Help with defecation information

[brianmheinz]

I have read through the forums and didn't see anything recent or specific to what I am experiencing so I apologize if this is redundant.

I have a 5-6 month old ball python. Has always fed on frozen thawed fuzzies and eats well. Every week and sometimes he takes two.

My question is, he appears to be trying to pass his excrement but it is taking a long time, like days. I know The timeframe varies from animal to animal but the thing that worries me is that I can see him start to get it out and then it sort of just hangs from him for a while and then eventually, it retracts. I know it retracts because I check every inch of his space and cannot find anything. Bedding is fine coconut so there really isn't anyplace for it to hide. It isn't in either of his hides either. He is drinking well and moving around, temp and docile and I cannot feel any lumps of hard spots along his belly etc. It happened again this morning when I was spot cleaning so I decided to give him a soak for about 30 minutes. When I took him out it was again retracted and nothing in the water.

I thought about taking him to the vet but see no signs of stress or blood etc. No open wounds or prolapse and so on.

Any information or experiences to share would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Craiga 01453]

Fuzzy mice or rats?

[brianmheinz]

Fuzzy mice or rats?

Fuzzy mice. I think rats are too big for him right now

[tttaylorrr]

Fuzzy mice. I think rats are too big for him right now

fuzzy mice are WAY too small for the average 5 month old beep.

[Craiga 01453]

Fuzzy mice are way too small.
BPs start with hoppers for the first few meals only. Then get moved up to small mice or rat fuzzies.

Your snake may not be defeating because he is using 100% of the meal to grow. There's nothing left over to poop out.



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[Stewart_Reptiles]

Bowel movement depends on food intake since you are severely underfeeding your BP, all the prey item is utilize for the animal to sustain itself leaving nothing to be eliminated.

Even a BP out of the egg take something much bigger than a fuzzy they get started on hopper and quickly move to adult mice. Fuzzies are colubrid food.

They can also be started on rat out of the egg so rats are not too big regardless of the size of the BP.

Time to do some research and stat feeding your BP appropriately.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ing-Guidelines

[SpacegirlSpiff]

Fuzzy mice are way small

how much does your BP weigh? General rule of thumb seems to be the prey should weigh 10-15% of the BP's weight when they're young

Around that age, my BP was starting to take rat pups... and now at 9 months old, she may be getting ready to graduate to weanlings (I weighed her the other day at around 370g)... just as an example

[brianmheinz]

Ok, I will get him bigger food items going foward.

But again, per my original post, he is eating two at a time he is getting it about half way out and then it is retracting. So he isn't utilizing the entire meal because there is clearly something he is trying to pass.

[Craiga 01453]

Trust me, with that little food intake, he is using 100% of his food intake. That's like you trying to survive on a bag of skittles every few days.

I'm not sure what you're seeing, especially without being able to see it myself. Try to get a pic next time you see it and post it. That'll probably be the only way we can help.

You're going to need to do some homework and get your snake on track.