Very sick Olive Python hatchling :( any ideas?

[tenacres1100]

ok keep posting here someone might have an answer for you, good luck at the vets, maybe it a stress related thing, if she feed straight away for the breeder she just might feel stressed in her new enclosure. I would just keep her in the click clack, don't look at her unless you have too, which is hard with what you have to do at the moment, and keep her in a very quiet room away form any noise. when you try feeding try to annoy her with it, she might just strike at it and I wouldn't use the frezzer bag, just put it in warm water until its warm through it may wash some of the smell off, but she may like it better that way.

 

[CodeRed]

If it fed straight away for the snake ranch then I would suspect something wrong at your end. Can you describe your enclosure and your feeding method in detail. It's very easy to inadvertantly intimidate a small snake and cause it not to eat.

I'll ask again.

Can you describe your setup in detail and your feeding method in detail. We need temps, light cycles, encl;osure size, enclosure placement, food ietm tyep and size , what were the SR feeding the snake before hand, how are you offering the food (by hand, by tongs, leaving it, wiggling it), when are you offering the food, what temp was the food item at, etc etc. Every little detail helps. Without this info no one can help you.

 

[tenacres1100]

I'll ask again.

Can you describe your setup in detail and your feeding method in detail. We need temps, light cycles, encl;osure size, enclosure placement, food ietm tyep and size , what were the SR feeding the snake before hand, how are you offering the food (by hand, by tongs, leaving it, wiggling it), when are you offering the food, what temp was the food item at, etc etc. Every little detail helps. Without this info no one can help you.

"ATM she is in a plastic systema contaner on a heat mat sitting at 30-35c in the hot end with paper towel as substrate

When we would offer food to her we would offer with tongs in the dark and stay really low not to startle her, and she does not run away she comes up to it sniffs it and they curls up the tongs and they onto our hand or out of the enclosure. We have tried fussy mice (which is what snake ranch had her on) pinkies (mice and rats) and fuzzy rats. her brained they and offered normally always head first and we also tried scenting with a day old chick.

Sorry I forgot to tell you we thaw the food forapprox 40mins in a freezer back in cold water and then in warm water for approx 5mins before offering so it is warm and not wet "

just did a copy and paste for you hope it helps

 

[CodeRed]

Ok missed the middle post

How long has she been in the tub for?
How often are you offering food?

Tried a live fuzzy mouse, left overnight yet?

 

[Renagade]

sent it with a skink, mash the skin all over the fuzzy. also i wet my food prey, it helps hydrate my snakes.

 

[pythons73]

Well if the breeder took it back and it ate for them,it must be something slightly wrong at the other end.Some snakes can be really fussy,its pretty hard imagining a olive not interested in food,thats all they live for.Are you using long tweezers to feed her,or leaving the food item in the cage,please keep us updated on her progress....I hOPE everything ends well...

 

[elapid66]

swap the snake for a new one you will be better off

 

[DA_GRIZ]

don't know if it would help or anything but a few weeks back my dad was reading on google and this guy in the us bought a carpet python and it wouldn't it for him so someone suggested trying a day old chicken so he went and got one has started eating.

so maybe try a day old chicken or a quail

 

[Wild~Touch]

A friends hatchling olive didn't eat unassisted for 18 months and the "magic trick" was finches,
my friend bought a pair of finches from the petshop and bred her own and the olive never looked back
It was a very happy ending to months of frustration..Hang in there

 

[TrueBlue]

try day old quails.

 

[Sarita]

Hi Guys

Well we went to the vet yesterday afternoon and she is slowly getting rehydrated so we have stopped the injections for the glucosemaine every second day however she has a bit of a flesh wound at moment from all the needles etc as her skin very sensitive and weak as you can imagine so she is now still having her daily baths in betadine, another injection once every three days so no infection occurs and a cream put on the wound twice a day and another vist to the vet in a week. However she is drinking water on her own now, not a lot but it is a start.

The vet kept her for the day thinking she is needing a shed as she crackles like paper but she is not showing any signs of sheding any time soon so she has a couple of saline baths yesterday but only skin around the flesh wound came off so it was just once again dehydration.

She has been sooo good no matter what pain we inflic on her little body she just flinches and never tried to bite, the most she has done is pant when she is in discomfort ie, getting jabbed with needles and having her rear end probed.

