(Bird) Vitamin supplements for a snake going off feed? Good? Bad...?
 

I have a pacific gopher, Phoenix, that hasn't been eating much at all since March and he's starting to show signs of losing weight. Lil' bugger. :ack2:
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/z...enixstare4.jpg
Yeah, I can't stay mad at him with that face! :p He's doing great in every other way and my others are all eating fine, it's just him. Most folks have told me that it's just a male going off feed in the spring/summer, but it's worrying me now after almost half a year and so I decided to make an appointment and take him in. I wanted a chance to get to know that office anyway, as I'd never been there before.
We had our appointment today, the doctor there had me in and out pretty quickly, but he told me to sprinkle this Avi-Con vitamin on his prey to make him "get healthier". He said it's made for birds, but works fine on all animals. :shrug01:
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/z...ttfyre/vet.jpg
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/z...etmedicine.jpg
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/z...tmedicine1.jpg
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/z...tmedicine2.jpg

I've heard of supplements for lizards, turtles, and the like, but I was under the impression that snakes got their complete nutrition from their rodent prey? So will this really help him?
Also are bird vitamins any different than snake vitamins? Can it harm him in any way? An overdose or something? Is there an ingredient on there that they're sensitive to...? I just wanted to see if this sounds right or not.
Something tells me that sprinkling this on the prey isn't going to make it more appetizing and suddenly have him eating more often like I'd like :rolleyes_ but will it make the occasional meal that he does eat better for him and stop his weight loss? :confused:

What do you guys think about this vitamin idea? All opinions are welcome! :yesnod: Thank you in advance for your advice! :D

I don't know much (well actually anything) about bird vitamins, but you might want to look at some of the posts in this thread for some ideas on vitamin supplements for snakes. Good luck with him!

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...light=Vitamins

How's he doing?

Sorry for the late (nonexistent) reply! :crap:
I did read that thread you linked to and it was helpful! Thank you very much for that! :thumbsup: I definitely can see it helping with gravid females, so that gave me something else to consider, and I do think it should be used in the situation you described when not feeding whole prey items, but I'm still on the fence about using it in my situation. :unhappy:

I'm one of those folks that's wary of things I'm not too familiar with and the idea of overdosing him or something makes me too nervous to consider it unless it was a real dire situation. :ack2:

The situation's couldn't be called "dire" at all though, he's actually improving quite a lot. :)
He still can't compare to my other pigs, such as his mate eating two f/t rats a week, but he's gone from not eating a thing in my care - not even being interested, to eating every other week or sometimes even back to back. I'd say he's eaten almost as much in the last month I've had him than when I first got him over half a year ago and all the months since. He still won't touch the f/t rats like I would prefer, he even turns his nose up at fresh pk, but he's interested in stunned mice now for some reason and I'm taking what I can get at the moment.
It's a start~
He's not losing any more weight now, perhaps he's even gained a whole gram or two? :rolleyes: I know it hasn't been long, but he does seem a wee bit more "solid".
He seems a little "happier" too for some reason, more active than he was before and that's saying something because he has always been a curious little in-your-face guy. :D
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/z...oenixstare.jpg

I can't find any explanation for it - there hasn't been any real change that I can see, so perhaps it was just a male going off feed in the summer like many people told me...? Maybe he's a weirdo and just took half a year to finally settle in to his new home...? Who knows. :shrug01:

I'm just glad he's turning around and hopes he stays that way! :yesnod:

I did get a second opinion with a different vet shortly after my original post and I liked the route the new one took more. The first one never asked about his environment or considered parasites, but Dr. Greek was very thorough. (Tests came back negative still, again I can't find a reason for his behavior.) So needless to say, I have a new main veterinarian.
His opinion on the subject of vitamins were: They probably aren't harmful, but they aren't needed for him either. He told me he wouldn't have recommended them and gave me the standard list of methods to sway a picky eater. Fortunately I haven't had to go through it again. ;)

I still have the vitamins here just in case of... something or if anyone wants them. It seems a waste to throw them away and I'm one of those "It might come in handy someday!" type of folks so I kept the bottle. :p
I just never felt comfortable using them myself though.

I'm sorry all that doesn't help aid the supplement subject any one way or another though.
I haven't contributed anything, but I'd love to see a real test study on the matter. Who knows, the results might be surprising~

Thank you again for your help and also digging that thread up for me! <3

Glad to hear he's doing so much better. And all information is more than we had before - and will add to the experiences when this comes up again with someone else (as I'm sure it will).

Essentially if he's eating whole animals I'm sure he doesn't need vitamins, and there is that real danger of overdosing, so I think you're doing the right thing.

He certainly looks happy and alert! :thumbsup: