ewwww... no seriously, i have a question.

[big d]

Okay, so I came home from work today and there was what appeared to be a very large diarrhea in the corner of my large females tub. Immediately, though very disgusted, I took the tub to my bathroom for a good cleaning. Upon inspection of the diarrhea (a task that was quite nauseating) I discovered lots of remaining rat bones and hair. I also found a FULL undigested rat tail in the mix. This lead me to believe the possibility of regurgitation.

The ball python was fed exactly 3 days ago (friday).


Heres the stitch;

yesterday (saturday), I realized that the heat pad heating her tub had shorted out or something and was no longer providing enough heat to the tub. I've never had this problem before. The last time I checked was about a week ago. I moved her into a smaller tub with working heat pad last night, and today is when I found the diarrhea/regurgitation.

so my questions are;

Is it possible that, due to lack of proper heating, did the rat not full digest and cause the diarrhea/regurgitation?

Or, is there the possibility of a greater issue with the snake, as this is the first time I have ever experienced diarrhea/regurgitation.

[RichsBallPythons]

if fed 3 days ago and you can tell it was a rat, its a regurgitation.

TO be safe either way dont feed again for 2 weeks. And feed smaller prey item.

If stays down then offer again a small prey in 2 weeks as well. As they stay down slowly work back up to normal sized prey.

[big d]

okay, sounds good.

one more question;

is there any possibility it was an undigested poo?
Its really smelled like a crap, like, actually SO stinky.

does a regurgitation normally smell that bad?

[Kaorte]

A regurgitation smells AWFUL. As bad as it gets...

[Debris]

okay, sounds good.

one more question;

is there any possibility it was an undigested poo?
Its really smelled like a crap, like, actually SO stinky.

does a regurgitation normally smell that bad?

Regurge actually smells 10X worse than poop if you ask me. I had a baby corn regurge one time...just a little 3 gram pinkie....and it stunk up my whole freakin' living room!

I am unsure if what you experienced was a regurge, simply because the only ones I have ever seen happen like within 24 hrs of eating, and they still look like a mouse/rat/whatever....they just stink. I have seen where a big adult will poop out the hair, and undigested food, but never a whole tail...??

Either way, do like the other person said and feed a much smaller meal in 2-3 weeks.

[RichsBallPythons]

okay, sounds good.

one more question;

is there any possibility it was an undigested poo?
Its really smelled like a crap, like, actually SO stinky.

does a regurgitation normally smell that bad?

If it was a horrid smell it was a regurgitation.

Follow the steps i listed above and you should be good.

If hes eating say a small rat go to a rat pup or fuzzy rat. Small is the key as well as SLOW.

[big d]

thank you so much. I will definitely follow your directions for my next feeding.

do you think that the loss of heat could have been the reason for the regurgitation?

I just want to pinpoint the problem, and rule out any illness possibility.

[RichsBallPythons]

Yes

heat too hot or too cold
stress
too big of meal
handled too soon

are all reasons why they can regurgitate.

[RichsBallPythons]

Any Updates. Its been 2 weeks, have you offered a meal yet and has it stayed down.

[big d]

yupp, offered a smaller meal and she ate instantly.

its been a couple hrs and holding it down fine.

thanks for the advice.