Corn snake not going to the bathroom - help!

So I think my corn snake might be having a bout of constipation. I say this because she's now gone over two weeks without passing anything. My records indicate she last went to the bathroom on June 9th, which was also the day she last shed (a good/full shed). I fed her a couple of fuzzies the next night (June 10th) which she ate without issue. Typically she poops about 2-4 days after eating, but she hadn't pooped by the time I fed her again (one fuzzy this time) on June 18th. She still hasn't gone to the bathroom since the 9th, so I'm starting to get concerned.

So to summarize, here's her recent schedule:

June 9th - pooped and shed
June 10th - two fuzzies offered and eaten
June 18th - one fuzzy offered and eaten

She hasn't had any issues at all eating, but I'm hesitant to continue feeding her until she "makes room."

Now some basic information: the snake is about two years old and to my knowledge has never had any health problems. She's about 30 inches in length and lives by herself in a standard 20L terrarium with paper towel substrate and an undertank heating pad at one end. The ambient temperatures are around 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit. She has constant access to a water bowl (about 6 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep) which I change every day.

I took a close-up look at her yesterday to see if I could notice any lumps, bloating, etc. but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. I've double-checked her cage several times to make sure I didn't miss any poop but haven't found anything yet.

The only change of note is that I'm currently staying with my parents before moving to take on a new job, so the snake isn't in her usual home (even though her cage setup is the same and the temperatures/humidity are virtually identical). But she's stayed in their home before while I visited on vacation, etc. and has never had any digestive issues while here in the past. I've been here since the start of June, so she's gone the bathroom once (the 9th) on this trip. In a couple of weeks I'll be leaving once more to start work, so she'll have a different home then.

I've done some research on people having success by giving their snake a bath, which I'm more than comfortable doing. Does anyone have a recommendation as to how long I should wait before resorting to this method? I'm thinking of trying it tomorrow evening as two weeks (and more concerning, three mice) seems like an inordinately long time based on her past experience.

I'd be really appreciate if the group could provide advice on this problem. Thank you so much in advance.

You can try giving your snake a bath in shallow, lukewarm water if you like. I am sure the exercise would do her good.

But I do have a couple of questions>

1. Why are you feeding your two year old snake Fuzzies? Shouldn't she be on larger prey or is she exceptionally small? ie my two snakes are about 10 months old and have been on Fuzzies for two months.

2. How are you measuring the temp of the UTH? And ambient temp isn't really important to your snake as snakes need belly heat.

I second the bath in shallow, lukewarm water... it always worked for us.

HermesMom said:

I second the bath in shallow, lukewarm water... it always worked for us.

Click to expand...

Not to be a "quoter" but this works for me too, not just corns, beardies and other herps.:toiletgra

Bonkers_Scar2011 said:

You can try giving your snake a bath in shallow, lukewarm water if you like. I am sure the exercise would do her good.

But I do have a couple of questions>

1. Why are you feeding your two year old snake Fuzzies? Shouldn't she be on larger prey or is she exceptionally small? ie my two snakes are about 10 months old and have been on Fuzzies for two months.

2. How are you measuring the temp of the UTH? And ambient temp isn't really important to your snake as snakes need belly heat.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. She's actually 10 months old as well and has been on fuzzies for the past month. I don't have any weanlings at the moment (I have to wait for expos/shows to come to town and then I stock up) but have been giving her a fuzzy every 4-5 days or two fuzzies every 7-8, which I think would approximate giving her a weanling every 10 days or so. I do think she's a little on the small side - like I said, she's 30 inches in length but only about 20-30% wider than the fuzzy at her thickest point.

Re: temperatures, I have the thermometer about 2/3 of the way down the back of tank in the middle of the panel, and it consistently reads 78-80%. I've put my hand down on the heating pad to make sure it's still working, and it definitely is, though I don't know exactly how hot it gets.

I'll try putting her in the bathtub tonight. Should be exciting if nothing else

Not to be a debbie downer here, but if I were in your shoes I wouldn't do anything.
Unless the water temp is perfect you stand the chance of burning or freezing your snake, and there will also be some stress involved. And who wants "that' in the tub anyway??

I have kept snakes for awhile, and have never kept a record on when they poop. I am sorry but I will never understand the newbie keeper's obsession with poop. If it goes in, at one point it must come out. No reason to worry, freak out, or keep a poop diary. Everybody poops!!!

Do you use a thermostat with your UTH? Very important piece of equipment!

For the UTH temperature, how does one take the temperature of the pad itself? My pad (ZooMed brand) doesn't have an indicator on it. I did go out and buy a digital thermometer today, so I guess I could try putting the sensors on/near the pad and see what it reads...

On the main subject: I've posted this topic verbatim on several corn snake forums and the responses seem to be split between "try the lukewarm bath" and "two weeks isn't that long, wait it out a bit". So now I dunno what to do haha.

Does anyone have an opinion as to how long I should wait before trying to force the issue (i.e. either by giving her a bath or taking her in the vet)? Somewhat related question - am I doing the right thing by holding off on feeding her any more until she poops?

A UTH can get wayyy too hot for a snake, so it should be regulated by a thermostat (you plug uth into stat and set temp to mid80's).

The thermometer probe goes directly on to the surface
(glass/ rub) above the UTH. not above the substrate!!

