Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 250gram male pied, last night at about midnight I heard something that sounded like a small explosion. I noticed my little pied has his mouth open and looks like he is gagging and hacking, then I notice there was no hacking, he just had his mouth open and was trying tremendously hard to defecate which ended up being rather runny and gassy. I am accustomed to young snakes have less solid stools due to their food being super fatty and less than covered in hair, and the feces was not odd smelling, it did not contain any ooze, or anything abnormal, it was just very loud. I am mostly curious if anyone else has seen any of their snakes with their mouth hanging open while defecating.
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Ball Pythons:
1.2 Normal
1.2 Pastel
0.1 Black Pastel
2.0 Het Orange Ghost
1.1 Mojave
1.2 Spider
1.0 Albino
0.1 Het Albino
1.0 Piebald
0.1 Double het, Albino Pied
Other:
0.1 Irian Jaya x Jungle Carpet python
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python
1.0 Tiger Retic
1.1 Burmese Pythons
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
3.3 Corn Snakes
0.0.1 American Alligator
2.0 Veiled Chameleons
1.0 Savannah Monitor
1.0 Chinese Water Dragon
0.1 Brown Basilisk
0.1 Sulcata Tortoise
1.1 Sugar Gliders
0.1 Puppy

Can't comment about the open mouth but the sound... wow ... sometimes it is very surprising/shocking. Sounds like ... someone ate a bad batch of chili and was sitting on the toilet in the wee hour of the night. I had the pleasure of enjoying a 4 a.m. "symphony" conducted by my small collection one night.

one of my yearling balls exploded that way over the winter...but he's been fine since and pooping just normal. Just keep an eye on your guy, make sure he isn't in any distress...he should be alert, active and moving normally..if he goes kind of limp noodle when you handle him, then he could be very sick.
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PHLdyPayne

lol snakes do fart....mine did it more when they were younger but now that they are older it is quieter. dont know about the gasping though..could be RI signs

No RI, already checked. I think he may have just been very uncomfortable and trying really hard to push everything out. He seems just fine today, completely alert and active when I take him out, so as of now I am assuming the gasping was some behavioral phenomenon that I will never fully know the truth behind.
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Ball Pythons:
1.2 Normal
1.2 Pastel
0.1 Black Pastel
2.0 Het Orange Ghost
1.1 Mojave
1.2 Spider
1.0 Albino
0.1 Het Albino
1.0 Piebald
0.1 Double het, Albino Pied
Other:
0.1 Irian Jaya x Jungle Carpet python
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python
1.0 Tiger Retic
1.1 Burmese Pythons
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
3.3 Corn Snakes
0.0.1 American Alligator
2.0 Veiled Chameleons
1.0 Savannah Monitor
1.0 Chinese Water Dragon
0.1 Brown Basilisk
0.1 Sulcata Tortoise
1.1 Sugar Gliders
0.1 Puppy

Just throwing this out there as a possible explanation, but what are your temps? Are they high enough to allow for quick digestion? Slower digestion because of lowered temps and/or "big" food item could cause some gas to form from decay.

Try feeding slightly smaller plus a slightly higher temp for faster digestion.

Parasites......stools can look like that when parasites are involved. Go to your vet, get some meds.....I would recommend flagyl (metranidazole....sp?).

Brandon Boeke
Priceless Pythons