Very sick Olive Python hatchling :( any ideas?

[christo]

Hi Sarah, sorry to hear about your situation. I am no expert and I think there has been plenty of good advice given here already. However, I will offer one piece of info that may or may not help. My Olive took a long time to start feeding when I bought her home. Eventually I tried soaking pinky rats in chicken juice (the stuff that collects at the bottom of a bag of chook necks). She fed first time on this and has never looked back (never knocks back a feed now) . For a while I soaked all her food in chook juice but now she eats rats, rabbits and chicks with no soaking.

As I said, may not work for you, but easier to try than getting quail, finches or skinks. Good luck.

 

[Sel]

Maybe you can get someone from APS that lives close to you to call over to your house?

What if you leave a mouse with her overnight? She may want to eat in private..

 

[adz83]

this has bee a very interesting read and i really feel for u sarita..

do u wanna pm me where abouts u are??

i also see jo n bec at heathcote

 

[wokka]

Hi Sarah, sorry to hear about your situation. I am no expert and I think there has been plenty of good advice given here already. However, I will offer one piece of info that may or may not help. My Olive took a long time to start feeding when I bought her home. Eventually I tried soaking pinky rats in chicken juice (the stuff that collects at the bottom of a bag of chook necks). She fed first time on this and has never looked back (never knocks back a feed now) . For a while I soaked all her food in chook juice but now she eats rats, rabbits and chicks with no soaking.

As I said, may not work for you, but easier to try than getting quail, finches or skinks. Good luck.

Chicken juice often works well. If you get a piece of chicken and peel the skin back and rub the thawed mouse in the subcutanious fluid (aka chicken juice) it will often get them feeding. Snake Ranch seem to use quail to get olives feeding as theyoffer discounts for animals feeding on quail so it might be worth persuing a scource of quail.

 

[tenacres1100]

Snake Ranch seem to use quail to get olives feeding as theyoffer discounts for animals feeding on quail so it might be worth persuing a scource of quail.

they would have told her that wouldn't they? seems they had no trouble feeding it again when it went back, so it must be not the fact it's not eating, but why it's not eating and if she's had the temp at 40.7c IMO I think that may be the problem

 

[FAY]

I really feel that this all needs to be resolved between Sarita and Snake Ranch and having them all work together to get this little guy eating again.

 

[TroopyF]

Would the hide be part of the prob here? From what I can see it's a smaller click clack with blue lid. Being a newbie I am curious about this - Should a hide be totally dark? Or as long as its pretty dark its fine?

 

[Sarita]

OK guys maybe I have confused you all now, The time it was at 40.7c was about 5months ago and not told to me by snake ranch but a man who snake ranch refered me to at narellan, she is no longer at these temps and has not been for 5 months she is now in a range from 30-33. we have tried to get is to stay steady but I dont think our thermostat isnt that great.

In regards to the blue hidy hole this is a method suggested by snake ranch as the original hidy hole seemed to be too large for her as our original enclosure came as a package and was not a nice snug fit,
we also used bent cardboard as another shelter.

Snake ranch have told us our enclosure needs to be what you are all suggesting and we have done that and when photos are sent they look ok so if it is environmental snake ranch had maybe thoughts her set up was good but it was maybe a smell of our dog or something like that in the room. Which is obviously a possibility. YEAH? Snake ranch were concerned about the info given when my temps were at 40c I think they almost fell over to be honest but we changed that quick smart.

Snake ranch had advised us they do scent food however once again our little one only had one scented item which was her first but after that nothing was scented.

I went home last night and spoke to my partner and I feel it is a great idea that SR have offereed for us to meet up and discuss this issue, maybe when we thought we were on our own we took it the wrong way from SR.

I really appreciate all the advise thank you to you all who have contributed.

 

[tenacres1100]

I went home last night and spoke to my partner and I feel it is a great idea that SR have offereed for us to meet up and discuss this issue, maybe when we thought we were on our own we took it the wrong way from SR.

