This isn't RIGHT!!!

[lanalizard]

again, here i am bringing up the situation of my bp who hasnt eaten since august....
Since august he hasnt eaten but grew 10 inches and shed a full body shed twice..pooped one time after assist feeding and it was orange and white..
i gave up on him..just let him sit in my room with heat..he wouldnt eat and i was fed up....

TODAY i look in his cage and it looked like a tornado ripped thru there, there was bits and pieces of shed EVERYWHERE from wall to wall...and there was a POOP!?!
hOWEVER this poop looked like this!!!!


http://www.geocities.com/ratgals/poop.html

pls tell me what it means?

[Burmies]

Nasty, but I can say that is looks like it is from not eatting in a while.

Burmies

[lanalizard]

i tried to feed him just now and he didnt take it again

[Mike177]

what is the girth of the snake?

[BurmBaroness]

That actually does not look like poop, it looks like urates.

[Matt_K]

i'm going to have to agree with Burmbaroness on this, to me that does look like Urates..

[vanderkm]

The white chunks look like urates clumps and the yellow material they are coated with looks like mucus secreted from the lining of the intestinal tract that is stained with bile (which makes it the yellowish color). This bile stained mucus is because he hasn't eaten in so long and no food is moving through the gut and bile is still secreted. While this isn't abnormal in itself, the fact that his gut is active again could be an indication that he is getting ready to feed after winter.

I am not familiar with the things you have tried to get this guy to eat, but if he is an adult, we have had some go from August to April on a winter fast. To get ours to start eating in the spring we would do a heavy misting of the cage around and outside their hidebox 3-4 times a day for about a week, and then on the 5th day offer the prey while they were in the hidebox, late in the evening. This would usually get them feeding again after the winter.

good luck with him,


mary v.

[jwsporty]

Hey Mary,

Just curious what the line of thought was to do heavy mistings to get your Balls to eat. I have not heard of that before but hey if it helps to get my stubborn guy to eat, I will try anything. My female finally starting a regular feeding program (actually got two adult F/T into her in the last 7 days), it's just the male that is taxing my patience.

Jim

[vanderkm]

Hi Jim,

We just figured that the start of spring in Ghana might be the beginning of the rainy season after a dryer winter (although I think the humidity there is pretty high even in winter).

Our problem feeders were two ball pythons - wild caught, over 10 years old when we got them and had been feeding very sproadically over the past 2-3 years that we had a history on them. They would eat 5-7 adult mice between them (they were in a shared cage - with a rainbow boa and a bullsnake - not the best informed keepers!) over the course of a year. We separated them, put them on coconut husk bedding to keep the humidity up, got temps regulated and finally got them feeding regularly. They would still fast over winter, starting between August and October and not feeding til April. One usually started eating first and we waited months for the other to start on his own the first year. We tried the misting and it worked that year, and after that we started to mist him when the other one fed and he would almost invariably feed after the first or second week of trying this. Just thought it might be worth a try - this guy would be sticking his head out looking for prey as soon as we started to mist his house!

mary v.

[jwsporty]

Thanks Mary,

Your approach sounds logical enough and I have started the misting process, morning and night. Sure hope the little guy starts to chow down soon. It's coming up on 6 weeks now without food. I wouldn't be so concerned if it wasn't for the fact that he is just a kid. I may have to resort to force feeding if he doesn't get something into him soon..wish me luck..

Have a great one
Jim