I went to get my Brazilian Rainbow boa out to feed him today and noticed a slimy pile of hair in the bottom of his tank, it was still fresh which makes me thinks he vomitted it up.

I inspected it and found that it is indeed all hair. I've noticed hair in his poop before but they were always dried up little clumps of poo and this is wet and stinky so I don't know. It's been a week since he's eaten so I don't know if it still could be regurge. I left him alone all week and took him out of his cage yesterday to see if he still had a lump in his belly, it was slightly bulgy but not too bad.

If I didn't already meantion it, which I think I did in a previous thread, this was his first adult mouse sized meal.

I would appreciate your thoughts and experiences with this kind of thing as I'm not sure what to do with him. Should I wait a week even though it could be poo? Sorry for the long post, I just hate it when things go wrong. (which I don't even know for sure if they have)

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if it's been a week I highly doubt it's a re-gurge. was there any "substance" to it ? a regurge will still have bone/tissue matter.

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "

It was pure nasty matted together hair, I checked to see if there was ANYTHING to determine what it was, it was ALL hair.

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A regurge will also have a horrible smell to it.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

It DID have a horrible smell! It was making me sick!

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I agree a week is pretty long for it to be regurge. Does he still have an appetite? This is not the way to start my morning with a coffee and a detailed hairy vomit thread.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

Hair is not very digestable and will stay intact for quite a while. Between that and the awful smell I would guess that it was vomit.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I was talking to a Brazilian Rainbow Boa expert so to say and hes had plenty of "hairball vomits" He stated the same reaasons as Merlin did. Its nothing really to worry about yet, unless it happens again soon then Id take him to the vet
*EDIT* This is info I just recieved from a guy thats kept Brazilian Rainbow Boa for 14 years now lol...hope it helps.

Probably stressed or overheated. How accurate and how stable are the temps. Anything over 87 is deadly to a young Brazilian Rainbow Boa...which doesn't exactly make that the ideal basking temp ya know? Bump that down to 84-85 and they really need a cool spot in the mid 70s and a gradient of everything in between. These snakes are pretty much 100% nocturnal and enjoy spending the day burrowed under cool, damp mulch. If your friend is using newspaper or carpet, she may as well just whack the snake in the head with a hammer. At night, they come out to hunt and love to climb through branches. Just some stress relief ideas to consider. Another thing to consider...NEVER feed a Brazilian Rainbow Boa two or more prey items or they will puke. They don't really follow the same girth rule boa constrictors do.
They handle meals slightly larger than girth very well...but just one and not too often. 7 days is ok for awhile while they are still on pink rats...5 day powerfeeding will kill them. 10 days is better...14 is better still. What I mean by that is, they grow freaky fast as it is. They like to stay cool so they have a slow metabolism and digestion rate. You do them more of a favor by spreading out their meals to a 2 week schedule. Something else about their girth rule exception...They are born about the size of a piece of yarn...not too much bigger than a baby cornsnake...yet, they take pink rats...NOT mice for the first meal.
No Brazilian Rainbow Boa should ever even see a mouse...ever. There's no reason. Mice fur is harder to digest for young snakes than the coarser rat hair. A fuzzy rat would be a much better choice than an adult mouse for many reasons...one being that they can hold it all down better.

It sounds like vomit. (I've got some first hand experience with my new boy Crais.) He's vomited up fur a few times. The slimy texture of it and the smell are good clues to go by.
Vomit doesn't smell the same as stool and although stool sometimes has visible hair remnants, it usually has more brown matter to it.
As far as reasons:
You mentioned that the mouse was on the large side: it could be that his little system didn't have enough time to process the whole thing and he puked up the hair (which is the part they can't digest).
I'd wait about 10 days to feed him again and feed something smaller next time. Make sure he has a good temp gradient with hide boxes on each end so he doesn't have to choose between warmth and security.
Also just make sure he's not disturbed too much and has lots of fresh water daily. He'll be fine.
There are lots of theories about rats vs. mice. I personally try to convert all my boids to rats ASAP and they seem to do well on them. I'm not sure if mouse hair is harder to digest but I've read that mice have more hair than meat to them whereas pinkie or fuzzy rats are all meat and very little hair.

You might want to have his next stool sent in for analysis. Crais had nematodes which might have affected his digestion. Since the treatment, he hasn't vomited again... fingers crossed!

Good luck with your little one! Keep us posted.

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Andrea

I would love to switch him to rats if I had them available as pinkies. I bumped down the heat a little and bumped up the humidity so now the gradient is about 82f on the warm side and about 75f on the cool side and humidity was a little low (70%) before so now it's up at 80%.

I switched him from just bark to bark/peat mix because it keeps in moisture really well. I hope it's a suitable bedding for him. I read that they can handle moist habitats better than a lot of other snakes. Maybe I should shave the mice when I have to feed them to him.

I'll try switching to rats if I can find any.

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