BP not pooping or peeing inside enclosure

[Luvyna]

TL;DR: Ball python holds his poop and pee until he has a sausage butt, then goes outside of his enclosure. Why?

I don't know if BPs are capable of this kind of forethought, but I could swear that mine waits until he's out of the enclosure to relieve himself. In the past 3 months, he has "decorated" me and various pieces of furniture in the house 3 times, and has not gone in his enclosure a single time. (He also had to be soaked to get him to poop during this period, I think he was constipated and I am still trying to find out why that happened, have been keeping humidity between 65-75% and feeding him wet rats to see if that helps.)

He usually waits until I'm not holding him and he's just laying in my lap or on my stomach when I'm sitting or lying down. Then he'll stretch himself out and pee on me when I'm not paying attentionThis is my fault, really, because I ignore the warning signs like a slight sausage butt...etc. lol and it makes sense that handling helps move things along. I've learned my lesson now and next time I see a sausage butt he is staying in his enclosure until he either goes or he is getting bloated/it's been too long and he needs to be soaked.

There have been a few times when I caught him lifting his tail and rushed him back to his enclosure. Not sure if that throws him off or what but once he's back inside he refuses to go. I check on him several times a day and always check the temps, humidity, water, and look for urates or poop. If any of his substrate is soiled I clean it right away so it never stays dirty for more than a few hours at most. I'm just wondering why he isn't going in his enclosure anymore the way he used to, is it abnormal for a snake to wait until they develop a slight bulge around the vent area? Could there be something wrong with the enclosure or husbandry that is causing him to go outside instead of inside it? Or has he just decided he'd prefer to go outside (I hope not)?

[Bogertophis]

I've never seen a snake that has this sort of forethought (not wanting to mess up their cage), but in the wild, keep in mind they go & move on, they're not
confined with it. I tend to think it's just because he is stimulated by the handling & being outside his cage, but who knows? Maybe he's just out to get you?

[Luvyna]

I've never seen a snake that has this sort of forethought (not wanting to mess up their cage), but in the wild, keep in mind they go & move on, they're not
confined with it. I tend to think it's just because he is stimulated by the handling & being outside his cage, but who knows? Maybe he's just out to get you?

It sure feels like he is lol! I guess the only thing to do is be more careful in the future.

Yeah, it's true that they'd be able to move on in the wild. While some snakes are fine with doing their business in their hides I sometimes do wonder if they have any concept of cleanliness for their living space. There's a vid of an African egg eating snake in this video and I could swear that this snake is making the conscious decision to spit the eggshell out onto the table instead of in her own bin! https://youtu.be/m3PQtYGNqjs Then again, she could just be stretching out her neck or trying to get away from the camera. It's impossible to know what they're thinking!

[Shayne]

My Monty has "marked" me 4 times. He'll just be chilling around my neck then BLOOP, there it is. I think some of it has to do with stimulating them when we take them out for "play time". Thought I was gonna have to replace the couch one time. It was baaad. lol

[Luvyna]

My Monty has "marked" me 4 times. He'll just be chilling around my neck then BLOOP, there it is. I think some of it has to do with stimulating them when we take them out for "play time". Thought I was gonna have to replace the couch one time. It was baaad. lol

Sounds very similar to what my Noodle does lol! He also got the couch but luckily it wasn't too bad.

[RedRabbit]

Since I went through the exact same fretful thought process as you, I've since been wondering if we're just overthinking things, and meanwhile our snakes are just ... going whenever they feel like it, as snakes do. During my most recent photo session with Iggy (the one with the miniature tea sets), he was getting a fair amount of exercise as he slithered among the various props ... and right when I put him in my lap while I moved some things around, he let loose enough poo to make my pajama pants and the surrounding carpet look like a Jackson Pollock painting. An extensive clean-up ensued.

Afterwards, I checked my notes to see how exactly he'd saved this up. He'd been producing urates at regular enough intervals (inside his enclosure) that it hadn't raised any concerns, but when I looked up the last time he'd had a proper poop ... it was 3-4 months ago. I also checked his weight difference, since I'd just weighed him the day before. The bomb he dropped on me was 50 grams' worth of poo. No feeding or behavior issues, no straining or prolapse, no soaking involved, and still a very perky (though visibly deflated) snake after the deed was done.

Was there a moral to this story? Honestly I'm not sure. I guess I'm saying that your husbandry is probably perfectly fine, and Noodle is just ... being Noodle.

