Feces question....

Is it normal for a ball python that is fasting to have a bit of loose feces? I ask because this morning when I opened my normal female's enclosure there was some urate but also a very small amount of loose feces. I am not sure if it was loose because that is the way it came out or because it was sitting where the majority of liquid urates were and broke down overnight. I have had my normal female for around 9 months and always had healthy appearing droppings til now. She has passed feces last month that was solid, so I figure she is empty of all contents to make her have a bowel movement. Is this something I need to be worried about?

Sounds normal to me.My ball pythons do the same thing sometimes.

"Loose" meaning small clumps, almost like dirt?

Loose meaning no solids.

I think you've just got the two separate things mixing and creating what looks like runny feces. If it was just a small amount of feces and there was a good bit of urine, then it more than likely made everything a runny mess. Probably looked real appetizing, hmm? :)

zulu did that too last time he pooped and he's on a fast. i didnt worry to much about it, but his wasnt like diahrria it was more like clumps of poo. it was semisolid.

If you were to switch to keeping your snakes in simple tubs with newspaper lining, you'd fully understand the amount of urine they expel too. I never really knew how much actually came out until didn't use bark as a substrate anymore.

Sounds normal to me. A "bad" stool is probably better indicated by a stronger than usual scent or crazy colors in the stool. Urates are normally anywhere from solid white to grey to orange. Stools are usually anywhere from black to brown to greyish. Anything outside of those, you might want to take a stool sample to the vet.

Sometimes when they are "empty" and they push out urates and little "black tar" comes out too. Nothing unusual there.

ROCK ON Brad about the amount of urine! ... I switched from aspen to newspaper because spot cleaning wasn't really "cleaning" ... with paper, when it's clean, it's clean! ;)

-adam