 

[Earthling]

For it to eat at Snakeranch and not yours, screams environmental.
Ive never kept Olives, but all the snakes I have owned from a hatchy have been in click clacks at least for the first year. No problems eating. This is normal practice for all hatchy Australian snakes. It sounds like your large enclosure freaked her out to the point of not eating. Hence environmental, your end.
Also, if your enclosure (even clickclacks) is in a busy part of the house, noisy, other pets, excessive handling, no cool spot, all will assist in making your python a noneater.
Talk to SnakeRanch again (PHONE) and realise that yes you maybe are at fault and make the change.

 

[Miffy]

Maybe ask Snake Ranch if you can watch them feed her, and their exact method used. And look at the environment they have her set up in, which you can try and replicate. Also is your vet a specialised Herp vet?

 

[tenacres1100]

I'll ask again.

Can you describe your setup in detail and your feeding method in detail. We need temps, light cycles, encl;osure size, enclosure placement, food ietm tyep and size , what were the SR feeding the snake before hand, how are you offering the food (by hand, by tongs, leaving it, wiggling it), when are you offering the food, what temp was the food item at, etc etc. Every little detail helps. Without this info no one can help you.

Hi Guys

Well we went to the vet yesterday afternoon and she is slowly getting rehydrated so we have stopped the injections for the glucosemaine every second day however she has a bit of a flesh wound at moment from all the needles etc as her skin very sensitive and weak as you can imagine so she is now still having her daily baths in betadine, another injection once every three days so no infection occurs and a cream put on the wound twice a day and another vist to the vet in a week. However she is drinking water on her own now, not a lot but it is a start.

The vet kept her for the day thinking she is needing a shed as she crackles like paper but she is not showing any signs of sheding any time soon so she has a couple of saline baths yesterday but only skin around the flesh wound came off so it was just once again dehydration.

She has been sooo good no matter what pain we inflic on her little body she just flinches and never tried to bite, the most she has done is pant when she is in discomfort ie, getting jabbed with needles and having her rear end probed.

Hi Sarita, read the above message from "CodeRed" go through your whole set up from the start until now, everything that you can think of, where it's kept, temps, lights, food, when you changed to click clacks, ect,ect. include everything you can think off. Do this in order and try not to leave anything out it doesn't matter if the post is long, but it might help, if it was eating before and again when it went back there it may just be somthing very small you are doing wrong and don't know it

 

[zobo]

not sure if anyone has already suggested this, but I was given a jungle once that had the same swelling in the rear end and did not shed and was thin and dehydrated.
What I started to do was mist him with water (much like a GTP) seveal times every day so they got covered in water and he was able to drink the mist off his body and plants etc. I used a normal spray bottle and the male came good within a month and is now older and in perfect health.
jas

 

[gravitation]

Sorry to say but i don't think i'd want to cause the little thing anymore pain.
I think i'd have to put it down.

 

[TroopyF]

Sorry to say but i don't think i'd want to cause the little thing anymore pain.
I think i'd have to put it down.

Or at least talk to SR about an exchange/refund. Im sure they would not want any negative feedback and would happily oblige....You'd think anyway.

 

[xScarlettex]

my stimmi had problems eating, everytime i took her back to the breeder she fed fine for him and was actually quite an aggressive feeder, turns out it was my setup, we rearranged the plants and put in some smaller hides and she hasnt missed a feed since, so maybe its your setup, id also be looking at proof that your breeder actually did feed your olive because it seems strange she would eat there but not for you, also when we got my girl eating again we downsized her food (coz she hadnt eaten for a few months) and she took it more readily than the bigger prey and then we slowly upsized her food
good luck =)

 

[FAY]

Has to be the set up Sarita. There is no way snake ranch would sell you one that wasn't eating....
There are a lot of things that can contribute to them not eating.
Being in high traffic areas of the house, blaring music and TV's, not warm enough, not thawing out the food properly, handling too much, you need to look at all these things Sarita, until you tell us (as Code Red said) exactly how it is set up no-one can give you a proper answer.

 

[Sarita]

Talk to SnakeRanch again (PHONE) and realise that yes you maybe are at fault and make the change

This is what we originnaly did we knew we must of had a problem hence the reason snake ranch originally took her back and assisted in what we could change while she was eating there. We spen 1k on everything and then all they told me to do was put it back to how it ws originally, which was in the large enclosure, we bought different sized hides, fake plants, different sized water bowls for humidity, differetn substrates, different foods and different ways of offering them, heat lights and heat mats timers and two different thermostats, then they just gave up.

My vet is a specialit in herps it is heathcote vet clinic with JO and Rebecca. Rebecca has advised me to change set up once again to a 45L plastic tub so we did that last night for her.

I am going to dig up old email pics sent to snake ranch on the different set ups and let me know which one is best and/or what is best from both and I can play around with it.