Poop or musk?

[owstopit]

Hello,

My young cornsnake Geisty was fed a pinky five days ago. Since then, while handling him, he has released something two different times. The first time, it was mostly a liquid with some white power type stuff (and I tiny bit of brown) and the second time it was mostly brown and a bit less liquidy, and also included a yellow powder type substance. The first time it happened, I cleaned it up off the floor and didn't smell much. The second time it still didn't smell horrible, but the yellow powder specifically smelled bad.

From what I've read, I think the first time was a musk (with a tiny bit of poop that got released) and the second time was an actual poop (since it was mostly brown). Should I consider my snakes poop completed for this meal? I'm just not sure whether it was poop, musk, or something else perhaps. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Oh and btw it's an Amel Motley if anyone's interested ;)

-Neal

[Nanci]

Musk is clear. Sometimes you will get yellow chunks of urates in it. Often, when the snake musks, it poops too.

[Caryl]

Snakes have only one exit for the digestive tract. It's called the cloaca (Latin for "sewer") or the vent. Liquid and solid wastes exit from the same place, in varying concentrations of each. Sometimes the waste is fairly liquid, sometimes its solid in portions, sometimes it's a combination. This depends on what's being consumed and processed, at what rate this is occuring.

Everything you described sounds to me like normal digestive wastes. The liquid portions (urates) dry to a whitish or yellowish powder. The smell, while not exactly something most of us would want to dab behind our ears, is usually pretty consistent for the same animal. It's not usually unpleasant to the "help - I'm going to puke" degree. If your snake's waste suddenly smells much more unpleasant than usual, s/he may have a health concern.

Good luck with Geisty. (Be sure to give him a minimum rest of 2 days post-feeding.)