No poop help

Hi all, I wanted to reach out because my girl Mila has been eating but hasn’t pooped in almost a month. I’ve never experienced this so I’d love any advice or tips to get her to poo. She is 3 years old. I feed her one rat weekly (and she pooped 3 weeks ago) like all my others but have since stopped feeding her because I’m worried. I did giver 1 warm water soak but no luck. I am not at home but my husband reported thst she still hasn’t pooped as of today. What do I do? Should I have him take her to the vet or wait it out a bit longer? Thank you!

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Sometimes they just take a while. Their metabolism is slow and can vary a lot based on temp, humidity, how big the meal was, etc. You can maybe soak once a week and try to bump up humidity in her enclosure but I wouldn’t be concerned unless she starts looking bloated around the cloaca.

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Hey @gina5678! Totally agree with @inspirationexotics on the not to worry yet advice. Just out of curiosity how much exercise does she get out of her enclosure? If you handle her routinely then never mind.

I just know from experience that if I have one of my guys out for a bit of quality time handling with mom and it’s time for a poop, usually I will get pooped on if I am not careful! For me the handling stimulation does it every time.

This might be stupid advice but I’m just sayin! Lol! :poop::poop:

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As @inspirationexotics and @caron says, its not so long a time to worry.
And as @caron says movement helps.
If you it continues or you are worried, you can maximise and provide the best movement to expel-
give it a swim in a shallow bath. (a household bath to be big enough and of the right temperature for a ball pythons)
The serpentine swimming motion and warm water almost always pushes things down and out.

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Maybe just confirm with your husband what the snake’s enclosure temps are if possible.

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All great advice here! I just wanted to know how she looked in that area? Does she have what some of us refer to as sausage butt? (Like it’s right there bulging at her cloaca basically) Also mine will not poop for a few weeks when they are in a shed cycle. Then they shed, poop and make a huge mess! For whatever reason they like to do both at the same time! So see if yours has that look, feel of going into a shed cycle. Keep us updated! Explain to your ball python the importance of being regular! :joy:

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Too bad there is no “Metamucil” for snakes……. :joy:

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@gina5678 it is not uncommon as others have stated. Size of meal, temps, shed cycle all come into play. Definitely check to see if there is a larger area or hard area within her. You can do this by just feeling and looking. What some post as “big butt” can be an indication she is close to going. Some soaking and massage could help.

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Here’s a picture from Sunday. She looks like a sausage all over. I changed her to mice for a bit thinking she was getting to be overweight but I feel like it’s just her being constipated because I have 2 others the same size and they aren’t overweight.

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Being the paranoid person I am, I have wifi hygrometers in all my bins; the ambient is 83°, humidity 62%, and my husband used the heat gun and said hot spot 88°, cool spot 80°

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Right range for sure :+1:
I’d have to agree with the possibility of shedding soon.
Mine do the same , hold it untill they shed. A very messy shed at that :nauseated_face:

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@caron I was totally hoping someone answering me would tell me about snake Metamucil :rofl: My husband gets her out when we clean up paper towels and my daughter plays with her for a while and puts her back about 5 or 10 minutes later twice a week usually. She’s her favorite. I take her out for outdoor enrichment also.
@ascended I will have my hubby put her in a shallow bath with appropriate temp

Thanks all

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Maybe I should invest in the Metamucil! Lol! I’m sure she will come through for you in time. She might just be holding onto it to make you nervous! Lol!

She is very pretty btw! Keep us updated! :blush::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I do personally think she’s very overweight based on this picture, so I would consider spacing out feedings a bit more! Usually when they have to poop they have a weird sausage butt look, but the body condition of the rest of the snake looks normal

A month isn’t super long to go without pooping, I’d say most of my juveniles or adults go every 6-8 weeks (babies more often), and they do usually poop when they shed. So if she’s due for a shed soon, I’d expect a mess.

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Thank you @chesterhf , I will scale down to once every 2 weeks. In my mind I thought feeding her a mouse rather than a small rat would be enough cutback but yes she is plump. I think what confused me is that I have 2 other girls-, an albino and an ivory- that weigh within 75 grams of each other, are on the same feeding schedule and are in great body shape. I wonder if I should think about it like us humans. People may weigh the same and eat the same stuff but look very different body wise and have vastly different body composition.

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It would not hurt to cut back to a 2 week (or even 3 week) feeding and a smaller meal for a while (maybe 85g rat). Skipping a feeding once in a while will also be ok. Has she ever gone off feeding, if so for how long? I would keep it off food for a month to see what happens. She definitely has enough stored fat to last a while off food, without any harm.

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She is a consistent eater, I took over care for her from someone who started traveling for work and the parents didn’t know how to care for her. She was emaciated and very dehydrated with scale rot and now she looks amazing though too chunky now. I think I will wait a month before feeding her again and switch to weaned rat afterwards instead of a small rat

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Sounds like a good plan! I agree with others, she is definitely significantly overweight. If it helps to clarify, my future breeder girls that are around her size are fed a small rat every 2 weeks, so if she’s not a breeder and just a pet, she could be fed even less often than that. For helping get that fat off I would suggest older, leaner prey - so less baby fat and more muscle. My recommendation would be one small rat once a month, or a jumbo/large adult mouse every 2-3 weeks.

Different animals can have very different metabolisms - I have two females who are less than three months apart in age and are fed the same size meals (weaned rat) every 12ish days. One of them is already pushing 1300g, and the other is barely 900.

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@gina5678 I just wanted to say how kind it is of you to basically save her life! Yes she is overweight but with the advice given to you here, you will be able to correct that! Bless you dear one! :heart:

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That sounds like a great plan! Mine are also on a small rat ever two weeks schedule and they seem to do well on it. I’ve personally observed ball pythons fed on mice to have a fatter body condition with less overall growth/size than those on rats so it might have something to do with the nutrient composition of the prey.

As you said, much like people, they do seem to have differerent body condition and growth rates even on the same feeding schedule. I’ve noticed the same with some of mine

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