I really appreciate all the advise thank you to you all who have contributed.

good news on the temps then, 40.7 was very high

I glad to hear that you will be working with SR to work through it, I've never dealt with them but all reports I hear about them have been very good. Hopefully you will be able to sort it out soon
keep us informed won't you

 

[Pandora Pythons]

Sounds like you need to go right back to basics...

* The Olive should not be in an enclosure, it should be in a click clack (no bigger than a 45L).
* A small black hide that the snake can just fit in to. Do not have a gaping hold at one end, the snake needs to be kept very secure and kept dark.
* Paper towels and spray the inside of the click clack with water twice a day, this will keep the humidity up, keep the snake hydrated and will help with shedding.
* keep the click clack hidden from traffic in your house.
* I know it's hard with all the meds at the moment, but the longer you can keep away from the Olive, the more likely your going to get a feeding response.
* Do not use rats/mice anymore. An Olives natural food in the wild are small birds such as quail. Buy some day old quails, warm them up under hot water, towel them off (not too dry, keep them slightly moist). If your Olive doesn't show any interest, pull the quail away from her so as not to let her crawl up the tongs and on to you. Than offer the quail to her again. If she still does not strike, try tapping her on the side of her neck, or even on her tail, this gets them fired up causing them to strike. It may take a couple of strikes, but once she gets the taste, she should strike and coil. Also try and offer the head end to her, so that when she does strike, she will not have to release to find the head, she should start swallowing straight away. Once she has coiled Sarah...DO NOT MOVE. Any movement what so ever and she will release. If you have to stand there like a stuffed mullett for the next half hour until she has devoured the bird, than it will be well worth the frozen moment

If you need any photos of my setup or further advice, pls pm me and I'll be glad to assist. I have 11 Olives at the moment and are all going onto their 3rd feed.

Hope this helps Sarah and keep us posted.

 

[mysnakesau]

I have read many but not all the posts so apologies if I am repeating anything already said. And I am not expert either, just offering some extra ideas.

When SR took her back and she ate for them, what did she eat, and how did they prepare that and how did they offer it to her? Can you get some food from SR or same as what they were feeding her and prepare it the same as they did?

This might sound pointless to some but I have found, particularly with baby snakes if you change anything that they aren't use to it can set them back. Just changing suppliers of the food can occasionally balk them. And as sad as this sounds, if she is not accepting pre-killed have you considered trying live. I know it isn't recommended and its a very sad thing to do but sometimes it helps to get them going again.

I have a baby snake back with me, that I bred last season. Sold him established feeding voluntarily, but he will not eat for his owner. I even visited this little snake a few weeks back and managed to get him eating, and I didn't note any problems with his set up. But since getting hm back I got him eating from day 1 and has taken 2 outa 2 feeds for me. I reared that baby on thawed fuzzies but now, so far, I cannot get him to take a dead mouse. Put a livie in their, the movement catches his attention but I actually need to intervene and tap his tail to get him cranky then he takes the mouse and will eat it. Haven't been successful with this procedure with a dead one, yet. He runs away. But I have to freeze. If I move he drops the mouse and wanders away from so I very slowly creep away from him and leave him be. But I don't take my eyes off him until the mouse is dead, as even baby mice like that, I fear could still inflict injury if it bit him but so far he is eating and thats all that matters to me. He won't take seconds at this stage so tricking him with a live following a dead hasn't worked yet.

I don't take him off the heat to feed him. He remains in his little tub and in the same spot so that movements from us don't cause distractions or have him cooling down. A cold snake most often will not take food (except my olives, they are eating machines.)

You probably already know all this, but every little bit hopefully helps.

I hope she comes good for you real quick. They are a gorgeous animal, and know how you feel. I, too, would try and make one better before swapping it for another.

