wierd feeling body....

Grant vg · 05-22-02, 06:33 PM

Maybe this is just normal....
But it seems like my bloods are retaining alot of liquid within there body....
As u can probably already tell, i cant really explain this very well...lol
maybe its just cause they're robust, but there not at all "firm"...i here and feel a lot of water jiggalling around inside of em...is this a possibility of the worms that they may harbour?
Or is this just normal?
Also, its like sometimes when i lose hold of one of them, part of there body will totally fold over, as a long style ballon would if filled with water...????

( <-bad analogy...lol.)

They still have not defecated since i got them which was like in january i think....

Comments anyone....

snakekeeper · 05-22-02, 07:19 PM

Hi, grant the blood I got off u pooped twice already...The only thing I can think of doing is to pump some food into them..Insted of every 11 days try 7-8. I feed the blood I got off you every 6-7 days and he is doing fine. I also found a nice swim in a bathtub worked also....hope this helped

Grant vg · 05-22-02, 07:48 PM

The fact that they havn't crapped yet, makes me think that they are being affected by the worms....they soak regularly, and release liquid every few weeks, but nothing solid so far...
Maybe the panacur this week will fix em up....

Yve · 05-22-02, 09:06 PM

Grant, don't jump to conclusions, you'll worry yourself silly! my blood crapped before I dewormed her. Have you started the less frequent feeding regimen?...If so, I think it will take awhile to clean them out!so to speak. This is my guess, it seems logical.....they're systems are slow. I would slow it down even more. I did soak my blood in a container alot before she 'went' because of the mites and eventually she ended up sitting in her water (completely submerged except her head) for 4 straight days. Pretty funny, I would de-mite her tank every day and I'd just remove her with the water bowl, she seemed content with that! When she came out of the water she pooped within a few days. Don't know if that had anything to do with it but I figured I'd pass that observation on. Plus she is very active, I'd say she explores every few nights. One thing I noticed when i started deworming is she passed liquid urates frequently. Like... every day!! Peeeww! But its back to normal now.

Snakekeeper, I think feeding more often might jam them up more if that is the case already. Plus they are 2 years old and every 7 days is too often.

Darren Hamill · 05-22-02, 09:25 PM

I would have to agree with Yve and Grant, Blood should be fed sparingly because of their less frequent bowl movements. IMO... Bloods should be fad every 10 days or so. Although bowl movements are less frequent they tend to be larger than your typical feces for the size of snake.

But then again.....Thats IMO.... Best of luck!

Corey Woods · 05-22-02, 10:32 PM

Grant,

I'm going to be a prick and totally dissagree with everything said...lol. Here is my opinion on bloods.

IMHO, adult bloods should be fed atleast a large rat every 7 days. If fed anything less they start to loose body weight. Also, it is quite normal for bloods to go 6 months or so without crapping. I don't worry about it. You can actually move the crap around in their body when they start to get full. They also get the feeling like they are filled with water. Bloods are flabbier than most pythons.......the muscle has a lot of cushioning on it! I also wouldn't soak them either. For some reason bloods want to keep the crap trapped inside. You will notice that what comes out is very small compaired to what goes in...........they suck every last drop of nutrients out of it. I think that if you start messing around with them trying to make them crap then it just messes up what they've adapted to doing. Don't get freaked out...........It's just the way they are!

Oh, and on the parasites. Treat him with Panacur and Flagyl. I don't even do fecal tests anymore I just treat everything. If you need a fecal done you'll be waiting a while!

Corey

Grant vg · 05-23-02, 12:31 AM

See i agree with both sides....
on one side, i believe it was chris carmicheal who made me decide to switch to feeding less frequently due to a pooping ( i cant believe i just wrote that!) discussion we hand on the python forum....he noticed that his bloods/short tails were defecating frequently because of this...now i have tried this...i basically switched to every 14 days or so...and have yet to see any big smelly craps!

BUT.....Personally, if i had to decide, id have to agree on the more frequent feedings due to the disproportionate sizes of these guys...from what they are now...to what they should be....they dont have that extra emmpph in the middle....only a day or so after feeding...they feel flimsy, and not very firm...not that there body's should feel like a burm or ball, but its less then one would think....well..at least imho...

ive tried the infrequent feedings, so...maybe i should try feeding more and see what happens....it couldn't hurt...and it would be nice to see how it affects there firmness, feces, size,activity, etc...kind of an experiment ya know!...
It would be nice to do some of my own experimenting then have to read it in a book or hear it from someone u dont know...as long as it is in the best interest of the animal, i dont see why it couldn't hurt....

Corey, can flagyl be bought from the tsc shop as well?

I think i will begin feeding every 7 days ..a slightly smaller rat then i have been feeding and see how things unfold....

Yve · 05-23-02, 10:18 AM

This is an interesting discussion.
I read the info. from the post about less frequent feeding from Chris Carmichael as well. I feed my blood every 14 days and her body looks healthy. When I fed her every week she looked extremely bloated in the mid section(I actually thought I purchased a gravid snake at one point). That was my main reason for cutting back on her feeding schedule. I have a theory about it....this is a snake which doesn't move around alot. They sit and wait and ambush their prey. They don't get as much excercise as other more active snakes so wouldn't it make sense that feeding more often might lead to obesity? Or constipation, caused by lack of excercise?
I'm not being a smarty pants just tweeking the brain cells! Also, when my blood do-doed it was monstrous!!!!! I'm talking great dane size load! No exageration here at all!

marisa · 05-23-02, 03:30 PM

holy crap. literally.

I did not know all this inforomation about Bloods before. I did not know the go to the bathroom so infrequently. Just found it interesting.

marisa

snakekeeper · 05-23-02, 03:43 PM

If you try every 7-8 days I think that they will be fine it should keep the digestive system in constant motion. They are a snake with a larger girth. So they sould appear to be "chubby" . Also maybe if you can up the humity to %70 or so that might help as well. Just trying to help

Corey Woods · 05-23-02, 06:25 PM

Grant,

Flagyl will have to be purchased from a vet. I dont' know of any stores that sell it to the public.

Yve,

Don't feel like you are being a "smary pants". We all have our different opinions/experiences. Just because something works for me doesn't mean the same thing will work for you. You've got to do what works for your snakes! When my blood goes to the bathroom it is very small compared to her size........or, maybe I'm used to picking up 10lbs of crap for a burm at one time...lol.

Marisa,

Yes, bloods hold it in forever. 2-6 month wait time is the norm for this species. As I've stated before you can actually move the crap around inside their body. So, you know they are getting ready to go but then they hold it in for another month or two!

SnakeKeeper,

I keep my blood exactly like a Ball python. WC Bloods require higher humidity to function properly in captivity. However, CB animals tend to develop respiratory problems if kept too dry OR too moist. I believe the danger zones are below 40% and above 85% relative humidity. It is fine if they get to either end for short periods of time but over a long period of time it messes them up. I believe David and Tracy Barker wrote an article on the subject (but my memory could be going too..lol).

Corey

Jezabel · 05-23-02, 07:24 PM

Not sure what to think on this...

I've also reduce my feeding since I read Chris post. Now I feed one rat every 12-13 days and he still grow alot. I will continu that way for a while and see how it goes. Now he's at 3 feet and under a year old.

I used to feed every 8-10 day. He crap only once since I got him, about a month ago.

I'm looking to find him a nice female, then I'll see if they have the same schedule