Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought my daughter a sweet little baby girl corn two weeks ago. She's eaten two pinkies since then and seems to have digested them just fine, but we haven't seen any snake poop. Should I worry about this? Is it possible that we didn't notice it in her substrate (reptibark)? Both times that she's eaten, the bulge disappeared in a day and she got active again. We've never kept a snake before and this little girl is just so sweet I want to make sure that nothing happens to her. We've read as much as we could get our hands on about corns, but I didn't see this addressed anywhere. It seems if they are eating that everything is OK. We feed her in a bare container so we know she didn't eat any bark with her pinks. I'd appreciate it if someone could tell me if this is worth worrying about or not.

very possible you didnt notice the poop, it's smaller than you would think it'd be. If you want to find out whether it is pooping you could put it on a different substrate, such as paper towel or newspaper. Reptibark can be bad. The snake could have a blocked digestive track from swallowing the bark. It's probably nothing so I would change the bedding to newspaper or paper towel and see what happens if she still doesnt poop place her in warm water and try to loosin her up. If youre really worried take it to a vet.
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"The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith?" -Charles Darwin

I wouldn't worry, it's hard to see small snake poop in bark. That's way some people use aspen, newspaper, and papertowels. I don't recommend any except aspen. What type of corn is it. I most hatchlings you can see the poop in the "system" by looking at the underside.

Thanks for the feedback. She is a blizzard -- my daughter says that white snakes are sacred in Japan, so that's what she wanted. We put her on reptibark because my daughter thought she'd like to burrow a bit. We have seen her under the bark once or twice. We had her on paper towel when we first brought her home. I guess the thing to do is to change back to paper towel until she's a little bigger and we know for sure she doesn't have a problem. We do feed her in a different container with a clean bottom so I don't think she'd have eaten any reptibark.

I wouldn't worry about the Reptibark. I used it for years. My wife won't use any thing else for her Boa's and Python's. I've switched to aspin shavings, and my corns love it. It's much easier for them to burrow in and alot cheaper.

I wouldn't worry. If you want to see something interesting, hold the snake up to a bright light. With hatchlings, especially light-colored ones, you can 'see' through the snake (like when you hold a bright flashlight up to your mouth or fingers). Food, poo, and other masses inside the snake show up as dark spots. On my little anery hatchling, I can even see the heart beating.
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-audri
Webpage/Pics

Wow, cool beans! As soon as my kids come home from akido, we'll grab a flashlight and look at her. Since she's a blizzard, I bet we'll get a great view.

>>Wow, cool beans! As soon as my kids come home from akido, we'll grab a flashlight and look at her. Since she's a blizzard, I bet we'll get a great view.

If you have hides, branches and any other decorations (including repti bark substrate) in your tank then it can be very difficult to find their "poop"
They like to either spoil the water or hide it against a wall or behind an object. Do a very thorough search and you just might be surprised.
I personally prefer aspen shavings. "poop" shows up easily on this substrate and corns love to burrow through it. You can even see little tunnels that they make.
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Remember, my posts are MY opinion only.
Jimmy (draybar)

My young corn poop is not much bigger than mouse poop, at least by the time I find it it has dried up to the size of a mouse poop. Aspen shavings show the poop easier too.