uhm.. questions

we have fed both our snakes a few times since getting them, every 5 days and we have had them about 3wks. neither of them have pood or anything.. i know what their urites (sp) is supposed to look like and we havnt had that either.. is there something wrong or is it possible they were under nurished and are absorbing more of their food, even at that i would think there would be some waste.

also, caution was looking like he was going to shed, blue eyes, nasty faded skin/scales exc but now all of a sudden his eyes are more clear. hes still pretty faded looking and his underside is ugly (where that scale rot was instead of being the color it was (faded) is now more brilliant.. is it possible its getting worse? should i take a new pic to show?

Most of my balls defacate the most (or only) when they shed. If you saw signs of an impedding shed then more then likely that is when they will poo/pee. Balls have excellent digestive system and they can extract every ounce of usable material from their food....so it can take several feedings to get enough that they need to get rid of the waste. I have a large 5' ball that has eaten 10-12 times and still hasn't poo'd but lord help me when he does go. :eek:


As for shedding usually they turn "blue" or hazy then a few days later clear up like nothing happened and then a few days more they shed (most of mine take 7 days from start to finish to shed)

As for the belly a pic would help.

before
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1126/...aadaf921d3.jpg

after
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1142/...a0b27a12c8.jpg

before
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1113/...a49f6ca7cc.jpg

after
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1202/...04be92ee8d.jpg

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

As for shedding usually they turn "blue" or hazy then a few days later clear up like nothing happened and then a few days more they shed (most of mine take 7 days from start to finish to shed)

As for the belly a pic would help.

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belly pics posted, thank you for the comment on the shed, he had me all confused lol, i cant wait to see his first shed with us

Yep looks like he is going to shed. As for the scale rot...my guess would be that since he is going to shed that those scales have started to seperate from the new ones (that is why they appear darker). I wouldn't worry till after the shed then you can see if they got worse.


Just note you might see a little blood (spots on the substrate or belly) from those scales when he sheds. Since the scales are basically ruined they sometimes have to pull a little to come off...like a scab. Nothing to worry about but didn't want you to freak out. :)

Hmmmm the very popular poop question :8: , it really varies from one individual to another some are regular as a clock some go once in a blue moon. It is totally unpredictable but it will happen eventually and since one is in shed, he will without a doubt leave you a nice present :D .

Mine just had his first complete shed with us about 2 weeks ago... unfortunately, I was still fighting humidity problems and he didn't get it all in one piece. You might re-check the Shedding Process post, but I believe now is the time to bump the humidity up to 70% if you haven't already... hopefully then it will be a nice, pretty shed! :)

Those little gold bands are kind of cool!

thanks everyone for the responses & the heads up on possible blood in shed, i wouldve freaked out, as for humidity goes, im lucky if i can get it below 80 on a good day so "bumping" it up to 70, shoot i would love to bring it down to 70!

thank you thank you everyone






also, how often do they shed? every 3-4wks?

I can't remember what post it was on... But if you've tried pretty much everything else for your humidity seriously try adding a ventilated cloth bag of long grain rice in there ( I have enough room to hang it from the top of mine)... Rice absorbs quite a bit of humidity and you can just add more or less if it's not doing the trick, or is absorbing too much you just remove a bit.

Another thing I noticed though, (I went back to your old set up photos) the dry drift wood logs and aspen can hold a lot of humidity - especially since they are both untreated wood (which means they don't have chemicals added to keep them from absorbing water)... One other thing you could try is adding less substrate, and see if taking out the driftwood makes it any better for a little bit. If the driftwood seems damp at all or if it's not at least a bit rough and very dry feeling to the hand then it might be over saturated from taking in too much water when the tubs were really humid...

I know as a kid we would bake pinecones to get the humidity out of them.... Can you do that with driftwood to dry it out as well???

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Originally Posted by AshleyB

also, how often do they shed? every 3-4wks?

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They shed when they grow...so there is no constant between snakes. Yearlings seem to (at least in my case) shed ever 4 weeks or so. My 1yr+ kids shed when they feel like it :D - maybe every couple of months. (these are just mine others may have a different pattern)