Hi, posting for a friend as she doesn’t have an account.
Just before Christmas she bought a BP called tizer (pics to follow) he’s eating fine, he hides all day and is active at night and not showing no signs of stress but he hasn’t pooped in the time she has had him (almost 2 months) a couple of weeks back we gave him a soak and a gentle massage and some extremely hard urates shot out, his coaca seemed to be a little irritated before we did this Wich we was told could be from the constipation (pics to follow) but we assumed we had cleared the way for poop but still no joy, he is not bloated and there is no swelling or hard lumps towards his coaca.
His ambiant temps are between 85 and 90 on the warm end and between 75 and 80 on the cool end
He has a basking spot around 92f
The humidity is in the high 40s on the warm end and around 62 in the cool.
Could the humidity be the problem.
Also he has 3 hides but 1 of them is different to the other 2, and she has said that he does tend to favour the one that is different (Wich is in the middle of the viv and around 80f)
I’ve recommended she buy 3 identical hides to encourage him to use them all and therefore encourage thermoregulating!
But that been said he does use both ends of the viv when he’s active at night so not sure if the hides are a major factor?
I see that Christina is already replying but if it were me I would definitely do a few more warm soaks with maybe some very gentle palpating of the lower end. I have seen this before with bloods. Sometimes it takes a few soaks to get to job done.
There haven’t been any other urates and such in the enclosure? Is it possible that there might have been some droppings hidden in a weird place?
It looks like there’s coco bark as bedding… it’s situations like this that keeps me recommending a good quarantine cycle before the final caging. Much harder to miss watery stools on paper towel vs bark where it can get absorbed in.
They look pretty young, so depending on what and how often they are eating and if they’re going to shed in the next week or two that could be why you’re not seeing poop at the moment. They might be using it for a growth spurt. They also like to hang onto a big poop for when they shed.
They don’t appear to be too bloated or sausage bottomed, so I personally wouldn’t be too concerned with it yet. A couple more regular soaks couldn’t hurt to get that swimming motion and get things moving a bit more … But if they do start getting a pretty swollen back end or shed and you still don’t see a poop then maybe a check up with a qualified vet would be a good meet and greet chance.
If they’re still active and not showing any other signs then I would see how thet do with the soaks. Obviously if that changes vet for sure!
Also as a heads up… On a very high white animal like this, sometimes the snake will start looking pink on the belly or sometimes even the body when getting ready to shed. It can be a little scary the first time you see it. But if anything else seems off a red belly can be the sign of an infection. So that is something to monitor carefully.
Thankyou for your reply. I have told her to check every part of the enclosure for poop, and advised her to try soaking a few more times, but how quick after eating is it OK to soak? He only fed on Thursday
Maybe try a swim in the warm bath. The serpentine movement of swimming and exercise also helps move things in addition to the soak. That’s always done the trick for me. Although if it works its not pleasant.
If that does not work you might need intervention soon.
Edit: I too have sometimes had Bels and sometimes albinos a little pink all over before blue and untill shed.
Just an update guys, the snake shed and pooped at the same time, last night. Took a lot longer then expected but he got there haha thankyou for all your replys
Has anyone noticed more constipation in pied gene animals?
Years ago I lost a near adult het pied to it after the vet messaged a blockage out. The vet said it reminded him of the megcolon genetic issue in cats. Got me wondering if the neural crest migration issue behind pied might sometimes affect colon nerves or muscle control. However I’ve hatched tons of het and visual pieds since without problems. Mainly only raised hets but quite a few of them. However, I recently bought a baby het pied male that while waiting for better shipping weather the breeder informed me he had to message out a hard lump. Has me very worried might be a long term issue for that animal and maybe a somewhat het pied related rare side effect. I haven’t found if the cat condition is related to a particular pattern.
I haven’t seen anything to really point at one morph more than another. I don’t know if perhaps meal size vs hydration is a bigger issue to cause it.
I have seen some stressed hatchlings in the past with weaker sphincters. Mostly normals, but they would prolapse if given too large of a meal. The worst off ones would need a little purse string suture to keep things in shape. After a couple months of smaller meals and some growth they usually had enough muscle control built up to eat larger more normal meals without prolapsing.
Granted this was in my time working for a big box pet shop so I only know the whole seller we got the snakes from, not any other morph history/hets.
I don’t know if maybe a history like that could lead to a snake having more issues passing urates as a larger adult.
