Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Borneo male hasn't had a fecal bowel movement in quite some time, so I know its about time he does, I felt the hard bump near his bottom a few days ago. My question though, is that he's been soaking in his bowl for 4 days now! I don't think he could be THAT consitpated could he? Is it anything I should worry about? He's never soaked this long before a bowel movement before.

thanks so much!

~caietaro

Caietaro,I wouldn't worry about it too much,bloods seem to defecate a lot less then most snake species.When I first owned my blood he didn't defecate for 4 months so,I took him to the vet and they gave him an x-ray and a enima that cost 100.00 bucks.What a wast.The vet had no idea about bloods.Nor did I cause they don't mention that in books,so I finally called Pro Exotics and they set me straight.Just make sure you don't feed your pet over sized prey or more than once a week.My three little female bloods haven't defecated yet either,so don't sweat it.The little bumps you feel are ureats,snakes don't pee,so instead the urine collects in little white balls and that's what your feeling.Good luck.

He usually defecates around once every 1.5 months or so, so thats not what I'm worried about. I was just concnerened because he's been sitting in his water dish for going on 5 days now straight and he's never done this before! Is it anything I should be concnered about?

I'm just curious because sometimes I have a difficult time comparing the width of my snakes to the rats I feed them and I'm always thinking I'm feeding too big of pray.
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Rob Talkington

Yes Rob,I've had problems in the past with feeding my blood big meals wich led to consipation,also big meals causes the body to have to work harder at digestion.A few other health related problems could arise from oversized prey item such as,the prey going rancid inside the snake due to the amount having to be digested.So to sum it all up,It's better to feed your snake a smaller prey item once a week or every ten days,to one huge meal every three to four weeks.It's more fun also cause you get to feed them more often.Good luck.