Ball python constipated?

My BP hasn't dropped a deuce in a couple of months and I've been feeding him every week or two. I soaked him in warm water for about 15 minutes to try and help him with his problem, but it didn't work.

What should I do? I don't have the money to take him to the vet.

need more info. animal size, animal weight, size and weight of feeders, humidity of the enclosure, temps of the enclosure.

i would have suggested the warm soak... worked for mine... what kind of bedding do you have in the cage and if you are feeding live what kind of bedding are the feeders on?

He's about 30". Not sure of the weight; I have nothing to weigh him on. Feeders are usually as big as the biggest part of him. Not sure of the humidity; the crappy gauge says 32%; I have a large dog bowl full of water in the 10 gallon tank. Temps are about 80-85F, although I don't have a heat mat on him anymore because it broke and I didn't realize it for who knows how long. His hide is pretty much fully enclosed; it's like a cave-type thing. There's a 75W red bulb on the screen. Substrate is one of those green reptile carpet things. The feeders I buy from a pet store in the mall; I assume they're on wood shavings. So there's no chance that he's impacted.

feel around the vent and up the body a lil, occasionally snakes can get hard urate balls stuck, they can usually be worked free. I wouldnt worry too much try soaking and if nothing happens after that you can syring a small amount of paraffin into its mouth. ( its perfectly safe and works like a lubricant )

its 30" and you keep it in a 10 gallon?

you temps are low. the carpet is crap (holds bacteria). is the tank covered at all or does it have a screen lid? if you have a sceen lid, you humidity will always be off especially due to your location. that may be a main cause of the constipation. i would avoid all temporary fixes such as above and get you husbandry down or the problems will continue. get another heat matt and at least a reostat so you don't burn the animal. i would also suggest getting it something bigger to live in. maybe a tub. these hold humidity, are easier heat and are cheap. to be honest, i would never keep a ball in a glass tank of any size. an animal of this size should be in a 30" long tub. tubs are also not clear providing more security for your animal.

in the mean time, i would try soaking once more. during the soak, run you hands down the lower half of the animal to try and get things moving.

The temperatures are fine a royal requires an ambient temp of 80-85f with a basking point of 90f.
I dont know how big a 10 gallon is as we dont really work with those sizes over here.
They require humidity levels of 50-60% which is pretty much ambient humidity for most people so the glass tank shouldnt be an issue.

The only issue that can be caused by a glass tank is that they dont really hold heat very well in cold rooms, and yes they can be bad for humidity but for 50% humidity they should be fine.

Oh and a 30 inch snake does not need a 30 inch long tank at all.

That being said I do prefer RUBS personally as its easier to control all aspects of there enviroment

while i agree with some of what you said, there somethings that need to be addressed. for one, is the humidity. he said it was 30ish. he lives in PA which is in the 30'sF right now so im sure he has the heater on. he also is heating with a heat lamp. all of which decreases humidity. with a screen top, 50% humidity is hard to acheive. there are ways, but why go throught the trouble when you can just get a tub. also he has a amibent of 80-85 but no hot spot.

LMAO i don't know what i was thinking with the 30" long enclosure. i keep adults in 36" long ones. not many people talk of lenghts when it comes to snakes so i had to think of what i had in my collection that is that size. my animals in this range are in 32qt rubbermaid tubs and are weighing in around 500g (400-480). i cannot find the dimensions anywhere but i do know that they are quite a bit bigger than a 10 gallon (BTW a 10 gallon is 20X10) both in length and width. so this animal needs to be upped in the size of the enclosure.

this animal also should be feeding on small rats. not sure what he is feeding. he just said "as big as the biggest part of him". i feed frozen thawed and if you have seen a soaked rat, then you would know that unless you see the rodent with the fur all matted down then this is not a good way of determining a food size. rodent fur is fluffy. i go by weight. i, along with many otheres, feed 10-15% of the body weight of the animal.

one thing i did think of is when the last shed was. some of my animals will hold it in until just after they shed.

i keep a rather large collection with the guidelines above and never have constipation or shedding issues. the only issue i have is conviencing one of my males that mating is a good thing and that he has some ladies lined up for him.

he also said the gauge is crappy which makes me assume it is one of the old analogue humidity gauge's which are always wrong, so it will not be 32% and is more likely to be higher.
As there is a large dog bowl of water in there, and even though there is a mesh top. I personally feel that humidity will be in the correct range.
Brandon you need to get a digital humidity gauge lol.

