I feel like I need to change the substrate right now, but she ate 2 days ago

[scarhbar23]

Hi there! I'm still a fairly new BP owner, so bear with me. I have a 150g female BP at about 21" (is that big? She's not obese as far as I can tell). She just ate 2 days ago. I noticed that the mouse pooped as it was being constricted, and now it stinks very bad. It's not molding or anything, but its such a strong stench I feel bad for my snake. Its about time for me to clean the tank anyways. Most guides say to wait 3 days after eating to handle the snake, so I'm curious if that rule can be broken to change the cage substrate? She is active and moving about the tank, but I'm not sure if that makes a difference?

Thank you!

[Oxylepy]

Spot clean by removing the poop and substrate around the poop. Also, in my experience ball pythons don't regurgitate nearly as often as care sheets make it seem. Just try not to handle it much. Remove hide, gentle grab snake, move to something that contains the snake temporarily, change substrate, replace snake, replace hide.

[Meerna]

2 days should be fine, but if you're worried you can do what was suggested above and spot clean. I've had to move Emrys just after feeding him when he dumped his water and the whole tub floor was wet, he was just fine. I had worried about it too, but at the same time I didn't want him to sit on a wet floor for a day.

[Sauzo]

You will probably be fine. Just put some paper towels town in a tub with one of her hides and move her to that and then clean the cage. You can move a snake after eating assuming its not in feed mode still. You just don't want to play with them and make them crawl all over etc. Just moving them from point A to point B is fine with such a small snake.

[sneksNferts]

I've always heard 48 hours not 72. My little guy will spend the first couple hours after a feeding with his head out of the hide to make sure no more food is coming, then he'll scrunch up in the corner of his hide, unseen for the rest of the 48. When he's ready, a little snoot will appear in the doorway and eventually he'll slink out and explore or come out for handling if I open the lid.

[scarhbar23]

Thank you all for the replies! I feel a lot more comfortable moving her now!