Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for advice or fellow war stories. My female blood hasn't pooped in VERY long time--actually, it's approaching a year. She eats like a champ every 10 days, and she still urinates liquid. She doesn't seem obese, is totally docile and seems to have no trouble coiling, moving, etc. Sheds are great, humidity stays around 60 percent and she has a temp gradient of around 93 to 80 in her enclosure.

I can feel solids 4 to 6 in. ahead of her vent, and they seem to be movable. In fact, when I palpate her tail area, they make an audible sound in there. She drinks water and always has fresh water available to her. I've tried warm water soaking to no avail, and I handle her a few times a week in the hopes that moving around will get things, well, moving.

I've tried not to stress about this, knowing that bloods can be retentive about dumping. And, the fact that she continues to willingly eat and behave normally has kept me from taking more drastic measures to help her out. But, this is getting ridiculous.

At this point, I'm soaking her F/T rats in water before each feeding to try to get more fluids into her. But, I'm open to any advice anyone might have out there to help her get the lead out, so to speak. Has anyone ever tried gut-loading a feeder animal with mineral oil or caster oil before? Will that help?

I'm open to any and all tricks. This girl is my favorite, and I don't want her to eventually go septic on me. I have thought before that feeding her small rats all this time (she's a year and a half old) may be part of the problem--basically, underfeeding might be the reason she's basically digesting most everything she gets. But, maybe that's bogus logic. Clearly, she's got poop to clear out.

Any constructive advice will be greatly appreciated!

Clearly there "could" be a medical problem but bloods are known to be infrequent poopers. Warm baths are good for hydration/skin condition anyway and can encourage a good BM but don't stress about it. My last blood took a horse sized poop every 6 mos.

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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

Thanks for the encouragement. Yep, I've been trying not to let it get to me, but the months keep going by. It just amazes me how they're able to store up so much waste without seeming to suffer by doing it. My ball and woma python poop every couple weeks! So, it's just very strange.

Nice photo, by the way. Did you take that one yourself? What snake is it?

Thanks, I actually meant to attach a pic of my blood... it's a macro shot of my female sorong gtp.

PS - when your blood does finally drop a deuce... have a snow shovel ready!
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

You know, it seems like every time I repaper a cage, the first thing my bloods will do is take a big ol' dump...especially if I've taken particular care in interleaving every piece of kraft paper to make a nice thick layer, and have carefully folded the paper into the corners, making it picture perfect.

The more time you spend making the cage nice & pristine, the faster they'll go.
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Bloodpythons.com - Whats YOUR Blood Type?

I wish it were that easy in my case. But, I know what you mean--for my other two snakes, every time I switch substrate paper is the perfect time to dump the water dish or take a huge poop. It's uncanny how that happens. But, my blood just keeps on holding it in, regardless of what I do. What's more insane is, she keeps eating like there's still room for more. Quite literally, she's had 36 feeder animals since she last pooped. 36! But, she's also quadrupled her size in a year's time. Remarkable.

How long do yours generally go before, well, going? I've heard 4-6 months is typical.

ACTUALLY I HAD THAT SAME PROBLEM WHERE YOU COULD FEEL SOLID BALLS ALMOST I HAD DECIDED THAT MAYBE MY WATER HAD TOO MUCH CALCIUM IN IT AND I SWITCHED TO SPRING WATER AND STARTED GENTLY RUBBING THE BALLS DOWN A LITTLE EERY TIME HE WAS OUT AND AFTER A COUPLE WEEKS HE PASTED THEM SO IT MIGHT JUST BE A CALCIUM TYPE BUILD UP