Yeah... she ate that

Doing my nightly checks before settling in, popped open the tub for the enchi and Bam. Caught her red handed, or rather, shed faced!

Everyone keeps telling me to post this, so here I am posting it!

Shes in a rack system, 90 for heat, this is a newer rack to her but shes eaten in it Wednesday, she eats weekly and has never skipped a meal with me. Only new thing near her is a cubby buddy, the pinstripe scaleless in the tub next door.

I'm at a loss, was shocked, but shes apparently fine. Pic to follow in a sec!

Wouldn't let her upload so she sent me the pichttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...910ba64ca2.jpg

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What was she doing? lol

Eating her shed like it was the last piece of taffy in a post apocalyptic world man- she horked it lol

Time to up-size her food maybe? I could picture a king snake doing this, for sure, but not a beep...goofy snek. :D

Incidentally, the weirdest thing I've seen a snake do with a shed was to crawl back inside it after he was all done...really, like
some twisted separation anxiety, lol.

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Originally Posted by Cass

Eating her shed like it was the last piece of taffy in a post apocalyptic world man- she horked it lol

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That is SO weird for a ball python LOL.

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

That is SO weird for a ball python LOL.

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Only the last snakes on earth you'd ever expect to suffer from pica...;)

Wow that's pretty unexpected lol. I guess now that there is documented proof that such a thing can happen, we can no longer discount the possibility that a BP has eaten their own shed when it comes out of the blue phase of shed and all signs of shedding mysteriously vanish. :P

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Incidentally, the weirdest thing I've seen a snake do with a shed was to crawl back inside it after he was all done...really, like
some twisted separation anxiety, lol.

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And this thread just keeps getting weirder and weirder LOL

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Originally Posted by Luvyna

...And this thread just keeps getting weirder and weirder LOL

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It wouldn't have been so bad but I had to help him out of his shed...he got stuck going in backwards...:oops:

I really wish I could say no way, but I believe it might happen more often then realized, With most people keeping in tubs and racks, it increases the odds for is not being seen as often? Just a thought.

Hmm... Well, all my geckos eat their sheds, so I guess it isn't out of the ballpark that a BP would eat theirs to regain nutrients.

Also a thought, maybe the shed contained some poo or residue (mine often do) and the poo smelled of rat causing her to eat it for that reason?

It seems bizarre to me given some Royals won't even eat mice or rats readily :)


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Shes definitely an eater, and it has not been a full week since her last meal, I'm just- shocked! Checked in on her this morning and of course shes doing just fine lol. It did in fact have a poop in the shed so let's just see how that goes down twice!

I love that the collective response to this in a fb post I made is just a collection of various "what the fuuuuck", has no one ever caught a pic of this behavior?!

Course this is the only mark I ever make in the scientific community...

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Originally Posted by Cass

Course this is the only mark I ever make in the scientific community...

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From now on it will be known as the 'Cass Effect'. Congratulations!

And: I've NEVER seen that before. :O

It makes some sense from a survival standpoint too: snakes rely on not being discovered by their own predators, and what better way to let your enemies
know you are there than by essentially hanging your clothes out like a big flag for all to see & smell. BPs don't move around much either, so keeping their
location for ambush-hunting a secret makes some survival sense.

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Originally Posted by artgecko

Hmm... Well, all my geckos eat their sheds, so I guess it isn't out of the ballpark that a BP would eat theirs to regain nutrients.

Also a thought, maybe the shed contained some poo or residue (mine often do) and the poo smelled of rat causing her to eat it for that reason?

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Or if fed live, the shed could have smelled of rodent urine from when the snake made a kill?

Thats crazy!! Lol

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

It wouldn't have been so bad but I had to help him out of his shed...he got stuck going in backwards...:oops:

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Funniest case of stuck shed there ever was :rofl:Snakes really are such goofs sometimes!

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Originally Posted by Cass

Shes definitely an eater, and it has not been a full week since her last meal, I'm just- shocked! Checked in on her this morning and of course shes doing just fine lol. It did in fact have a poop in the shed so let's just see how that goes down twice!

I love that the collective response to this in a fb post I made is just a collection of various "what the fuuuuck", has no one ever caught a pic of this behavior?!

Course this is the only mark I ever make in the scientific community...

