So I found this in one of my ball pythons’ tubs.
Is this a regurgitation? Or poop? It didn’t quite smell like either, not that I really wanted to get a good whiff of it. 
I’ve never seen just bones and fur like this before, usually a regurge still shows a vaguely rodent shaped lump. Google hasn’t been entirely helpful either.
Blurred because it is a bit gross to look at.
Looks like an underdigested poop.
I’ve had this happen once when it got really warm one summer. Like digestion couldn’t keep up with metabolism from the heat
Another time was with a snake that had a bacterial infection.
I’d double check temps just to make sure it’s not getting too warm. After that, just monitor and see how they do. If it continues, I would definitely isolate out that snake and get a fecal run just in case.
It’s been really hot lately and our poor AC hasn’t been able to keep up very well so maybe that’s what it was, I’ll have to keep an eye on her then.
Thanks for the quick reply! 
Hey @trnreptiles Holly! I checked out the picture so I can learn as I have never seen this before either. I don’t know where you are located but it has indeed been mercilessly hot in some areas of the country. I surely hope you get a break soon from the heat and I hope this occurrence is only a one time thing for your girl! 
Southern Indiana, I’m a bit north of Evansville
But yeah, our reptile room tends to be a little warmer than the rest of the house so I wouldn’t be entirely surprised. Odd that so far it’s just been that one snake that had that issue, I haven’t noticed it with anyone else yet.
Lol! I am so in Southern Indiana as well. Franklin Indiana to be exact. I’m about 3 hours N of Evansville by I69 S. I grew up in Henderson KY which is right across the Ohio river. We are almost neighbors! Lol!
I’m glad that just the one snake has been affected. Not only is this a heat trap in the summer but it’s the stinkin humidity that makes it so much worse! 
Actually I went to Oakland City College many moons ago! I just remembered to look at your profile! Duh! I can be such a ditz sometimes!
So, I forgot to update this but this same snake keeps occasionally having the weird poops. Not every single time, just sometimes.
Today I happened to find it when it was rather fresh, and the smell… was weird. Not quite a poop smell, but it also doesn’t smell like a regurg or a decomposing rodent either. Kinda smelled like wet leaves mixed with a faint poop smell? It’s hard to describe, but it wasn’t a pleasant smell at all!!
I do feed her slightly smaller meals than I would normally feed a snake of her size.
The “Art”:
The “Artist”:
Whoa, that’s so strange! I’m completely puzzled. Let us know if you get to the bottom of the mystery. Your Picasso is gorgeous btw!
Actually I think I can see a tail in the top left of the “poop? regurgitate?”
Her last one I took a picture of shows some bones and even paws on the right side.
But it never smells like a regurg at all and doesn’t look like one from what I’m used to seeing. None of the other snakes she’s housed by exhibit this same issue, they all eat and poop normally.
Are you sure she is eating every rodent she is offered? I have one of my girls strike and coil but then she left it uneaten and I started to smell it and then found it……
I am fairly sure they were not uneaten rodents, they do not smell like decomposing rodent (I unfortunately had 2 of those this last feeding as well as one of my hognoses regurgitating… she was in deep blue though so maybe the rodent didn’t settle well with that?) and I would have caught it fairly quickly if that was the case.
This mass of fur and skin did not smell like either a regurg or a decomposing rodent — the closest it did smell like was poop. Just very weird poop.
I wonder if snakes can have an overactive gut and pass things quicker than what is considered normal, resulting in poops like this.
Well you could be correct here. My uneducated guess would be that not all of this rodent was absorbed for whatever reason and expelled as waste. Maybe this is a digestive issue?
Someone else may jump in here with a more educated opinion. But I admit that this is a bit strange……
If you still have the one in the picture you could refrigerate it until you can run it by your vet to have it checked out……
Unfortunately not, I wanted to get rid of the offending smell as soon as possible so it’s buried in the trash can.
I’ve had her for probably a year and a half now, and it has happened maybe only 3-4 times. All of the rest of her bowel movements are normal.
I may have to start monitoring her more closely and see if the size of meal makes any difference. I give her weaned rats (normally I’d have her on smalls but I don’t want to overload her gut if it’s acting funny) but they can often vary in size a bit depending on the source I get them from.
My guess is that it was not digested all the way. I would check your surface temps. If it is too cold, i guess that could happen. I would keep an eye on it the next feeding and adjust the temp as needed before next feeding.
Well, see I’d be inclined to believe that might be the cause, but this snake is in a rack system with multiple other snakes.
If it was a temperature issue you’d think more of the snakes would be exhibiting similar issues, rather than it being just her. 
Unless heat tape can malfunction in just one isolated spot, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that happening.
If it is one strip looping to each shelf, then you, it probably isn’t the heat tape.
As far as only one spot being effective,
For a short and getting to hot, i don’t think that can happen and the rest still be working.
But, for a cold spot, if any of the heating elements was damaged and and open connection, this could happen. Bit the edges would still have to be intact for the rest of it to still work. Probably a rare case, but could happen.
I have heard that this can sometimes happen if it gets too hot for a little bit, even a few hours. It speeds up their metabolism and results in it not being fully digested as a result.
I have no clue if this is true but is something that I have seen said and seems like it would make sense
