Hello! I'm new to this site and was hoping for a bit of advice. Back in March I was given a spider ball python, Pretzel, by someone who didn't want him anymore. He's full grown but on the small side as far as ball pythons go, and at least 8 but I'm not sure of his exact age. His previous caretaker had been feeding him one small mouse every other week which didn't seem like quite enough since he came to me a bit on the skinny side and the mice are so small that there's barely a lump in him when he eats one. In order to help him gain a bit of weight I started feeding him one mouse every 7-10 days. I didn't want to immediately jump to the proper size rodent since he's been eating the tiny mice for so long and I didn't want to shock his system. I figured I could go through the small mice that he came with so that I wouldn't waste them and then gradually move up sizes once I had used them all.

In the time I've had him he's pooped twice, the last time being at the beginning of May right after a shed. He's since eaten 7 mice. His belly feels soft and I don't see any obvious lumps in him but I'm still worried that he's constipated. The other day I soaked him in a tub of warm water for 20 minutes hoping that it would help but nothing happened. It also wasn't big enough for him to really swim in so that could have been an issue (I don't have a bathtub to put him in unfortunately).

I've also found two urates during this time but I have no idea if that's a normal amount or not.

Humidity is 60-70, his ambient temperature is around 75-77 with a heat mat as his hot spot at 88 which he spends most of his time on when he's not out exploring at night. I'm working on getting him overhead heating soon, but all he had in his previous enclosure was a heat mat so I figure his temperatures are similar to the way they were with his previous owner.

Besides not pooping he seems to be doing great otherwise - he's active at night, and has eaten everything I've offered him without hesitation.


I guess my questions are:

- Should I be concerned at the moment?
- At what point should I be concerned and go to the vet if he still doesn't poop?
- Should I return to his previous feeding schedule of every two weeks instead of every 7-10 days? Should I even keep feeding at all or wait for him to poop first? (He's due for another mouse right now and is acting hungry)
- Is there anything else I should be doing differently?


I know that ball pythons can sometimes hold it for several months, but I just wanted to get some opinions on what to do here. I'm a little paranoid because my family's ball python died from impaction a few years ago and I'd hate for the same thing to happen to this guy. Any advice or insight would be appreciated!