Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I realised the other day that my 6 monthold boa has been eating quite the thing but it is 3 and a bit weeks since she defecated, i'm starting to worry this could be a major problem, the temps all seem fine and she's been going along with things as per usual, any1 know if this is anything to worry about? I have given her a couple of warm baths and also she shed her skin in the middle of this time and NOTHING.... interested to read any responses.

Hi,

Fortunately, I have never dealt with constipation with my boas. I soak all my rats for a couple of hours in water as I am thawing them. For my gravid females, I also inject the thawed rats with water – as much as the rat body can reasonably hold - without popping...ack My boas have always had nice moist, but firm, poops like clockwork.

I have heard of soaking the constipated boa, like you are doing. I have seen one boa palpated gently to help move the hardened feces along toward the vent. I don’t think I would be comfortable doing this without instruction and demonstration from my vet first.

This is from Dr Mader’s book ‘Reptile Medicine and Surgery’. He recommends saline enemas for constipation. The saline volume should be 1% of the boa’s body weight. He says the catheter should be well lubricated with water soluble lubricant. The saline flush is followed by aspiration and repeated several times. He also says a commercial balanced electrolyte stool softener will work well when administered to well-hydrated patients. However, he says constipation is often the result of dehydration in carnivorous specimens fed heavily furred animals – so I don’t know how comfortable I would be giving a stool softener to a snake that is already dehydrated.

Perhaps some more soaking will do the trick or the saline enema. Like I said before, I don’t have any first hand experience with this problem. Once your baby poops, you might want to try the rat soaking thing and/or injecting them with additional water.

Best wishes for impending poopage
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Linda Hedgpeth
lindafh@frontiernet.net
Sierra Serpents

"...and God took a handful of southerly wind, blew his breath over it and created the horse..."

Linda - that's the first I have heard of injecting rats with water to avoid constipation. I have been injecting the food rodents with vegetable babyfood to provide some additional vegetable matter and carotenoids for my boas and gilas, thinking that it may enhance color and can't hurt. At least they'd be getting some additonal nutrition. As a side, it would also give more liquid. Have you thought of using something other than water, that gives some additonal nutrition, like milk, Ensure, Carnation instant breakfast, or something else? Mark

>>Linda - that's the first I have heard of injecting rats with water to avoid constipation. I have been injecting the food rodents with vegetable babyfood to provide some additional vegetable matter and carotenoids for my boas and gilas, thinking that it may enhance color and can't hurt. At least they'd be getting some additonal nutrition. As a side, it would also give more liquid. Have you thought of using something other than water, that gives some additonal nutrition, like milk, Ensure, Carnation instant breakfast, or something else? Mark

Hi Mark,

I have only injected them with water or Pedialyte. I have fed my gravid females smaller rodents (compared to what they would normally eat) and have injected the rats with water to help hydrate a little bit.

I don't think boas and milk products mix well You might end up with some nasty diarrhea and Lord knows what else!

I have tubed Panacur into the rat's esophagus when worming. I understand snakes don't like the taste of the wormer at all, so you have to make sure you get it all rinsed off the mouth area before offering it to the snake. You could inject things like Nutribac or flagyl into the rat as well, depending on the need at the moment and it would save tubing the snake itself.

There are probably some great ideas floating around out there. I have only done what I mentioned above. I have never even had a boa go extra days before pooping. Mine are very regular and the texture looks good - for poop
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Linda Hedgpeth
lindafh@frontiernet.net
Sierra Serpents

"...and God took a handful of southerly wind, blew his breath over it and created the horse..."

Keep it simple guys. If you are feeding a stable diet of " properly raised " mammals and or fowl, you need no supplements. ESPECIALLY none of what " whitneywee " was curious about. Mr. Pope " The intellectual " made a good point. Sugar and some of the additives in the things that " whitneywee " was talking about, would be VERY BAD for your boas. K.I.S.S. and the six month old should defectate by the end of next week and if not, just keep trying to soak it. Boas who are fed less, will defecate less frequently. When they are not having food shoved in their mouths every week, they can actually take the time to digest and absorb and utilize ALL the nutrients that its meal can give. I would not be overly concerned at this point. Last note; " The only time that I use supplements is when I occasionally feed store bought drumsticks and I use a formula of vitamins and minerals that is all natural and has no additives of any kind." Oddly enough, in 17yrs of keeping B.C.C. I have only started the drumstick deal in the last few months and the drumsticks with the supplement that I use, the animals seem to be more vibrant than ever and they eat it like candy. I boil them a few minutes and put the supplement under the fold of skin and they scarf them down. Anyway, kind of off topic, good luck with your boa.......GOD BLESS.......Johnson Herp

I was just trying to offer advice here. No one needs your negative undertones when they’re just trying to help someone John.

The last debate that we had a couple of months ago, I said; " I wish I could be as articulate with words as you. " The comment was intended as a joke based on previous events and not a negative undertone.My apologies, if you took it that way......GOD BLESS......Johnson Herp

Personally I do not think 3 weeks is anything to worry about. Sometimes boas can hold it for a long time up to 4 to 5 weeks. I would take your boa out of its cage for some exercise. Don't worry about it. Your boa will go when its ready.
Chuck

>>Personally I do not think 3 weeks is anything to worry about. Sometimes boas can hold it for a long time up to 4 to 5 weeks. I would take your boa out of its cage for some exercise. Don't worry about it. Your boa will go when its ready.
>>Chuck

Hi Chuck,

You are probably right and exercise is a given, although I think I would be concerned if one of my babies went 3 weeks without pooping - especially since they normally poop about 5-6 days after eating. I would want to be knowing why.
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Linda Hedgpeth
lindafh@frontiernet.net
Sierra Serpents

"...and God took a handful of southerly wind, blew his breath over it and created the horse..."

Perhaps you are feeding it too big of items? You hadn’t mentioned this but does its tail look swollen, as though it is retaining feces? If so, I had good luck doing the following. I take it one step further than soaking the animal. I fill the tub (or the sink if it is small enough) with only lukewarm water (probably cooler than you’d want to bathe in), and then encourage the snake to swim around in it. The deeper you make the water, the more effective it will probably be. For me, the boa invariably loosens up and drops in the water. Don’t bathe with him! I used this technique a long time ago when I didn’t know better than to overfced or feed too large of items.

Linda and Mark, those are some interesting thoughts regarding supplementation and whatnot for boas. I have always been heavily interested in diet and nutritional supplements for longevity and athletics, but as they pertain to humans (not boas) of course, and I have done extensive research on these topics.

I’d speculate that perhaps some micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) enrichment could be good, but macronutrient (sugars, fats, proteins) additions, especially in the form of sugars, might be a bad thing. I am not a doctor or anything, but most of the food that a boa would naturally take will contain fat, proteins, and micronutrients, but only rarely would it contain more than small single gram amounts of sugars. As such, I’d guess that Carnation and similar products with sugars could be bad given with any regularity.

The greatest concern might be the artificial sweeteners. While boas might eat rodents with traces of fresh fruit in the guy (fructose or similar sugars), I’ll guarantee they don’t naturally consume saccharin, sucralose, or aspartame. I won’t bore you further w/details, but these sweeteners have some VERY BAD stuff associated with them in humans; it’s probably worse w/boas.

Personally, I’d be nervous about trying to administer an enema to a 6 month old boa, depending on its size. One has to determine whether the potential benefit of that enema will offset the stress induced to the animal and/or risk of injury in administering it.

Oh well, just my $0.02, I wasn’t cheap today.

MATTHEW

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