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Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by BeccaLyn on March 8, 2007
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Hi all,
I recently acquired a 12 year old female T. trigonocephalus as a rehab animal. As far as I know, she has only eaten twice in over a year and was being housed improperly. She is thin, dehydrated and pretty weak. Her record shows that she has been offered mice and chicks in various states(thawed, fresh killed, live, etc.) but doesn't seem interested. I don't, however, know if she was properly tease fed or the food was just left in her enclosure.
I now have her set up in a more appropriate enclosure with a heat source and frequent misting. I force fed her 6cc of liquid diet about four days ago and she has seemed, at least to me, to perk up just a little. Does anyone have any ideas or advice that might help with this situation?
Thanks,
Becca
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by earthguy on March 8, 2007
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Becca,
The fluids are definitely the most important, so the fact that she has had fluids is good. I am DEFINITELY not an expert on this specie, but I've had to nurse a few various species back to health after getting them from bad homes. If she has had fluids and a few days to rest I'd try to tease feed her.
I read you profile. Don't you have a vet on staff? What does s/he say?
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by BeccaLyn on March 8, 2007
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Yes, we do have a vet on staff. He said just to go with fluids for a little while to make sure she was well hydrated before we really start trying to feed her. The diet that we force fed her was designed for ailing carnivores so it's very easily digested. We used Normasol(an intravenous electrolyte solution) to mix the diet. I think we're going to continue with that for at least a week or two to try to put some life back in her. She's really a beautiful snake, I'd hate to lose her.
Thanks for the help. :) Any other thoughts?
Becca
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by AlanHyde on March 9, 2007
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Hi Becca,
You do not say whether this animal is a wc or cb.
If this snake were mine i'd have done what you have and I would continue hydrating adding in a small amount of food. Once the snake looks a bit better and hydrated I would force feed a pinkie or rat pup depending on the size of the snake, injected with panacur wormer. In the next meal I would give a dose of Flagyl, that is of course if the snake is WC .
Best of luck,
Alan
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by AquaHerp on March 9, 2007
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Remember that anytime you force feed a snake that the stress level goes up. If the snake has not eaten in a while and is weak, then I would be reluctant to put too much food in to the animal too rapidly since it's enzymes are not cranking along well at the moment. As far as hydrating, the trigons love a good rain chamber and if you can get it some time in a rain chamber a few times a week that would really spark some life into it as well (not to mention the re-hydration thing). For feeding I would keep trying the tease feeding with smaller food like hoppers.
Good luck.
Doug Hotle
General Curator
Abilene ZOOlogical Gardens
Abilene, Texas
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by BeccaLyn on March 9, 2007
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Thanks Doug. :) We are force feeding just a few cc of liquid diet once a week. The rest of the time she's left alone to try to minimize stress.
Becca
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by AquaHerp on March 9, 2007
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good deal. Might try it on a live rat pup as well, overnight.
Doug Hotle
General Curator
Abilene ZOOlogical Gardens
Abilene, Texas
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by snakeguy101 on March 9, 2007
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hey, good luck with this, you are doing a great job from what it sounds like. As someone mentioned earlier, try smaller foods and don't over feed the poor snake. try to move the cage into a room where people aren't constantly in, this will allow it to relax and take some stress away.
hope this helps.
~chris
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RE: Trimeresurus trigonocephalus
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by venom on March 15, 2007
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Trigons can be a little finicky. I found a couple of tease feed tricks that have worked well for me over the years.
First trick is use long hemos to hold a small food item and repeatedly touch the tip of the snakes tail with it. This stimulates the caudal lure feed response. I've had some where that triggers a strike at my hand instead (the larger heat source I'm guessing) so use long enough hemos, but at least it's a response. I've also had some that I literally had to "bonk" on the nose with the food. Light taps up to a pretty substantial bonks. Of course I'm not saying swing for the fences and try to hurt the animal, but the repeated annoyance will often finally elicit an "anger" strike, which with a quick release of the hemostats and a quiet retreat on your part will often get the food item stuck on it's teeth and in it's mouth which will usually be followed by swallowing. I always feel bad thumping my snake on the nose with it's food, but I've had trigons that would only take food after 3 of 4 pops on the nose with the mouse. Once again, after you get them to strike the food and hold it, your quiet retreat out of the room will usually get them to swallow.
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