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Help me help this snake

W

Widabeck

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I posted about the snake I'm rehoming for a friend, this poor thing has a terrible setup and I think might be sick. 4 years old. Had this same set-up his whole life. Eats live rats, hasn't eaten in 3 months. Has cedar bedding, overhead lamp, no UTH, no night heat source. Stupid tree branch thing with screws sticking 3" out of it. He's making squeaking noises and sits with his mouth open, and seems to have lots of "spit bubbles" and breaths loud.

I'm swapping out his bedding with the bark bedding I use, my husband is fixing the screws, we hot him a red heat bulb for night so we can turn off his light to give the normal day/night cycle. Since he just made a travel to my house, I'm giving him a few days to adjust before I try to feed. I also have no reptile vet anywhere near me.

I'm doing someone else a favor of rehoming because their kid left for college and can't take it with. Quite honestly I'm very torn between not investing much $ on this snake that I'm not keeping and spending the money to do what I know is right for this poor guy. Any suggestions????
 
UPDATE:
Changed out his bedding and gave him reptibark, removed the exposed screws on his log thing, new light set up. The bedding was AWFUL. Couldn't have been changed in months, there was even a wad of gum in the cedar. He's now got 75*-80* on his cool side and 85*-90* on his hot side. No UTH because I just don't want to invest the $ on one for a snake I'm giving away that was never mind to begin with. Humidity ranges from 50-60%. Daytime light and a nighttime (red) heat light. He's stopped being "spitty" and making weird noises. I called around for vets and couldn't find one anywhere near me that knew about snakes.

Couple more questions (mostly because I'm new to snake behavior)
1. I notice sometimes he's soaking in his water dish. Why?
2. Sometimes he lays with his stomach facing up, is this to get heat?
3. Why won't he eat? I haven't handled him, and he's in a room where there isn't much foot traffic. I was told he eats live rats and the pet store didn't have rats but they said 2 mice will work just the same. After 2 days of these mice running around the cage and and even jumping on him, he showed no interest. (One mouse actually ate the other!!) I was told he hasn't eaten in 3 months before I got him. Should I just relax? I'm just not used to an animal that never eats and I don't want to accidentally starve him.

I found a home for him that he will be going to shortly. It's someone I'm very close with so I know he's getting a great home. Much better than he's had for the last 4 years.
 
I hope you told the intended recipient about the health issues. Just dumping it on somebody else because you aren't prepared to deal with it isn't right, either.

Since you started out asking how much you could get for the snake & set up, I have to ask: you aren't charging your friends for this snake, are you? (It would have been a different story, if it was healthy)
 
You're lucky the mice didn't chew on the snake if you left them in there for 2 days. Make sure you tell the person who's taking the snake what's going on and they will most likely have to find a vet ASAP. Those infections don't usually just go away on their own. Even if he looks better I would still take him to a reptile vet just to make sure.
 
First and foremost, I am NOT a shitty pet owner who isn't prepared to give them the best life they can have. NOR would I ever "dump" problems on someone else without fully disclosing everything. I'm not shady. And no, I'm not making any money on rehoming this snake. Before I got my snake, I did lots and lots of reading on proper feeding/habitat/care. As I'm finding out on here, not everyone does things the right way and I need to tweak a little bit. I took this 2nd snake because I had someone in mind who wanted it (who is taking it now) and I has zero idea when I agreed to rehome it that it's set-up was so terrible.

Vet/health -I don't have a vet near me that feels comfortable caring for a snake. I called. I live in a little podunk town in the middle of nowhere. I did speak to a vet in another state who said RI's can clear up on their own if you increase the heat and humidty and make sure there is fresh water. And honestly, he's doing SO much better and doesn't have any symptoms of the RI anymore. Not taking him to the Vet isn't because I don't want to, it's because I don't have one available to me.

Mice - I don't want to feed live to mine because I was afraid of the mice harming my animal and everyone assured me it's fine and they won't harm the snake. The guy at the pet store told me it would be fine and if after a few days he hasn't eaten them, then remove them. I also put a little bit of mouse food in there after the first night.

Again, The only thing I can do if read and talk to other people. Nobody becomes and expert overnight. And I don't appreciate being talked to like I'm not doing my best to learn and do the right thing.
 
I think you have somewhat of a misunderstanding about the proper way to feed live. It is true that live feeding can be done safely. But, it is incredibly dangerous to leave live feeders in with a snake for extended periods of time. When people told you mice would not hurt your snake, they did not mean it was ok to leave them in there for days. I would say 15 to 20 minutes max. Also, if one mouse got hungry/stressed enough to eat the other one, you are very, very lucky that it did not severely injure the snake.
 
Widabeck said:
Mice - I don't want to feed live to mine because I was afraid of the mice harming my animal and everyone assured me it's fine and they won't harm the snake. The guy at the pet store told me it would be fine and if after a few days he hasn't eaten them, then remove them. I also put a little bit of mouse food in there after the first night.

Again, The only thing I can do if read and talk to other people. Nobody becomes and expert overnight. And I don't appreciate being talked to like I'm not doing my best to learn and do the right thing.
Click to expand...

One thing I learned VERY quickly in life is to never trust pet store workers. Most of them couldn't care less about you or your pet and don't know crap about exotics. You are seriously lucky those mice didn't gang up on your snake and kill him. Google rodent attacks on snakes- it ain't pretty. He's probably still not feeling well which is why he's not eating. You need to let him rest and get better before feeding him. He's probably also stressed. His enviornment has done a 360 overnight and he had two mice running around his cage for 3 days. I had a snake that went off feed for a week because I gave her a larger hide. Ball pythons are sensitive like that. As long as he's of good body weight he should be fine with some skipped meals.
 
Also, 2 mice aren't the same as a rat to the snake. I have a IJCP that won't touch rats but goes after mice immediately and a BP girl that has recently turned away from regular rats and now only want african soft furred rats. Welcome to the world of feeding snakes! :rofl:
 
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