Adult Male Ball's Anal Spurs Are GONE?

[tarakatrine]

i have an adult male ball python. not sure of his age, but i was told by the pet store they "think" he is about 3. i know that he is a male, he has mated with my female and i have seen his ahem..."organ." he used to have large anal spurs...but tonight i was looking at his junk and they are just gone. there are 2 holes where they were. they are shallow holes, and it isnt by any means an open wound. it seems to be all healed up and my snake is behaving normally and seems to be in perfectly good health. whats up with that???

*before responding...yes, my snakes are VERY well taken care of. he is a big healthy boy that lives in about 800 dollars worth of luxury, and gets regular soaks in a very large bath tub. not neglected, so please dont criticize...just offer some help. thanks!

[Dave763]

Really? Maybe he is so fat you can't see 'em

[justinsane82]

^^Wow

I've read that this can happen after a shed. Not sure if they grow back or not though.

[mechnut450]

the spurs will and can fall off. they like a toe nail in some sense they are just dead skin. the sprswill return so don't panic. you can actually pop them off yourself . I do this with new animals(rescue) so there nowere for anything to hid on them.

[muddoc]

the spurs will and can fall off. they like a toe nail in some sense they are just dead skin. the sprswill return so don't panic. you can actually pop them off yourself . I do this with new animals(rescue) so there nowere for anything to hid on them.

Actually the spurs don't fall off, nor can you pop them off. However, spur caps, like eye caps, rarely come off when ecdysis occurs. If you look at the spurs of males or females after a shed, they will have appeared to grow. This is many retained sheds on the spur. The retained sheds is what can fall off, or be pulled off.

If you look very close at your snake, I would be willing to bet the spurs are still there. Look closely, and you will see to very white, small claw looking spurs on your snake. So, no need to be alarmed.

Hope that helps

[mechnut450]

opps that the part I forgot cause if you pulled the spuro ff you more less got a bleeding snake.. I pop the ones off the rescue snakes to make suer if ihave ot toss all in a pillow case and get out of dodge. in a hurry I can get an ideal later on who what somewhat.. the patterns all look alike to me unless they got a weird mark.

then again ifI take my glass off everything a blur of colors and movement. ( run if i ever have to drive without them cause the safest place would be the road )

[mpkeelee]

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...highlight=spur

check out this thread. it has some pics included.

[j_h_smith]

I wanna know why you were looking at his "junk"?

Just curious!
Jim Smith

[mpkeelee]

I wanna know why you were looking at his "junk"?

LOL ya! its a lil weird u were watchin snakey porn but then u wanna look at his junk too!

[tarakatrine]

thank everyone for your help. there seems to be people that have seen it and havent seen it, but at the end of the day i dont believe that anyone really knows everything there is to know. im not going to worry too much about it. the best reply that i got was maybe he is fat. lol....thats probably true..he is a little on the chunky side. haha....either way he seems to be fine. he ate 2 mice today. and for the guy wondering why i was looking at his junk....sometimes i inspect my snake looking for strange things like missing anal spurs. im not a weirdo, i promise. and to the other guy....i wasnt watching snake porn....i just have seen him in "action." haha. anyway..thanks all!