Something wrong with my little girl??

[BornboreD]

Hi,

I just got my pair of '04 jungles last weekend at the Port Credit show, I gave em a couple of days, then offered food. Both ate one f/t hopper mouse. I waited a week, (yesterday) and attempted to handle them for the first time. This was a new experience for me cause I'm accustomed to ball pythons, not skinny, lightning fast little mouths of fury!! Anyways, the handling went fine, and I handled both for about 20mins each. When I got home from work this morning, I decided to try and handle them again.

As I was handling the little girl I noticed something strange about her vent. At first I thought that she was about to defecate on me but upon closer inspection, and enduring a few more bites, noticed that her vent was wide open, and a fleshy mass was protruding. I then very gently, let her slide her tail between my fingers. As her vent passed over my fingers, it was indeed a fleshy mass, and she was leaving a white snail trail on my hand. I thought that maybe she was just trying to defecate, so I put her back in her enclosure, and left her alone for an hour or so. I then went back to check on her, and her vent does seem to be normal again. Any ideas what was going on?? All help is greatly appreciated.

[ilia]

She got a prolapse. I have heard that when a GTP has one you can put a sugar and water mixture on it and it will be fine.

Prolapses are usually caused when a prey item is either too big or the snake is fed too much.

[gonesnakee]

I disagree on the prolapse. She probably was trying to crap/musk you but didn't have anything in her bowels to push out. As long as she "sucked" it back in after handing no problem. Sometimes baby Jungles think they are Kingsnakes LOL If you notice this any time other than handling & she doesn't retrace it back yes if could be a prolapse & can be very serious if not dealt with as it exposes her to an infection as insides are supposed to be inside of course. I think she was just stressed out by the sounds of all the bites & was just trying to musk. IMHO Mark
P.S. a baby snakes defensives go as follows:
1 try to escape or act tough
2 if can't escape & acting tough doesn't work bite
3 if biting doesn't work crap/musk on the "attacker"

[Jeff_Favelle]

She was pooping on you as a defensive mechainsm. They do that when highly stressed. When I sex out all the babies, they all cloacal gape like that and try to expel whatever they have in their systems. If nothing is there, its just a gape. Makes it easy to sex them though, LOL!

But yeah, its a by-product of stress, not her being unhealthy.

[BornboreD]

Ah good!! That's a relief!! It did seem to go away after putting her down. Just to be sure I handled her again, and while she was just coiled around the end of the snake hook her vent looked fine, but as soon as I placed her into my hand, it happened again, this time actually secreting drops of white liquid (urate I guess) all over my hand. What would you suggest?? Give her another week and another meal before handling her?? Or just keep handling her for short periods everyday, until she calms down? I had thought that it was a defense mechanism, but had never read anything about jcp's doing that sort of thing so I thought I'd be sure and ask. :)