If your worried about your humidity then I would cover maybe half of the mesh top.
Although I find that most royals wont eat unless there conditions are fairly good lmao.

i don't think you understand how humidity is generated. with a mesh top, the only way a larger size water bowl would help increase humidity is if it change the humidity of the entire room. otherwise, all the humidity generated by the water bowl is lost due to the lack of cover.

this is simple to prove. mist a tub with the top and and watch the sides fog up. do it again, this time with no top (because a mesh top does nothing for humidity) and you will see that the sides don't fog at all.

I know that the size of the tank is too small but he rarely ever comes out. He's in his hide 99% of the time (maybe because of the conditions?). I also have my room cluttered with my animals. I'm not sure if my two false bottom 10 gallon setups increase the ambient humidity in the room. I know that I can do something like put Saran wrap around part of the screen to keep humidity in; that's what I do with my Pacman.

I'm so tired I can't even think straight right now. I've been driving ALL day running errands.

When I get the money (flat broke atm), I'll setup a totally different enclosure for him. Although I'm concerned with the heat mat and a bulb in a tub. Wouldn't the bulb melt it? How do you do it?

Thanks for the help, guys! My specialty consists mainly of inverts, so I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to reptiles. Bear with me!

get a heat mat and put it on the bottom of the tub but make sure you use a reostat or thermostat so that the temps to get too hot. you won't need the heat lamp with the tub if you ambients are already in the 80s.

the snake probably doesn't come out because it feels unsecure. all of mine venture out at night and cruise the tub. i would put some seran wrap over the side with the water bowl. are the sides of the tank covered? if not, you may want to consider covering them.

what are you feeding it? Rats or mice? if you still are on mice, its time to get him on rats.

is its belly pink?

Doesn't it need UV rays to get energy to "recharge" itself?

The sides are covered, it's just a ten gallon with a screen.

When I go to the pet store I always ask for the biggest adult mouse they have; the smallest rats they have seem way to big for him.

His belly isn't pink.

When checking on his belly, I noticed that he took a huge dump in his hide. I just fed him yesterday.

there you go!!! you should really think about upping him to rats. at that size he should be able to take down a small rat with no issues. i will try and get a pic of the size that im feeding my guys so you will know for next time. if you don't feel comfortable with rats yet, get him 2 of the adult mice.

snakes don't need UV at all.

lucas339 wrote:

snakes don't need UV at all.

Not entirely true

But royals are fine without lol

I'll try the other pet store in my home town. I think she has rat pups.

So I redid his enclosure a bit; here's what I did:

• Took out the reptile carpet and replaced it with a few inches of coco fiber
  
• Wrapped Saran wrap around half of the screen
  
• Taped paper around three sides of the glass walls on the outside

He came out twice for a drink. I had a t-shirt on the front of it overnight, and he was chillin outside of his hide when I woke up

sounds good. i would for sure up him to the rat pups but he could take larger.

Found a used 20 gallon for him, so I picked it up along with some extra coco fiber. Gonna set him up in a bit (=

Think that's big enough for him?



Enclosure look alright?

Awesome! Looks like its coming up to a shed?

My older bro recently got a het. granite burmese - a truly beautiful snake.

Definitely closed to shedding and definitely a cool-looking burmese

I didn't know that rats were so expensive. I paid about $4 for a small.

find a local breeder. i pay 1.75 for a small rat.

I'm not sure where any breeders are around here.

Maybe I'll try www.bigcheeserodents.com

I'm glad to say that he just had a flawless shed (=