Bad owner (me), Poor care, hoping for the best...

So I got two kittens and while dealing with settling them in I didn't realize that the mouse I have fed my four month old BP was still there. I didn't realize this until I went to feed him his next meal which was four days later.

He gobbled the fresh one up but obviously the old one was rank-smelling.

What should I look for? When I took him out today it looked like had incomplete shed on his nose. But no other evidence he's shedding.

It can happen. Just clean and disinfect his enclosure, and keep an eye on him. :)

I thought one of your cats was going to be eaten/bit lol. (Sorry for not helping)

I always check enclosures the day after feeding but occasionally a snake drags the rodent under some newspaper or into the hide and I miss it. An hour or two after locating and removing the stink bomb then wiping down the enclosure things are back to normal scent-wise.

"Stink bomb". Yep....that's exactly what it is!

I think anyone who has kept a number of snakes for a number of years has probably experienced that at least once. Most likely with f/t feeders, but even live feeders may kill a rodent and make you think they've eaten it, then lay on top of it and smirk at you as you frantically search for the source of that awful stench. I always check to make sure everyone has eaten, but they can be tricksy sometimes.

It's gross....but it won't harm the snake. Just clean it up and chalk it up as a stinky lesson. :P

UGH SPEAKING OF STINK BOMB! Don't worry, you're not the only one who has had a rodent go sour...

This is literally the worst thing...After I feed all my corns, 2 days after like clockwork...... "holy Hannah Montana, all of the corn snakes took dumps!!" Colubrid poop STINKS worse than ball python poop. So the day after feeding the corns, I go in the snake room. It was not "dump day" yet, but a lot of the ball pythons had pooped. So it stank and I cleaned them all up.

I could still smell something funny though when I was done cleaning. I went through every single corn snake bin looking for poop. Nothing. So I just assumed the odor would disappear now that everything had been cleaned up.

Went back in the next morning and nothing was amiss, there was a faint smell because some of the corns HAD took their clockwork dumps by now, but I scooped it up quickly and that was that.

Well about 5 days after THAT (so....approx a week maybe slightly longer, after I had fed everyone) I was doing a big excavation of some of the corn bins and swapping out substrate. I had been using Sani-Chips for some of the corns. I like them because they are semi-clumping so taking out poop is easy, and they have a nice smell and are great at cutting down on odor. Well I am NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER AGAIN using Sani-Chips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was scooping substrate out of one of the bins I saw something moving. Upon closer inspection, there were many things, wriggling. There were maggots of some sort buried under an inch or two of substrate!!!!!!!!!! I LOST IT. Shrieked, the whole 9 yards. As it turns out, no matter how well I checked all the bins (multiple times, mind you) the "stink bomb" had been buried underneath the Sani-Chips, attracted maggots of some sort, and they were all just wiggling around like some horror movie.

The weird part? That bin did not even smell AT ALL.

Seriously F My Life. I almost threw up. Worst, most disgusting thing everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

So don't feel bad.

I'm going to go vomit now just thinking about it.

My little guy refuses to eat F/T. Only goes for the live ones. But every week before I give him a live one, I try to see if he'll take a F/T as I have a bunch in the freezer. Never takes them, and I leave them for 12 hours overnight and it never fails to smell in the morning. I can only imagine 4 days of rot! :) Cheers.