Spilotes (Tiger Rat) Regurgitate?

[SWDK]

So today after work I checked on the snakes as usual. I got hit with the death smell and knew someone regurgitated at some point thought the day. I didn't see anything during my morning check.

It was my Tiger Rat who did it. I fed him late Sunday afternoon. He ate 1 weaned rat and 2 adult mice, with the rat being first. He's been in his hot hide ever since. Well, I found he regurgitated the 2 adult mice, but not the rat. The rat was live and the mice were frozen. Why do you think he regurgitated in the first place and why only the mice?

Checked temps and nothing has changed. Hot side is at 94-95 with a Ranco thermostat, middle is 82 and cool side 76. I spray the enclosure 1x daily and water plants 2x a week so the humidity is good.

[Andy_G]

That's a tough one. Perhaps just too large of a meal? Make sure to wait a couple weeks before offering again and offer a smaller than usual prey item for the next couple of feedings then resume normal schedule. Keep an eye out for weight loss or behavioural changes (aside from cruising due to reduced food).

[macandchz]

could it be that the mice weren't defrosted enough? i read that could cause a regurge.

[SWDK]

Originally Posted by Andy_G

That's a tough one. Perhaps just too large of a meal? Make sure to wait a couple weeks before offering again and offer a smaller than usual prey item for the next couple of feedings then resume normal schedule. Keep an eye out for weight loss or behavioural changes (aside from cruising due to reduced food).

I do feed small prey size in multiples instead of a larger one. This snake could easily take a small rat, but I feed multiple smaller prey to be safe. He's eaten multiples of 3 the last few feedings without issue so this is puzzling to me.

Originally Posted by macandchz

could it be that the mice weren't defrosted enough? i read that could cause a regurge.

I defrosted the mice like usual so I don't think that's the issue. It was also 2 full days after initial feeding then the regurge happened. I would have to think that if the mice were not fully thawed the regurge would have happened sooner?

I've only dealt with a regurgitation twice before with two separate snakes that I think was attributed to food being too large. I stepped up the prey size from fuzzy to hopper for each snake in that case.

[Andy_G]

3 small prey items could still be a bit much to digest? A weaned and 2 adult mice is more food than a small rat. I don"t doubt he could take it...but it was really all I could think of. :/

[SWDK]

Originally Posted by Andy_G

3 small prey items could still be a bit much to digest? A weaned and 2 adult mice is more food than a small rat. I don"t doubt he could take it...but it was really all I could think of. :/

Yeah, it could have been too much. I'm not going to refute that. I'm trying to put weight back in him because he didn't eat for the first 6 weeks and got thin. Maybe I'm getting too aggressive?

[dannybgoode]

BSG raised an interesting point re multiple prey items in that it's a lot more fur to digest and fur is the hardest thing to digest. Also nutritionally 1 rat is better than 2 mice of equivalent weight.

I like to offer a couple of feeds of 2 x smaller prey items before moving up a size to give the snake choice of refusal and to make sure they're ready to move up but I may reconsider this now.

[SWDK]

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

BSG raised an interesting point re multiple prey items in that it's a lot more fur to digest and fur is the hardest thing to digest. Also nutritionally 1 rat is better than 2 mice of equivalent weight.

I like to offer a couple of feeds of 2 x smaller prey items before moving up a size to give the snake choice of refusal and to make sure they're ready to move up but I may reconsider this now.

I'd rather stick with rats, but this snake has only been eating the past 3 weeks and is picky so I offer a variety. Figured I'd be happy with it eating anything at this point. Next feeding I'll just go with the rat and see how that goes.

[Roman]

Hi Dave,

Spilotes have a very fast metabolism, they digest their food usually within 5 days. In order to achieve this, they prefer smaller prey in relation to other colubrids of the same (or even smaller) size. However, if they eat something bigger (or in your case, more prey items) and it is not digested within 5 to 6 days, anything still in the stomach goes the same way as it came.

It happened to several of my snakes over the years, all of them ate a rat right on their size limit (it was not big enough to be refused outright, but obviously too big to be digested in time), only to be regurgitated after 5 days.

So I would wait a week and feed him a “normal” sized rat your Spilotes has already successful eaten and digested. If you want to fatten him a little more, I would switch to a 1 week 2 week feeding rhythm. Feed him rather smaller prey more often than bigger (more) items per feeding.

Roman

[SWDK]

Thanks Roman. I guess it was just too much for him. He regurgitated after only 2 days so I know he didn't digest that quickly. At least he kept something down so that's one positive in the mix. I'll feed again next week and step down the amount of food. I'll take it slow.

[SWDK]

I fed the him again this evening. This time I went with 2 frozen rat pups. He took them down no problem. Hopefully he holds them down this go around and doesn't regurge again.

[dave himself]

Good luck Dave let's hope all goes well mate