You can give her a bath and see if she likes it. I have given mine baths in the past (one likes it one doesnt) just make sure its shallow, the right temp & escape proof.

I'm with Bethany in the "do nothing" camp. If a Corn gets constipated, then you should see a definite bulge above the cloaca. If that isn't there, then I'd feed and carry on as usual unless more symptoms present themselves.

I have an opinion. I have close to one hundred snakes at the moment. I am not the bathroom monitor. When the snake has to poop, it will. All snakes I have ever had have pooped of their own accord, without fail, without human intervention, their entire lives. The most likely reason for delayed pooping is an inactive snake, or lack of material to poop. You don't have to worry about if there is room for food in the snake.

Are you doing any handling of the snake?

Invariably, if I get Ori out of his viv before he's passed his last meal, then I get poo'd on after about 10 minutes of handling time.

It's gotten so predictable that I keep a small pile of paper towels ready to quickly set him down on. Or I just wait until Thursday (he gets fed on Sunday night and normally poo's sometime on Wed evenings) before I do any handling.

I'm firmly in the "don't soak" corner. I agree with Nanci. Sounds like she made need more activity or things to climb. Or she may just not have to poop. That's normal.

What kind of decorations do you have in her cage? Maybe add in some branches, or fake plants. Give her something to crawl around on.

My Firefly takes forever to poop. It's just her way. She's also a "lazy" snake that doesn't move much. When I think it's been a while and she "should" poop, I take her out and let her roam around me or the stairs for 10-15 minutes. I almost always get a poop the next day. Just a thought.

just wanted to provide a brief update - my corn finally went to the bathroom on Sunday night, one night before I had decided to give her a bath... it's like she knew or something haha. I was expected a supersized poop but it was on the average side, so maybe there's more to come. I'll keep you guys updated on how things progress.

as for her activity and setup, she's always been on the lazy/shy side, even for a snake. I've actually got quite a bit of enrichment in her cage (three hides plus a windy vine that goes all over), but maybe I need to switch it up a bit as she does get curious about new things. thanks for the suggestion.

If you aren't sure of your temperatures, then there could be a simple reason why the snake is less active with a lower metabolism, if the temperature is too low then you won't see fast digestion, pooping and activity.......

You could go through the aspen. I've been worried about constipation before and then after cleaning out, realized there was a poop buried.

Everything comes down to poo!

LoL Nanci at that video

gbernst said:

So I think my corn snake might be having a bout of constipation. I say this because she's now gone over two weeks without passing anything. My records indicate she last went to the bathroom on June 9th, which was also the day she last shed (a good/full shed). I fed her a couple of fuzzies the next night (June 10th) which she ate without issue. Typically she poops about 2-4 days after eating, but she hadn't pooped by the time I fed her again (one fuzzy this time) on June 18th. She still hasn't gone to the bathroom since the 9th, so I'm starting to get concerned.

So to summarize, here's her recent schedule:

June 9th - pooped and shed
June 10th - two fuzzies offered and eaten
June 18th - one fuzzy offered and eaten

She hasn't had any issues at all eating, but I'm hesitant to continue feeding her until she "makes room."

Now some basic information: the snake is about two years old and to my knowledge has never had any health problems. She's about 30 inches in length and lives by herself in a standard 20L terrarium with paper towel substrate and an undertank heating pad at one end. The ambient temperatures are around 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit. She has constant access to a water bowl (about 6 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep) which I change every day.

I took a close-up look at her yesterday to see if I could notice any lumps, bloating, etc. but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. I've double-checked her cage several times to make sure I didn't miss any poop but haven't found anything yet.

The only change of note is that I'm currently staying with my parents before moving to take on a new job, so the snake isn't in her usual home (even though her cage setup is the same and the temperatures/humidity are virtually identical). But she's stayed in their home before while I visited on vacation, etc. and has never had any digestive issues while here in the past. I've been here since the start of June, so she's gone the bathroom once (the 9th) on this trip. In a couple of weeks I'll be leaving once more to start work, so she'll have a different home then.

I've done some research on people having success by giving their snake a bath, which I'm more than comfortable doing. Does anyone have a recommendation as to how long I should wait before resorting to this method? I'm thinking of trying it tomorrow evening as two weeks (and more concerning, three mice) seems like an inordinately long time based on her past experience.

I'd be really appreciate if the group could provide advice on this problem. Thank you so much in advance.

Click to expand...

gbernst said:

Thanks for the reply. She's actually 10 months old as well and has been on fuzzies for the past month. I don't have any weanlings at the moment (I have to wait for expos/shows to come to town and then I stock up) but have been giving her a fuzzy every 4-5 days or two fuzzies every 7-8, which I think would approximate giving her a weanling every 10 days or so. I do think she's a little on the small side - like I said, she's 30 inches in length but only about 20-30% wider than the fuzzy at her thickest point.

Re: temperatures, I have the thermometer about 2/3 of the way down the back of tank in the middle of the panel, and it consistently reads 78-80%. I've put my hand down on the heating pad to make sure it's still working, and it definitely is, though I don't know exactly how hot it gets.

I'll try putting her in the bathtub tonight. Should be exciting if nothing else

Click to expand...

I'm a little confused how old is your snake 2 years or 10 months. Poo aside, you need to be able to check the temps better. Your snake does not live 2/3 of the way down the back of the tank. Your snake lives near the bottom. If the "pad" feels hot to you it is too hot for your snake.