Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have never tried this in the past but do to a recent thread gave it a try and here is what I got out. Thanks much to who posted it. Out of the farm hatched babies I got in this year there were a few that haven't fed yet so decided to check on them all and found one to have the whole "hard belly" syndrome. If you have never seen this it is very easy to distinguish. The whole belly region down through the intestine feels very solid to the touch like the animal swallowed a bunch of rocks. Actually that is what I thought the first time I came across it since I was using pet store river rocks to weigh down the water bowls. Anyway I was able to slowly massage the mass down and out of the snake without having to apply extreme pressure to the animal. Amazingly the mass weighed 12 grams and the snake 45 grams so a little more than 25% of the snakes total weight. I will still have to see how the snake recovers from this whole ordeal but so far so good. Here is a picture of the snake next to the mass.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

Good job! Glad it worked for you.

jeff

please keep us posted on how the snake does

I saw that other post too and was wondering how the baby was doing.

Several years ago someone had a similar situation and provided a series of pictures showing how the object was massaged out of the baby.

I can`t remember who it was and didn`t save the link to the pics.

Anyone else remember?

>>I have never tried this in the past but do to a recent thread gave it a try and here is what I got out. Thanks much to who posted it. Out of the farm hatched babies I got in this year there were a few that haven't fed yet so decided to check on them all and found one to have the whole "hard belly" syndrome. If you have never seen this it is very easy to distinguish. The whole belly region down through the intestine feels very solid to the touch like the animal swallowed a bunch of rocks. Actually that is what I thought the first time I came across it since I was using pet store river rocks to weigh down the water bowls. Anyway I was able to slowly massage the mass down and out of the snake without having to apply extreme pressure to the animal. Amazingly the mass weighed 12 grams and the snake 45 grams so a little more than 25% of the snakes total weight. I will still have to see how the snake recovers from this whole ordeal but so far so good. Here is a picture of the snake next to the mass.
>>
>>George Knaack
>>GLK HERP
>>
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Rob Talkington

My best understanding is it is congealed egg yolk. I don't know the cause of it but it is speculated that stress or temperature changes may be a factor. Someone else might be able to give a better understanding.

Thanks,
George

Geez, I bet that snake would kiss your a** if it could!! Glad you got it out.
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Rob Talkington

Geez it looked like you popped a lung out of that baby!

....lol good luck on it and I hope it does well for you