Hi,

How far down is the stomach on a garter snake? I'm force feeding mine and, while she's not vomiting it, she's not pushing it down either. I massaged it gently down her body, but I don't want to push it too far.

She's very weak, so I don't even know if she has the strength to push it down. I've had problems feeding her for a while, now, but I successfully fed her a few fishes this week and last week (without force feeding....this is my first time trying that). I knew things were bad, but I didn't know they were that bad. She did have a temp gradient, but she stopped using the area with the proper basking heat (though, granted, it was a the low end of the range) a couple of days ago. It's rather small though.

When I came home today she was moving around her cage more, so I was hoping she was doing better, but, in my experience, renewed energy is often a sign that death is very close.

I knew she had lost weight but I didn't know how bad things were because I try not to handle my animals when they are sick, as much as possible. But when I noticed that her renewed energy was gone and she seemed even weaker than before, I picked her up, and she is not just thin, she is alarmingly thin. She feels like there isn't much more than skin and bones on her. Given that she's a cold blooded animal that much weight loss seems astounding to me. She'd been refusing food for a while, but not THAT long.

Any help would be appreciated. I don't think she'll survive long if I don't get something in her stomach...maybe not even then.