Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Really strange thing just happened. One of my males just pooped...but it was more like explosive diarrhea. I heard a strange noise, almost like a person with a bad cough, coming from the snake tubs. I went and looked and one of my boys had his mouth open and was all tensed up, tail up, and then I heard the noise and saw his whole body moving. At first, I thought he was having the worst coughing fit ever, but then a few "coughs" later, poop started FLYING out of his vent and coating the side of the tub. There wasn't a whole lot of poo, but I did see what looked like a sperm plug mixed up in there.
Somewhat unfortunately, I cleaned it up immediately, then realized a picture might have been a good idea...

I got this guy from a store earlier in the year, and fed him up and healed up his mild case of scale rot. He'd been stuck on eating mice for a while but he just recently started eating rats. He's otherwise perfectly healthy - acts like his usual self (very active for a ball python), drinks, and up til tonight, defecated normally and regularly. His temps are 89 on the hot side, 78 on the cool, and humidity is at 40%.

He doesn't seem to have any blockage, nor did he seem to before. He just shed on the 26th of September, when he also pooped, and it was the day after that that he started taking rats. He took one on the 27th, then another on the 6th of October.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm going to be keeping a close eye on him, but now that his 'episode' is over, he seems to be totally fine.

Sure suprised the heck out of me, though.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

One of our females has done that a few times. The very first time was in the middle of the night... scared the crap out of us. Although we never actually witnessed the "explosion" we had the pleasure of cleaning it. We just figured she was a little blocked up.
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Thanks..... Caine53

1.1 rosy boas
0.1 dumerils boa
1.6 ball pythons- normals
1.0 ball python- het for pie
1.0 ball python- pastel
1.0 ball python- albino
1.0 ball python- spider
0.1 ball python- piebald
0.1 cat named POX

Yeah, he definately scared the bejeezus out of me. I felt bad for him, it looked that painful. And it was LOUD.

And, like royalkreations said...good LORD did that STINK.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

I`ve had it happen many, many times over the years(only ball pythons). It never had a negative affect on my snakes so i never tried to figure out the cause. But it does sound pretty bad while they are doiong it. LOL

shhhhhhhhhhhhewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
3.4 het albino
1.0 het caramel
0.2 poss het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

That's normal! I've witnessed that several times!

Phew. I just about had a heart attack. That looked PAINFUL.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

I hate when that happens in the middle of the night! I can't wait until I can get my collection out of the bedroom.

But yes, perfectly normal, even if we wish it wasn't.

-John B

Thanks for sparing us the pics. lol. I'm glad he was able to get it out and hopefully its all better now.

I read on the boa forum that if you feed "fat rats" to boas, then they will have this problem. The problem is that they can not process fat as well as some other snakes, including ball pythons. It also stated that the "fat rat," could kill the snake because of the same reason. Possibly your ball just did not process the fat in the rat, before defecation? Just a thought.

That's actually an interesting thing to consider. I bred and raised the rat(s) he ate myself, and they weren't terribly fat...but maybe he's just not used to the rats muscle/fat/etc ratio?

Who knows. Hopefully his next poo is less explosive.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire