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impacted?
- Thread starter Traci
- Start date
If your snake is just a baby it is possible to miss it because there will not be much of it. You could try giving it a bath in some lukewarm water that usually help's them to relieve themselves. Does it look like it is swollen or anything which could mean it is either constipated or impacted? I wouldn't feed again until you are sure what is going on. Other people on the forum may be able to help more. Hope you get sorted.
Doctor Mike
New member
One of the biggest responsibilities that a snake owner has is to make sure that there is no gut impaction. You need to see that a bowel movement has occurred before feeding again, or the results could be very harmful. You don't want to shove more stuff into a clogged pipe.
Although I prefer aspen chips for substrate, there is nothing better than white paper towels changed daily for monitoring bowel movements and/or regurgitations in a snake that is new, irregular or ill. If you're feeding pinkies or fuzzies, the waste excreted is more liquid than with hoppers or larger mice, and it can mix with the aspen chips and dry out before you see it, making it hard to spot. If you see a clump of chips instead of loose chips, that could be it, even if it doesn't look like waste. Another clue can be the white powder formed by the uric acid from their urine.
If you have an amelanistic, snow, or other light skinned snake, you may be able to hold him in a dark room with a bright light behind him and look for a dark food bolus [upper digestive tract] or feces [lower digestive tract] each day. This far out in time it should definitely be very caudal [towards the tail] near the vent. It should be moving downstream day by day. Remember that the heart, liver and gall bladder create dark spots, so these won't move.
Except for the 1st 48 hours after feeding, I give my snakes a swim in the bathtub every night at the same time. [Snakes are instinctually programmed to prefer defecating in water, because it "covers their tracks" from predators in the wild.] When they were eating pinkies or fuzzies, they would regularly have 2 bowel movements, the 1st around 48 hours, and the 2nd around 72 hours. As they have progressed to hoppers and now small adult mice, I've noticed it takes them longer to digest the larger, more fibrous mice and have a bowel movement. Now they go around 72 hours and 96 hours from feeding, and sometimes will go the last time as long as 6 days later.
This bathtub method makes it extremely easy to observe their bowel movements. Use lukewarm water, not warm enough to feel good for a human bath. Make sure the drain stopper is tight, and that the emergency overflow drain is covered or plugged with something like a towel. Don't take your eye off your snake for even a minute, lest they try to climb into the faucet or some other opening--another kind of instinctual programming, I think. My snakes usually go within 3 to 5 minutes of being in the water [they're "trained" now], but they took longer at first, as long as 10 minutes if they had to go at all.
Let us know how this goes and if we can help further, and make sure you have "The Corn Snake Manual".
Best of health to your corn,
Doctor Mike
Although I prefer aspen chips for substrate, there is nothing better than white paper towels changed daily for monitoring bowel movements and/or regurgitations in a snake that is new, irregular or ill. If you're feeding pinkies or fuzzies, the waste excreted is more liquid than with hoppers or larger mice, and it can mix with the aspen chips and dry out before you see it, making it hard to spot. If you see a clump of chips instead of loose chips, that could be it, even if it doesn't look like waste. Another clue can be the white powder formed by the uric acid from their urine.
If you have an amelanistic, snow, or other light skinned snake, you may be able to hold him in a dark room with a bright light behind him and look for a dark food bolus [upper digestive tract] or feces [lower digestive tract] each day. This far out in time it should definitely be very caudal [towards the tail] near the vent. It should be moving downstream day by day. Remember that the heart, liver and gall bladder create dark spots, so these won't move.
Except for the 1st 48 hours after feeding, I give my snakes a swim in the bathtub every night at the same time. [Snakes are instinctually programmed to prefer defecating in water, because it "covers their tracks" from predators in the wild.] When they were eating pinkies or fuzzies, they would regularly have 2 bowel movements, the 1st around 48 hours, and the 2nd around 72 hours. As they have progressed to hoppers and now small adult mice, I've noticed it takes them longer to digest the larger, more fibrous mice and have a bowel movement. Now they go around 72 hours and 96 hours from feeding, and sometimes will go the last time as long as 6 days later.
This bathtub method makes it extremely easy to observe their bowel movements. Use lukewarm water, not warm enough to feel good for a human bath. Make sure the drain stopper is tight, and that the emergency overflow drain is covered or plugged with something like a towel. Don't take your eye off your snake
Let us know how this goes and if we can help further, and make sure you have "The Corn Snake Manual".
Best of health to your corn,
Doctor Mike
clump
Sorry I haven't been online for a while. But I found his little clump of aspen shavings on Sunday morning. I was surprised that with 2 fuzzies he hadn't gone more. I waited another day and fed him just one fuzzie this time. My snake hates the water, I wish he would like to take a bath but he just trys to get out as quick as he can.
Sorry I haven't been online for a while. But I found his little clump of aspen shavings on Sunday morning. I was surprised that with 2 fuzzies he hadn't gone more. I waited another day and fed him just one fuzzie this time. My snake hates the water, I wish he would like to take a bath but he just trys to get out as quick as he can.