[Luvyna]

Since I went through the exact same fretful thought process as you, I've since been wondering if we're just overthinking things, and meanwhile our snakes are just ... going whenever they feel like it, as snakes do. During my most recent photo session with Iggy (the one with the miniature tea sets), he was getting a fair amount of exercise as he slithered among the various props ... and right when I put him in my lap while I moved some things around, he let loose enough poo to make my pajama pants and the surrounding carpet look like a Jackson Pollock painting. An extensive clean-up ensued.

Afterwards, I checked my notes to see how exactly he'd saved this up. He'd been producing urates at regular enough intervals (inside his enclosure) that it hadn't raised any concerns, but when I looked up the last time he'd had a proper poop ... it was 3-4 months ago. I also checked his weight difference, since I'd just weighed him the day before. The bomb he dropped on me was 50 grams' worth of poo. No feeding or behavior issues, no straining or prolapse, no soaking involved, and still a very perky (though visibly deflated) snake after the deed was done.

Was there a moral to this story? Honestly I'm not sure. I guess I'm saying that your husbandry is probably perfectly fine, and Noodle is just ... being Noodle.

I think you're right about the overthinking, I'm here all worried but Noodle is happily going about as usual with his life haha.

I've gotta go check out that photoshoot! Wow, Iggy sure left you a nice surprise after that though They always seem to wait until they're in your lap. I hope the carpet survived the ordeal!

It's pretty wild that he went so long without pooping, glad to hear that nothing was wrong. I wonder if there's some logic behind what they do or if it's simply normal variation between different snakes. Guess we both just have BPs that like to wait a long time lol.

Thanks to everyone for the input, it's good to know that most likely nothing is wrong

[Valyndris]

Crowley does this too. Sometimes he'll go in his tank on his way out to do "missions" but usually he unloads after stretching for a bit in his room and he goes where he feel comfortable, usually with the tail touching a corner of some kind. I'm pretty sure handling and having the snake move around is why your snake does his business outside the tank. He is probably a clean snake and doesn't want to mess up his tank. When Crowley was a bit younger he very rarely peed or pooped in his tank other than after a shed because I guess while shedding he holds it for so long it needs to come out. Now days he only pees or poops in his tank if he knows I'm around to clean it. I had gone to bed when he did his shed not too long ago and he held in his pee and poop till the next day when I took him out. I'm pretty sure he knew I had gone to bed and he didn't want to sleep in his own feces. I gotta say ball pythons (and probably any other snake, I just don't have the experience with anything other than ball pythons) are smarter than given credit.

[Luvyna]

Crowley does this too. Sometimes he'll go in his tank on his way out to do "missions" but usually he unloads after stretching for a bit in his room and he goes where he feel comfortable, usually with the tail touching a corner of some kind. I'm pretty sure handling and having the snake move around is why your snake does his business outside the tank. He is probably a clean snake and doesn't want to mess up his tank. When Crowley was a bit younger he very rarely peed or pooped in his tank other than after a shed because I guess while shedding he holds it for so long it needs to come out. Now days he only pees or poops in his tank if he knows I'm around to clean it. I had gone to bed when he did his shed not too long ago and he held in his pee and poop till the next day when I took him out. I'm pretty sure he knew I had gone to bed and he didn't want to sleep in his own feces. I gotta say ball pythons (and probably any other snake, I just don't have the experience with anything other than ball pythons) are smarter than given credit.

That sounds very familiar, Noodle also likes to have his tail in a corner of sort and likes to go when he's relaxed and has been out for a while. Handling seems to be the prevailing theory for the cause of accidents outside of the tank and it definitely makes a lot of sense. Those are some very interesting observations about Crowley, I can totally believe that some BPs are more careful about cleanliness. IMO all animals are probably smarter than we give them credit for, and we'll never know how much they really know.

[Bogertophis]

I'm not ready to say yours is the first "house-broken" snake (for HIS house, not yours ) but I've seen many snakes defecating over the years & they do
appear to pay some attention to placement...a number of mine deliberately put their tails over their water bowls & leave it there, hoping it will flush, perhaps?
And often they line their tails up in the cage corner too, so??? Maybe they see us looking for "it" all the time and they're trying to help us find it by aiming for us?
"Look, I've got a present for your." Hahaha...we'll never know for sure?