Since you've been trying to catch him up on nutrition, I think the vitamins have helped, but I agree, I'd only add them occasionally now. Once he keeps a little more weight on, he'll probably get interested enough in feeding if you make him wait a little longer (10-14 days) between meals. At least I hope so, we're pulling for you both. The best part is that his respiratory symptoms are now gone, what a relief for him. I've had to tube-feed my share of sick snakes, but watching them recover makes it all worthwhile. Good work!

Any more updates Helen,hope it’s good news


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It's kind of "meh" news .....:shrug01:

He's alive and relatively well, no more RI symptoms, and moving around OK albeit sluggishly when I handle him, but still not feeding voluntarily, and actively refusing (as in violently backing away from) and regurgitating any solid food I force down him (plenty of energy then, damn him!).

So we're still on forced survival by tubing beaten eggs, which neither of us enjoy, but I'm damned if I'm going to watch him starve. My main concern now is that we are heading into our winter, when normally their feeding patterns slacken off naturally.

I reckon I have about another month to get him feeding before it gets cold enough for him to stop altogether, so I might have to add some form of heating to his tank to keep his digestive system going (I normally just keep them at natural background temperatures here, as this is where they are from).

I'm still adding the probiotics, and he is still producing urates, so I can only presume that his system is in reasonable working order, he just WONT EAT.
:hair_on_fire:

Thanks for the concern!

Well darn it...how frustrating! I hope you both get some relief before too long...

Thanks, maybe he needs some counselling for his eating disorder... if this keeps up, I sure will... :face_palm_02:

Could you mix very finely ground chicken or turkey with his beaten egg, so it's small enough to fit down the tube and it will be easier on his system? Or maybe some bone meal powder for calcium, since egg has very little?

He is regurgitating anything less liquid than egg. A while back I tried blending some chicken gizzards and hearts into a thin paste, and it all came straight back up. I'm even adding a little water to the egg, as he vomited up a thicker mix I made a couple of weeks ago. I forced a small piece of chicken wing into his throat, and massaged it down well. Next morning it was on the floor of the tank.

He seems to very actively refuse and get rid of anything with enough solidity for him to work on. And yet i know he can form stools, so it's not that his digestive system has totally collapsed.

I'm giving him a maximum of 50 ml of mixed egg/ baby vitamins and probiotics at a time (I just dropped the elderly Herpa-Boost Mutton bird paste from the mix) I'm wondering if part of it might be that I'm not getting the tube far enough down; my tube is about 50 cm long (1.5 feet) on a 1.8 m (6 foot) snake. He makes it very difficult for me to get the tube in any further, but do you think I might not be in the stomach yet?

Huh, I checked a few anatomy diagrams and your tube may be a few cm too short to actually reach the stomach. It looks like the stomach starts about 1/3 of the way down and ends halfway down.

That tube sounds long enough to me...and any time I've tubed a snake, I stop when I feel a little resistance...to push on can cause damage, so I think you're doing it right, Helen.

Are you sure you can't get Gerber's chicken baby food sent to you there? I know Walmart sells it, but do they ship to Fiji, I wonder? or Amazon? You should also be
able to add a little calcium or vitamin powder to whatever "liquid" diet you're tubing into him, but just add a bit of water so it goes thru the tubing easily. (even the babyfood alone needs water added)

Hi Helen
Really glad he’s still alive ,I think your doing a grand job with him
I know it’s a bit gross and Ive never had to do anything like what’s your doing only oral antibiotics for ten days but would you be able to liquidise a mouse and use that
Be a bit messy but would have everything that he would normally eat when healthy, would even smell right .would probably have to water it down a bit to get into the tibe like
Cheers rich


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