Help Puttin\' on Weight

[BWSmith]

I know, it is my first post on the Help forum

We recently acquired a 6' Female Guyana RTB breeder. About 6 months ago she dropped babies (striped [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] ) and went off feed until the past couple of weeks. She is VERY underweight, you can almost see her "hipbones". The previous owner managed to get a couple small rats in her the past couple weeks and after a few days of rest from shipping she took a large rat tonight (thanks Jules). She is very alert and active with decent strength for her condition. She took the rat with no hesitation. I was considering injecting her feeder rats with PediaLite to give her a little extra nutrition. Any suggestions on helping her put on weight other than good feeding and husbandry?
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[LdyDrgn]

I would say that just good feeding and husbandry would do the trick. Her system will pull what she needs from the rats she gets. Since BCC have rather sensitive tummies, I would just keep her on a normal schedule. I don't know if you could modify it at all without risking a regurge.... [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
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	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.

[hajii]

My vet has suggested to me that a soaking in a warm water/pedialyte solution may be beneficial, as the snake could absorb a small amount of the nutrients through her skin. I'm not too sure about this, so you may want to check this out with some of the more knowledgeable members of this forum, and/or your local veterinarian. If anything, the soaking in plain water may also help to rehydrate her.

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Confucious say; Wife who puts husband in doghouse soon find him in cathouse

[JuliusSqueezer]

pedialyte is great stuff...if she is dehydrated at all it will help....as far as weight gain goes...just don't expect it to happen over night...it will take a while and any attempt to puff her up quickly will back fire esppecially with a BCC...like Michelle said...they puke much quicker when over fed than BCI do.
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	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.

	Boa Constrictor Imperator Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor imperator). Most common is the Colombian Boa.

So is she dehydrated or just low on body reserves after giving birth or both?

If she's not dehydrated, I wouldn't bother with the pedilyte. What about gut loading her rats (tubing the rats stomachs) and pumping in a few cc's of that concoction Julius uses for rescue/rehab? That Ensure stuff mixed with some baby food and yogurt?

But I think if she's a regular 10 day feeder or 14 day feeder, that increasing frequency of feeding a bit will be all she needs, to say 7 or 10 days. Give her some time to recover from birth. Sounds like she wasn't properly "fattened up" before breeding.
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[BWSmith]

I don't think she is dehydrated, just very low on body weight. She kept down a large rat. I think I will tryputting her on a 7 day regiment and see how it goes. Hard to have such a beautiful and sweet snake on a no handling rule.

I wil try to get some pics of her so we can have before and after [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Despite how skinny she is, I plan on purchasing more BCCs from this dealer. I knew ahead of time that she was very skinny so I knew what i was getting in to. I plan on getting a few more Guyanas from himin march. Plus you have to admire anyone who can survive a Taipan bite [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] Especially when it occurs the day after 9/11!
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	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.

[nomadbean]

The advice, as always, is great. If you want to move her to 7 days instead of 10 she should be fine with that. If you want to give her some extra vitamins and such. Gut load the rats with a mixture of Miner-all, pedialyte and water...just makes the rat more nutrisious and juicy. My snakes seem much healthier and sheds are now all in one piece 95% of the time. Good luck with her, but like you know and Brett said, it is a slow process, but she will put the weight back on in time. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Trina
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[Gib]

DO NOT put your BCC on a 7 day feeding schedule unless you like cleaning regurge....

The best thing you can do right now is to put her on small meals every 14 days until you get her on a regualr schedule (6 weeks maybe) then start increasing the prey size SLOWLY after that.......


That, Good Husbandry,plenty of water and NO stress will do wonders for her....
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	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.

Sorry , BUT I tend to differ with a lot of what has been said here in relation to the feeding regime actually of this snake. It is a BCC not a BCI here. The bCC are much more sensitive when it comes to problems erupting from feeding type issues actually IMO/experience. Like some have said.. regurge can be a MAJOR issue if this snake is fed on a 7 day schedule. I also would not jump to gut loading the prey at all either. I just think there would be too much chance of a problem from doing such on a bCC/Guyana.

What i would do for a BCC/Guyana like this is to go to a normally varied feeding routine such as the ones used for placing weight back on females that have just birthed etc. Just feed 1 prey item of normal size at a feeding... wait 10 days....offer two prey items that are smaller than what she usualy takes this time, but would equal to more than if she had taken 1 prey of the normal sized prey at a feeding.. then wait about 14 days to next feeding ..and offer 1 prey of the normal size.. and just keep going back and forth like that for about 6-8 weeks. You should start to see some difference in her weight at that point,. Just don't expect o/n miracles like Jul's has said on the weight going back on really fast is all. This should be done over length of time to put the weight back on in a healthy manner for her. Give her a rest if she still needs to put more weight on even after that amount of time , like 2-4 weeks and then go back to the alternating feedings at that point. If she is fed too often..like 7 days.. then you are going to throw her into a regurge for sure I would think.
If at anytime she seems to be not interested in feeding, just give her like 7 days before offering the next prey item[s] is all. Then go back on what you were doing from when she takes the prey. Just don't stick with a 7 day as her schedule though..UGH. Last thing ya want to do is stress her out at all any further than she is already. BCC's are VERY NOT stress forgiving/bounce back snakes IMO.
Is her underbelly concave big time at all ?
Good luck with her !
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	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.