Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I purchased my first Woma (hatched June 15th, 2004) on August 7 and he is a joy to have. Problem is he won't poop on his own and I'm at a loss to know why. A little history:
The first day home he passed a very small poop. He was placed in a rubbermaid shoebox with aspen bedding, small water bowl, clay pot hide, UTH.
I was told he fed on live mice fuzzies so I purchased one from a local pet shop that has reptiles and he refused to eat it. Found out he actually had been eating f/t (what I feed all my snakes). On Sept. 16th I found mites on him. I suspect they came on the live mouse. I wiped him down and soaked him in warm water for several hours on consecutive days. The mites disappeared and have not returned. Up to this point he had not pooped even with weekly feeding.
On Oct. 7 I took him to a vet (UC Davis Vet School, excellent institution) and the vet did a thorough check up and found him apparently quite healthy. She massaged out a very long (4+ inches) poop preceded by a hard piece of uric acid. This we thought was the blockage (even though he urinates regularly).A fecal was done and came back normal.
On Oct. 12 I found a little loose poop.
Has not passed on his own since. I've gently repeated what the vet did and massaged out long, well formed poops on Dec. 3, Jan. 6 and Feb. 8 (yesterday).
He is currently kept in a rubbermaid sweater box, newspaper substrate, clay hides on warm and cool sides, warm side upper 80's to lower 90's and cool side low to mid 70's. He thermoregulates. Water is always available and he urinates regularly and apparently normally. When I do massage out the poop, as soon as urine is forced out first I then let him poop on his own and he looks normal doing it showing good muscle control.
My suspicion is either my husbandry is incorrect or he has a twist of some kind in his intestines. Sorry for the long post but I'd thought I seek help here before making the next trip to the vet for further tests.
Oh, he appears very healthy, eats like a pig (never refuses, currently taking two rat fuzzies every 7 to 10 days). Has shed Sept. 6, Oct. 29, Dec. 10 and Jan. 21.
Thats all I can think of.
Any help would be appreciated and I'm sorry for the long post.
Thanks,
Paul

These were taken on 2/7/05.

the first thing to try is a good soaking in pedialyte a few times a week.

my experience with aspidites is that they hold on to the poop and pull every last drop of fluid out. the soakings may help soften things up.

good luck
Doug Taylor Reptiles

I had also heard that they hold on to their poop for long periods from another who had sent me an email. He also suspected that I'm underfeeding somewhat and that I should give the snake more room to exercise. I'll keep your advice in mind as I learn more about Aspidites.
Thanks again for the reply.
Paul