And about the hideboxes, the idea of them is to give them a dark place to hide but the type of box you use shouldn't be an issue. I use cardboard gift boxes for snakes and preferrably not directly over the heat, especially if she is one who will spend most of her time in it. Even with temps at 30, she can warm up hotter than that in a confined area and could result in burning.

 

[tenacres1100]

Sarita, how is your Olive python going?

 

[structural]

im really sad for you your baby sounds so sweet and brave shell come good.

 

[wiz-fiz]

have you tried rigly it so it looks alive?


Will

 

[Chris89]

How's the progress of the Olive going? Has she improved at all?

 

[Sturdy]

yes i too am keen to hear a status report.

 

[Sarita]

Hi Everyone,

Well so far she is ok however we had a little scare the other day as she was really really dehydrated. She just wont drink enough, she is still really active and all but looks all shrivelled up. her skin is really rough as the vet thought she needed to shed as she crackles like paper but only al little would come off it was mainly dehydrated skin. She still requires her daily baths to hydrate skin. I never catch her drinking but after her bath I hold her over her water bowl and she drinks while I hold her so at least I see her do that. Its not enough I know but it is a start. We will be going back to vet this week so Ill give you an update then.

Cheers

 

[Simple]

To me the big problem would be the inability to defecate. There may be some sort of digestive system deformity, which would be hard to diagnose with out an operation. I have seen a few hatchlings that would feed well, then stop and suddenly die and generally what they had in common was that they did not defecate (autopsy showed internal deforities) for what reason I am not sure, maybe genetic, maybe incubation. That is why it is always good to defecation history when purchasing reptiles. It is hard when your snake is a pet but you might want to consider the refund or the swap. Just something else to consider.

 

[Chimera]

Sarita,

After reading just about all posts I think Fay has probably offered some great advice that has been ignored. From my understanding, your olive has been in a glass enclosure and a click-clack at various stages. Both of these can leave a reptile feeling very exposed and vulnerable when in an open room especially if the room is a high traffic area. This can certainly cause feeding issues.

A couple of my yearlings started to become a little trickier on the feeding front when I changed them over to a larger enclosure. I have had their daylight turned off for about a fortnight now and all have eaten the last 2 times food was offered. I would suggest that if possible, you put the Olive's click-clack on a shelf in a quiet room and secure a towel to the shelf above to shield the remainder of the room from view. This should create a dark secure environment (obviously monitor heat etc. with the move from the enclosure. When it comes time for feeding, try just leaving the food item in there with it.

I understand this whole situation is frustrating to a new keeper, but I would like to point out that Snake Ranch has gone above and beyond the efforts of any other breeder I've heard of in this case. Unless you buy from a friend or someone in the same suburb you will not be able to get them to come out to your place to look at your setup (there are probably exceptions, but I doubt they would include large scale breeders). I sincerely hope that new keepers don't look at this as an indictment of Snake Ranch's animal quality as I do not feel this is valid. Instead I think it shows that they have put their money where their mouth is on after sale service.

In my opinion, weaknesses that snakes can live with their entire life (or will reduce their lifespan from say 20 to 16 years) will always present systemic problems when the snake is under stress. Especially with this sort of long running feeding issue. The liver problems and dehydration could certainly be attributed to an environmental issue. I would also be interested to know whether the liver issues occurred before or after the use of Hills A/D commenced.

I hope you take what has been said about the environment outside the enclosure under advisement and that things start to look up.

 

[elapid66]

To me the big problem would be the inability to defecate. There may be some sort of digestive system deformity, which would be hard to diagnose with out an operation. I have seen a few hatchlings that would feed well, then stop and suddenly die and generally what they had in common was that they did not defecate (autopsy showed internal deforities) for what reason I am not sure, maybe genetic, maybe incubation. That is why it is always good to defecation history when purchasing reptiles. It is hard when your snake is a pet but you might want to consider the refund or the swap. Just something else to consider.

well said swap it for a new one all this not sh$tting and stuff and vet bills you will be better off