Something worrying with one of my hatchlings

[dr del]

Hi,

For the second time I have just found wierd little balls of what looks like goo in the tub of one of the last batch of hatchlings.



I have checked the hatchling over and can't see anything even remotely odd in her mouth around her vent or belly button.

The top one was more like a small hard seed and the rest kind of have the texture of frog eggs - the biggest one is around two millimeters in diameter.

The first time I found them I cleaned out the tub completely but I can't exactly bleach the hatchling.

She hatched on the 8th of November and hasn't shed yet so is still being kept in a tub with damp paper towels as a substrate.

I have a few who haven't shed - I don't know why but it seems to be an issue for me this year.

But I have checked every tub and none of the rest have had any of these little balls of stuff.

Anyone know what it is?



I have no idea why her nose looks like that in the photo - it looks perfectly normal in real life.


dr del

[BPelizabeth]

Not that I know anything.....however has she eaten??? Could that just be a weird looking urate??

By the way she is lovely!

[dr del]

Hi,

No, I was waiting for more of the clutch to shed so have only offered food once and she was one of the ones who showed no intrest in doing anything but biting my finger.

I did wonder about urates with the colour but they really are gelatinous - I'm a little worried it's her yolk passing through her with no digestion or something serious like that.


dr del

[BPelizabeth]

shoot a pm to Big Gunns to see if he has seen this before??

Sorry I don't have any answers for you!

[reptidude1]

I was thinking about the yolk thing, thats the only thing i can think of. Mabey some more experienced members of the forums will chime in...

[RichsBallPythons]

Looks to be undigested yolk

[Big Gunns]

Big Gunns would like to say he knows exactly what it is, but he can't(very rare). The only thing to do is double check all your temps and keep an eye on it. A Vet visit might be a leeetle much at this point.

It does look like undigested yolk like someone said....it probably is since it hasn't eaten anything else. It could have actually spit this up. There's not really much you can do but keep an eye on it. Again...double check your temps just to be sure, since you're having a few animals that are taking a while to shed.

[Patricia]

Just wanted to say how cute she looks and that I like that colour, whatever it's called.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Looks like yolk to me as well--are you sure this baby didn't have an umbilicus still partially attached? Perhaps it came from that.
Digested yolk is often yellowish too, and the first defecation can look a bit funny, just as with any infant.
In any case, I wouldn't worry about it unless the snake shows some other sign of ill health, fails to feed, etc. It looks healthy enough in the photo (and feisty).

[Ash]

I have no idea why her nose looks like that in the photo - it looks perfectly normal in real life.


dr del

It could be the very tip of her forked tongue all spread out in front of her nose.

sorry I can't be any help with your yolk problem. best of luck! she's very pretty and looks quite gutsy!