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Congrats you've documented rare and never-before-seen ball python behaviour and debunked the saying that "BPs don't eat their shed" :D

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

It seems bizarre to me given some Royals won't even eat mice or rats readily :)

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Maybe you should all be saving their sheds to use like sausage-casings over their f/t mice & rats? :rofl:

This is great, I am a SCIENTIST, I can't wait to tell my possible future children and their sprogs about my contribution to the ball python world!

I can only imagine how little they'll care 😂

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

It makes some sense from a survival standpoint too: snakes rely on not being discovered by their own predators, and what
better way to let your enemies know you are there than by essentially hanging your clothes out like a big flag for all to see & smell. BPs don't move around
much either, so keeping their location for ambush-hunting a secret makes some survival sense.

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Well, seriously, maybe this is a long-lost "instinct" that has been disappearing among all the captive-bred ball pythons, but happened to show up in yours?

Busy people can be remarkably UN-curious when you're talking about a shed that might be lost under substrate...they never consider it might have been ingested.
Yours is probably NOT the first BP to do this. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

It makes some sense from a survival standpoint too: snakes rely on not being discovered by their own predators, and what better way to let your enemies
know you are there than by essentially hanging your clothes out like a big flag for all to see & smell. BPs don't move around much either, so keeping their
location for ambush-hunting a secret makes some survival sense.

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In addition to this, before I got a blood python and was doing research I read that they are known for going months without pooping. A theory of this is that they “hold it” because they are such large, heavy bodied snakes that are ambushers. Because of their size, they’re not very active and pooping often would cause both their living quarters to be dirtied and their scent to be smelled by prey. Could be similar to what Bogertophis has said here


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Oh ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Bad enough about eating the shed.

But shed wrapped around poo and urates?

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww


Who said BPs were picky...

I have to admit it. I wouldn't have believed it hadn't I seen it.


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Originally Posted by zina10

Oh ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Bad enough about eating the shed.

But shed wrapped around poo and urates?

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww


Who said BPs were picky...

I have to admit it. I wouldn't have believed it hadn't I seen it.


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Maybe she sensed she needed some more gut bacteria...? Other creatures are known to do this, & while it's still being studied, they're finding that in humans, having
the wrong "gut bacteria" can promote poor health & obesity, & there is even such a thing as a "fecal transplant". -Sorry if this is TMI...;)

Maybe this explains the way some snakes insist on eating "backwards" (butt-first)? :confusd:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Maybe she sensed she needed some more gut bacteria...? Other creatures are known to do this, & while it's still being studied, they're finding that in humans, having
the wrong "gut bacteria" can promote poor health & obesity, & there is even such a thing as a "fecal transplant". -Sorry if this is TMI...;)

Maybe this explains the way some snakes insist on eating "backwards" (butt-first)? :confusd:

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That definitely is a thing. But usually only works if you transfer healthy gut bacteria from someone else to replenish what is missing or damaged in someone's gut.

Foals eat their mother's poop because of that reason, and some bad cases of colitis can be cured by mixing manure from a healthy horse into their food/milk.

I believe rabbit babies HAVE TO eat poop from their mother, on top of that only "special poop" that is only produced at night or something weird like this? Which is why its so hard to save rabbit babies without their mothers.

And yes, its even done with humans. But its sanitized, cleaned and given through feeding tubes ;)

It really wouldn't serve any purpose to eat ones own poop though. I can't imagine urates being healthy either. Apparently there were no bad side effects, but it it rather gross ! LOL..

Huh, well I knew cresties ate their sheds but bps doin it? That's a new one for me. Weird.

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Originally Posted by zina10

That definitely is a thing. But usually only works if you transfer healthy gut bacteria from someone else to replenish what is missing or damaged in someone's gut.

Foals eat their mother's poop because of that reason, and some bad cases of colitis can be cured by mixing manure from a healthy horse into their food/milk.

I believe rabbit babies HAVE TO eat poop from their mother, on top of that only "special poop" that is only produced at night or something weird like this? Which is why its so hard to save rabbit babies without their mothers.

And yes, its even done with humans. But its sanitized, cleaned and given through feeding tubes ;)

It really wouldn't serve any purpose to eat ones own poop though. I can't imagine urates being healthy either. Apparently there were no bad side effects, but it it rather gross ! LOL..

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I quite agree...it's gross. And I'm not saying it's going to be helpful to the snake, just brainstorming reasons why the snake might have done this. It's anyone's guess, lol.