Wheezing... and a continuance to my question about feeding too big...

[Trey Yeoman]

I fed Elizabeth Thursday night at midnight (so friday morning) and it is now Sunday... so she has had almost 36 hours of having her meal in her and has not regurgitated it (which was a fear before) (see: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...oo-big-too-bad)

She still has a noticeable thickness to her lower area (towards her tail) which can only be the rat that I thought was going to be too big for her... My first question is: how long will it take for that rat, which was larger than anything ive given her before, to digest? Should I be worried about her not defecating after 24 hours? Or does it take longer than that... (i freak out very easily, and am over protective)

And second: I have picked her up a total of twice, once to show her to my bestfriend who came up to my city, then I noticed a sort of wheezing from her... which I attributed to her being filled with a rat... (I was hoping its not the starts of an RI) and I felt a kind of gurgling along her belly, mainly right where the rat was located in her, and so I put her back in her tank.

Then I took her out like, five minutes ago, to clean her tank walls and hides and refill her water, and check on her... and I had her out for maybe five minutes, then I put her back in her tank... but I held her near my ear first and she wheezed, not constantly, but once... then there was regular breathing for a bit, then a little wheeze... but I do not hear any popping, or see any mucous or anything and her tongue is active she is active... so I don't know what... is there a way to reverse the beginning of an RI? (if that is indeed what it is?)

[wax32]

It can take a couple of weeks for a rat to go through a BP. As far as the weezing goes... it COULD be stuck shed in the nostrils or it could be an RI starting. It could be nothing. Open her mouth and look for mucus?

[mpkeelee]

it can take a while for them to pass anything so dont worry about that. they dont go very often. its not like one rat in and one rat out. if u fed a rat that is larger than necessary it could take 3 or more days for it to digest to a safe handling size. the noizes u hear are either shed stuck in its nose like they said or it could be an RI starting. ive never had any noises coming from my snakes because of the food they ate. it doesnt make sense. if ur snake had a good shed last time and isnt getting ready to shed again then it is prolly the start of an RI and u need to get ur vet to get it checked out.

[wax32]

... and isnt getting ready to shed again ...

Forgot about that, preshed they can sometimes wheeze a little.

ALSO, sure she isn't hissing at you a little? IS she puffing up?

[JLC]

Snakes are not utterly silent creatures. They will make hissy sounds of varying degrees...some can be loud warning hisses...some can be faint little whisper hisses...or something in between. You'll make yourself insane if you fret about every tiny little sound.

Yes, it's important to pay attention to catch a sign of illness early. The earlier we catch them, the easier they are to treat. But I daresay a LOT of ball pythons have been treated for RI's they didn't even have due to overzealous keepers and vets willing to treat "just in case."

If there are no other signs of RI...and if you have to hold the snake right up against your ear to catch the faintest whisper of sound...then I would suggest you just relax. Pets should be enjoyable...not a constant source of stress and worry.

An overly large meal can take several days to digest. And as has already been pointed out, they don't poop right after eating...sometimes not for weeks and several meals. But it could also be that the "bulge" you see building toward the end is waste material building up. Even so, she may not poop for awhile yet. Sometimes they'll build up quite a lot before finally letting it go.

Just....relax! Enjoy!!