One week later to the day he regurgitated the rat. He was gyrating the front half of his body back and forth while keeping the back still. Then he threw up the rat. There was not much left of the rat. It was nearly completely digested. The snake looks fine now. What are the possible reasons for this? : : Thanks, : : Dan : DAN, : When it comes to regurgitation in Indigos, the first thing that I refrence is EXCESSES. : EXCESSIVE HEAT:Ambient cage temps of over 83 degrees that the snake cannot escape from and that is consistant throughout the whole cage. : EXCESSIVE COLD: Ambient temps that are SO LOW as to make it impossible for the snake to thoroughly digest its food product. I am talking temps of 55-65 throughtout the cage, again, with not hot spot offered for the snake to warm itself up on. : EXCESSIVE TRAFFIC: If the cage is in an area that is CONSTANTLY being paraded by people, with them tapping on the cage, and generally scareing the snake, this can also be a reason for the regurge. : EXCESSIVELY LARGE MEALS: AS Doug Tayloe remarked earlier, excessively large meals can and do get regurgitated. Since Indigos are SUCH good feeders, people tend to abuse them by feding them a)Way to many small food items, or b) way to large a fod item. Indigos are not designed to take in large meals, they have fairly narrow jaws and often truly struggle while swallowing anything larger than a small rat. : AND FINALLY: : PARASITE LOAD: The first thing that comes to mind when you described a half digested meal thrown up is temperature. The second thing that comes to mind is Cryptosporidia. I have seen snakes with Crypto kill, swallow and partially digest their meals, only to ralph them up some 3 days later hafl digested. It is almost as if the meal does fine dureing the intial phase of dicestion , and then it hits and inflammed area(Inflamed by this pathogen) and is regurged. I am no vet, and welcome the input of those here that are, but I would adjust the thermal temp gradients, move the cages intoa low traffic area, if only temporarily, and take the snake to a vet and get a fecal culture done on him(Fecal wash since he isnt eating) and perhaps an oral wash too. : Sorry to hear about your difficulties, please keep us informed about what you did and their porgress. : Sincerely, : Fred Albury : (Aztec Reptiles) : U.S.A.

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL: