Re: Bajas puking, any sugestions?

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Posted by Walt Deptula on August 08, 2001 at 17:54:28:

In Reply to: Bajas puking, any sugestions? posted by Dave Katz on August 08, 2001 at 15:26:56:

: Hi all. I have 2.2 bajas. 1.2 of them are '98 and 1.0 is a '97. The older male and one of the younger females seem to be fine, eating well and growing quickly, but the other pair throws up if the meal is larger than a large pink or small fuzzy. when the do loose it I give them a two to three break and start again with a newborn pinky. I go VERY slowly with them. I was told by a friend that if I keep the humidity low by not keeping water in the cage then they should stop. He recomends that water is only to be offered for the week that they are getting ready to shed. His theory is that they come from a very dry climate and do not have access to much water in the wild. He has been keeping subocs, bajas, and triaspis like this for nearly fifteen years without a problem. It is against everything in my being to keep snakes without access to water. I personaly have been keeping my triaspis and subocs with H2O and have never had any problems with them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again, DAVE

Hi Dave,

I have never kept bajas and so I will try to address your problem from a general colubrid perspective. I will say however, that people I do know who keep them have advised my of the need for an arid environment. Not every animal will tolerate humidity in the same manner. I believe Adam Block keeps them so he might further discuss the specifics.

I don't necessarily agree with Russ when he indicates that every animal will respond identically when kept in different environments, or even in different climates or geographical locales. Russ may just be correct in this case, in that perhaps your second pair was overfed as a neonate and became a chronic regurger, but it need not be the case. Animals, like people, are often subject to particular idiosyncrasies or conditions which also might make one specimen of a species differ dramatically from another of the same species. Obviously, certain internal parasitic loads can lead to animals which spit up their food. Absent of parasites, some animals seem much more prone to this type of problems than most, Bajas, Trans pecos, agalma, etc. are animals that can seemimgly develop an almost permanent predisposition toward large/multiple meal regurgitation if the problem is given the chance to become a regular occurrence.

First, I would try the advice of your friend. Second, I would check the general humidity of the room where the animals are kept. Sometimes, multiple water bowls in a confined area can raise overall humidity to what may be an unacceptable level for those particular snakes. I'm sure you are already doing so, but make certain that you use a dry substrate, no mulch, perhaps even no wood products other than paper or Carefresh (very dry). Finally, I offer these two general suggestions. Allow any animal that spits up for any reason, a minimum of ten days before initiating another feeding attempt. Build slowly toward reestablishing the animals tolerance. Dip the food items in plain yogurt which will aid in replenishing the beneficial bacteria necessary for digestion. Lastly, there is this. I own one snake which I purchased as a sub-adult, a snake that had a very unique problem when I acquired her. The owner had told me that the snake in question could only digest pinks and would sometimes spit up. Since the male of this pair seemed healthy and displayed no similar problems, I assumed the females problem to be non-parasitic in nature. Obviously, animals can be asymtomatic carriers of
particular parasites/pathogens but as this fellow
had no other problems of note in his collection, I was guessing that the problems of this partuicular female were unique to her. Subsequent testing found her to be parasite free. Her first year with me was a series of one step forward, one step back, as she would sometimes digest and sometimes she was unable to do so. The really odd thing was that she would spit up food after two days that had virtually no odor. It was as if no digestive process at all had been initiated. It took me almost a year to understand why this was. One day it occurred to me that she was only spitting up when I fed her frozen thawed food. If I fed her live food, she would digest with no problem. This particular snake lacks a enzyme necessary for digestion. She must "borrow" the enzyme from live food in order to digest. The VERY day this hit me was the last time she ever spit food back up. She immediately started to gain weight and now eats three-four hoppers per feeding. I have never fed her frozen again and she rewarded me last season with her first viable clutch of eggs. The point is, that the answers are not always obvious.

Walt Deptula

Follow Ups:

Walt, very interesting.. MarkG 08/09/01 (1)
- Re: Walt, very interesting.. kirk 08/09/01 (0)

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: : : Hi all. I have 2.2 bajas. 1.2 of them are '98 and 1.0 is a '97. The older male and one of the younger females seem to be fine, eating well and growing quickly, but the other pair throws up if the meal is larger than a large pink or small fuzzy. when the do loose it I give them a two to three break and start again with a newborn pinky. I go VERY slowly with them. I was told by a friend that if I keep the humidity low by not keeping water in the cage then they should stop. He recomends that water is only to be offered for the week that they are getting ready to shed. His theory is that they come from a very dry climate and do not have access to much water in the wild. He has been keeping subocs, bajas, and triaspis like this for nearly fifteen years without a problem. It is against everything in my being to keep snakes without access to water. I personaly have been keeping my triaspis and subocs with H2O and have never had any problems with them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again, DAVE : Hi Dave, : I have never kept bajas and so I will try to address your problem from a general colubrid perspective. I will say however, that people I do know who keep them have advised my of the need for an arid environment. Not every animal will tolerate humidity in the same manner. I believe Adam Block keeps them so he might further discuss the specifics. : I don't necessarily agree with Russ when he indicates that every animal will respond identically when kept in different environments, or even in different climates or geographical locales. Russ may just be correct in this case, in that perhaps your second pair was overfed as a neonate and became a chronic regurger, but it need not be the case. Animals, like people, are often subject to particular idiosyncrasies or conditions which also might make one specimen of a species differ dramatically from another of the same species. Obviously, certain internal parasitic loads can lead to animals which spit up their food. Absent of parasites, some animals seem much more prone to this type of problems than most, Bajas, Trans pecos, agalma, etc. are animals that can seemimgly develop an almost permanent predisposition toward large/multiple meal regurgitation if the problem is given the chance to become a regular occurrence. : First, I would try the advice of your friend. Second, I would check the general humidity of the room where the animals are kept. Sometimes, multiple water bowls in a confined area can raise overall humidity to what may be an unacceptable level for those particular snakes. I'm sure you are already doing so, but make certain that you use a dry substrate, no mulch, perhaps even no wood products other than paper or Carefresh (very dry). Finally, I offer these two general suggestions. Allow any animal that spits up for any reason, a minimum of ten days before initiating another feeding attempt. Build slowly toward reestablishing the animals tolerance. Dip the food items in plain yogurt which will aid in replenishing the beneficial bacteria necessary for digestion. Lastly, there is this. I own one snake which I purchased as a sub-adult, a snake that had a very unique problem when I acquired her. The owner had told me that the snake in question could only digest pinks and would sometimes spit up. Since the male of this pair seemed healthy and displayed no similar problems, I assumed the females problem to be non-parasitic in nature. Obviously, animals can be asymtomatic carriers of : particular parasites/pathogens but as this fellow : had no other problems of note in his collection, I was guessing that the problems of this partuicular female were unique to her. Subsequent testing found her to be parasite free. Her first year with me was a series of one step forward, one step back, as she would sometimes digest and sometimes she was unable to do so. The really odd thing was that she would spit up food after two days that had virtually no odor. It was as if no digestive process at all had been initiated. It took me almost a year to understand why this was. One day it occurred to me that she was only spitting up when I fed her frozen thawed food. If I fed her live food, she would digest with no problem. This particular snake lacks a enzyme necessary for digestion. She must "borrow" the enzyme from live food in order to digest. The VERY day this hit me was the last time she ever spit food back up. She immediately started to gain weight and now eats three-four hoppers per feeding. I have never fed her frozen again and she rewarded me last season with her first viable clutch of eggs. The point is, that the answers are not always obvious. : Walt Deptula :

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