Green spot in death

[Shaky]

Anybody ever figure out for sure what causes the dark green spot on a cornsnake's belly when it dies?

[Serpwidgets]

Yes, the gallbladder.

[CAV]

You didn't kill one did you Jack???? :D

:-offtopic That pair of garters I recently found have been breeding. How long is their gestation period?

[Shaky]

Yeah, but what causes the gall bladder to burst?

Cav, I had a remaining little baby from an Oct. hatch that I brumated without feeding. It finally ate a few weeks ago, then regurged right away.
Died a week later.

I'll have to check records on the garters. What was the date you found them copulating?

[CAV]

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday....so far. :)

Ocellatus male and annectens female. I found both under the same piece of debris a week apart. I think he was probably following her scent trail.

[Shaky]

As far as I can tell, the gestation is around 75 days, but I had one bear young last year on July 26th.
I could be that the temperature plays a part in counting days for these guys.

[Hurley]

The gall bladder doesn't burst, it becomes leaky. It takes energy to keep those bile salts from leaking throught the membrane. After death, the wall weakens and the pigmented bile salts leak out causing that green spot. I've also seen this happen in some corns prior to death when death is imminent and everything is shutting down.

[Shaky]

When Serp answered me, I remembered that I already knew that it was the gall bladder, but I never knew why.
Several years ago when the only outlet was chatting on kingsnake, it was still a matter of conjecture. "I think it may be the gall bladder' was tossed around when the subject came up.
Turns out I'd never had a death like this before, so it kinda slipped my mind.

[MegF.]

Just a question Shaky. Why did you brumate a hatchling? Does it help stimulate an appetite in a poor or non-feeder?

[Joejr14]

Just a question Shaky. Why did you brumate a hatchling? Does it help stimulate an appetite in a poor or non-feeder?


It seems like quite a few people do it and get it to work. I would assume in the more temperate ranges of the corns natural habitat they have to 'brumate' in some form or fashion to stay alive.

[Shaky]

My experience with brumation is that most of the snakes come out of it looking fatter than they did going in. Whatever is going on with their metabolisms during the brumation period is beneficial to them.
Several times I've cooled a hatchling off during the winter (for several weeks) due to its going off feed or regurging. Its always seemed to help.
This particular snake never fed, so about 2 weeks or so after its birth, I shut down the heat.
It brumated fine. It was healthy but thin when I 'woke it up'. It didn't feed for awhile, so I force-fed it a mouse tail several times.
When it finally did eat a pinky, it threw up about an hour later, became very lethargic, and on the day I planned on trying again (about 8 days later), it was dead.
In hindsight, I should have awakened it earlier, but, ...