New owner Question about snake excretions

I have a question, we are the proud new owners of a baby ball python ( we named him(or her) Shepard)... Bought him on Labor day. He (or she) is Maybe 16 inches or just under.. He has been eating well, once a week, Just had his first shed with us 3 days ago and that went great and was completely fascinating to watch. Very active, loving, and loves to be held. My questions though are these.... 1- How often do they defecate?? I have not seen any poop in his terrarium at all.. I look every day, change his water every single day and clean out his water dish when I do... he has eaten absolutely fine we kept him on the same schedule as the place we bought him from had.. So every Thursday.... So, to date he has eaten 3 times with us. (also very fascinating to watch)... But still, No sign of any poop.. So, I am getting very concerned... which leads to my second question.. Just today I found 3 urates in his (or her) cage.. is that normal? or is that a sign of something to watch out for? Two of them I found earlier today when I was changing the water dish and freshening up the substrate material, semi-buried in a corner that he ( or she) rarely goes to (which I found kind of odd) lol... the other I found after we put him back in the cage was near the water dish. Any knowledge on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance ~Shepard's mom :)

:colbert2:

:welcome:


Glad to have you here on the forum!! Hopefully we'll get to seeing more of Shepherd as he grows up :gj:


I wouldn't worry too much; you've had him for about 2 weeks?? BPs don't always poop regularly...they have been known to go for quite a while without poop, and then have a massive blowout...


Can we see pics of your new addition??

Welcome and contrats on the new member of your family. I'll warn you that BP's are like Pringles, you can't stop at one. :D
What are you feeding him? Also, you can feed every five days until he gets up to around 500 grams in size.

Thank-you for the warm welcome, I am trying to figure out how to post a picture on here... lol

Welcome balls don't poop on a schedule. I was worried when I first got ours, but these wonderful people assured me she was fine... mine hadn't gone in 2 months! Now that she's bigger she has been going more regularly. They use most of the food item when small, they don't have much waste

Welcome!!

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I managed to get a picture of him for my profile picture but that is it. lol

Congrats, he/she is very cute! What are you feeding? I agree that you can feed every 5 days, I feed my 1 month old every 3-4 days myself.

their digestion turns bone into salt and dust. finally nothing remains other than the sturdiest parts of teeth, and crap.

you need to worry if the width of the snake increases around one location of the body, most commonly if things get constipated it builds up above the cloaca. so you need to be on the watch and consult a vet if things go sour.

but then, the slow metabolism and their ability to digest bones and somehow condense it all allows for some crazy volume reduction. you need to track the overall body shape, that will go out of bounds if the BP is sick.

also pictures will help a lot.

A lot of times when they shed they will poop. And be careful what you wish for sometimes they make a real mess. They can hold it a while sometimes if it starts getting swollen and doesn't go, you can put them in Luke warm water in a tub or even in the bath tub, they will usually poop and any stuck shed will come off too. Some people will say don't put them in water and some say do. I have before and had no I'll effects I wouldn't do that until he is settled in good though it could stress him out.

1.1 pastels, 1.0 lesser, 0.1 spider, 1.3 norm. 1.0 fire 0.1 RTB 0.0 sav. Mon.

Can I ask again what you are feeding him? Because if you bought him from a big box pet store they probably told you to feed him one mouse pinky a week, which is not nearly enough food even for a hatchling as they can usually start on rat fuzzies immediately after hatching. It would explain why he's not pooping.

Welcome! Don't worry about the no poop issue lol. Mine usually poops once every 2-4 weeks when she eats regularly. The longest she's gone without pooping is almost 2 months! Just be prepared when it does happen though...because sometimes when my BP poops, it's bigger then our dog's lol (we have a fairly small dog, but its still funny haha)

Welcome to the Forum. :snake:

My adult goes every 2-4 wks, and EVery Shed for sure.

Thank-you :) Forgot to metion.... The lady at the store (who is also an owner of a BP) said pinkies were to small for him, so we graduated him to fuzzies when we bought him... I asked her what to look for in signs that he was still hungry after that, and thus far he is exhibiting none of those signs.

Fuzzy rats or mice? If mice it's still too small, I'd up the size or feed every 5 days. You should be able to see a small lump in the stomach after eating
They use a lot to grow :)
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Not sure what they told you to look for but with mine I find that when she wants more food she will raise her head up high with her body in a strike position and look around for another snack. I have only seen her do this a couple times. After I switched her from adult mice to small rats I had one live mouse left and I gave it to her as a mid week snack because it wasn't going to get big enough to be a meal. After eating it she re set her jaw and was looking around for more. I waited till she settled down before reaching in to replace her fake plants I keep in the tub because I knew if I did she would have probably bit me out of a feeding response.