How often should my boa be defecating?

[svtvenom]

I have had my 1 year old male 460 gram (38 inch long) BCI for exactly a month now, and he has only defecated once (the night I brought him home). I feed him a small rat every 2 weeks. The cool side is 78 and the warm side is 88. I try to keep the humidity at 65 but it is hard in a glass tank (AP cage was ordered a week ago, but it won't be here for months). I was wondering how often should he be defecating? He has had two urates since I've had him.

[Sauzo]

Depends on the snake. Mine poop anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Seems the boas hold their poops a lot longer where as my pythons will poop anywhere from 3-7 days after eating except Dottie who poops whenever. I havent really found a pattern with her. She's my oddball. She eats when she wants and poops when she wants haha.

[dakski]

I have only had Behira for 4 months, and she's little bigger than your guy and about 1 3/4 years old (690G tonight after a big poo).

She is more like my BP, she seems to poop when she wants. On average I would say every 2-3 weeks.

Behira is fed every two weeks now on small rats (generally about 60-70G even though she could take a bigger rat). If your guy is eating more, that may change things a little, but still on his terms.

My BP will release urine and urate often without pooping, but only poops every 2-4 weeks also.

My corn goes like clockwork about 3 days after eating, and sometimes again the day before feeding (day 6).

I wouldn't worry too much. As long as the poo looks okay (not runny/loose etc), I wouldn't worry at all.

You will learn his patterns the longer you have him.

[Dutti]

I have had my 1 year old male 460 gram (38 inch long) BCI for exactly a month now, and he has only defecated once (the night I brought him home). I feed him a small rat every 2 weeks. The cool side is 78 and the warm side is 88. I try to keep the humidity at 65 but it is hard in a glass tank (AP cage was ordered a week ago, but it won't be here for months). I was wondering how often should he be defecating? He has had two urates since I've had him.

If you are feeding him a small rat every two weeks, why do you excpect him to poop a lot? He is not getting that much food. If the rat was bigger, or he ate more frequent, then he will poop more. my BCI poops after he digests the meal. He eats every two weeks and poops every two weeks on average. I feed him 12 or 24 hours after he defecates

[svtvenom]

Ok awesome! At what point should I be worried?

[dakski]

Ok awesome! At what point should I be worried?

When I first got Behira, she didn't poop for a month, even though she was eating weekly. I asked the breeder and he said she would poop when ready.

She pooped about a week later and has been going every 2-3 weeks since.

Sometimes it's just an adjustment period for them. I know some snakes will wait to poop if they are shedding. Then they leave you two presents; shed and waste! Has he shed yet? Is he due?

I imagine, from some of your other posts, that you are still meticulous with keeping temps and humidity proper. Obviously, if temps especially are off, or he is dehydrated, etc. he might not poop, or have trouble pooping.

As long as husbandry is good and he has access to clean drinking water, I wouldn't worry unless he stops eating, or starts acting strange, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a huge poop soon and loses close to 10% of his body weight though!

Behira was up to about 510G and when she had her first poop, went down to 460G! Nothing quite so big since, but there can be a lot - LOL!

[Sauzo]

Ok awesome! At what point should I be worried?

I wouldnt worry unless you see something like serious backup. Sausage butt if fine and usually means a poop is coming very soon lol. Just be sure to keep him well hydrated as low hydration combined with too much or too big of food can cause back up issues or prolapse. Eating big meals takes a LOT of liquid to digest. Combine that with low humidity and low water intake and you got a disaster waiting to happen.

It's like people say you need 70-80% humidity for snakes to shed. i call BS. All my snakes including my GTP shed one piece just fine at 65-70% humidity. I dont raise it during a shed or anything. Just keep it constant 65-70%, sometimes dropping as low as 60% in the winter but i prefer to not keep it that low.

And stick to smaller meals. There is no reason to see how much your snake ca eat. It isnt going to starve and us as keepers generally overfeed as it is. No need to compound it more by giving huge meals. Even my retic gets average or smaller meals. He could easily power down a 4XL guinea pig but i give him jumbo rats and XL guinea pigs.

[CloudtheBoa]

Depends on the individual. A few of my boas poop within a week of eating, most take 2-3 weeks, and my sunglow can hold it in for a good 2-3 months sometimes.

I wouldn't worry that he's only pooped once.

If you are feeding him a small rat every two weeks, why do you excpect him to poop a lot? He is not getting that much food. If the rat was bigger, or he ate more frequent, then he will poop more. my BCI poops after he digests the meal. He eats every two weeks and poops every two weeks on average. I feed him 12 or 24 hours after he defecates

Assuming OP's small rats are in the 45-80 gram range, a small rat every 2 weeks for a 460 gram 3' boa is more than plenty. I have 600 gram sunglow who just got switched to small rats every 3 weeks this past week, she's been eating weaned rats every 2-3 weeks since she hit about 300 grams. My 1,000+ gram, 4' male also only gets a small rat every 3 weeks. Boas don't need as much food as you would think, and honestly it's incredibly easy to overfeed them, leading to obesity, heightened chances of fatty liver disease, drastically reduced lifespans (especially if the diet isn't corrected once they're older), and other health and digestive issues.

My adults only get a large rat every 4-5 weeks, and are generally fasted 3 months every winter, or at least fed half as often.

I wouldnt worry unless you see something like serious backup. Sausage butt if fine and usually means a poop is coming very soon lol. Just be sure to keep him well hydrated as low hydration combined with too much or too big of food can cause back up issues or prolapse. Eating big meals takes a LOT of liquid to digest. Combine that with low humidity and low water intake and you got a disaster waiting to happen.

It's like people say you need 70-80% humidity for snakes to shed. i call BS. All my snakes including my GTP shed one piece just fine at 65-70% humidity. I dont raise it during a shed or anything. Just keep it constant 65-70%, sometimes dropping as low as 60% in the winter but i prefer to not keep it that low.

And stick to smaller meals. There is no reason to see how much your snake ca eat. It isnt going to starve and us as keepers generally overfeed as it is. No need to compound it more by giving huge meals. Even my retic gets average or smaller meals. He could easily power down a 4XL guinea pig but i give him jumbo rats and XL guinea pigs.

They can definitely shed pretty easily all the way down to 50%, but I generally keep mine 70-80% because I notice better skin condition at the higher humidities. I don't get bent scales, those lines in their side, or dry-looking scales, but once it drops below about 60% I start seeing signs of low grade dehydration, though they may shed whole pieces. I don't like my hands to get dry, I assume they don't like to be dry either. lol

[svtvenom]

Ok I will keep an eye on him . What does sausage butt mean? lol Sorry, still a little new to snakes.

[CloudtheBoa]

Ok I will keep an eye on him . What does sausage butt mean? lol Sorry, still a little new to snakes.

Usually people use that term to refer to a snake with a fat rear end, where they're holding in poop. It's called sausage butt, because if they have a particularly large amount of poop stored up, it can look stuff like a sausage, and can even look bigger around than the rest of body.

I generally don't see the sausage butt in my snakes, but they will have a noticeable distention to their back half up until they defecate. I just don't feed them enough that they create a lot of unnecessary waste, so the distention is just slight to moderate.