Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently adopted a 450 gram Female Ball Python via the local Herp Society. The owner was headed for Iraq and could not care for her anymore. I was told that she looked a little thin and dehydrated, and to feed her small meals to start. I have had her for a little over three weeks now, and fed her three times. The first meal was a rat pup. The next one was a small rat. Both of which she digested quickly (there was no lump after two to three days). The third meal was a good size medium rat. It has been five days since I fed her that one, but she still hasn't dropped any scat that I can see. She has a very large water dish that I always keep full and the temp/humidity is steady around 85-88F and 65-70% humidity. Is there cause for me to be concerned? Or is she just using every bit of each meal to put on some weight? Any information would be appreciated.

Dave

1.0.1 Berdies (Smaug and Helios)
1.1 Cal Kings
0.0.2 green Iguanas (Achilles and Zim)
0.1 Leopard geckos
1.1 Tri-Color Hondos
1.0 Hypo Hondos (Tigger)
1.1 Sinaloan Milksnakes
0.1 Ball Pythons

In my past expieriences with BP rescues what you are describing has happened on several occasions. From sickly neonates to malnourished adults this has happened. Larger meals take more time to digest than say a rat pup or even a small. For my snakes that were not 100% healthy they have taken 5-8 days before anything comes out after eating a larger rat than they are used to. If your little lady does get a little constipated he tail will get really round by her vent. Just soak her in luke warm water and she should deficate just fine.
Best of luck with her.
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Christine
Tails With Scales Reptiles
Happiness is biting my snake back!

..they digest meals to the full extent that they can.......some will defecate once a month and some less.....

babues will defecate maybe 2 times a month ......maybe more.....

......if it is to be fed small meals.....increasing the sizes and feeding more than once a week is not the way to go......

.......it'll be ok.......keep feeding it small rats and it will be fine...........

when the "lump" goes down it just means that the rat's insides are digesting.......it takes alot longer than 3 days for the bones to digest (and all the meat).....and hair will just be expelled later .......

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..................gottaLuvIt!!

My female ball python defecated on the 31st of October and then didn't defecate again until two nights ago. Someone told me that a ball python waiting this long isn't necessarily unusual. She's my first, and I've only had her since the middle of October. I was very concerned, but she appears fine.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

I thought this would be a funny picture! Here is my 497 gram female "Bones" with some buddies. A rat pup, a small rat, and a medium rat!


It is funny to think that all of that is digesting inside of your snake now (by the way...Bones is working on digesting a meal as well as you can see by her plump stature)! Snakes digest slowly...but I would watch her to see that she is handling her meals well before you feed her another medium rat, especially because you are unsure of her past history. Medium rats are actually a really large meal for a 450 gram snake (a medium rat usually weighs in between 125-175 grams). I would stick to smalls for awhile
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*Amy*

Yeah, this one is my first ball, so I am not acustom to the very slow digestion of the ball python. I keep alot of milksnakes and kingsnakes and their digestion seems to be much faster. I assumed that most snakes had similar digestion times, but I seen now that I was wrong. Thanks for all of the info and I will keep to the small rats for now (I did, however, get the smallest "medium" rat that they had).

Dave