Hello, I'm having some problems with a baby corn snake.
He is a Blizzard morph hatched on August 13th of this year who I picked up at a local reptile show three weeks later. His first two to three feeds were normal, ate like a champ, found feces, everything was fine.
About three weeks ago I found out the Zilla undertank heater mat was not working well after I had fed him. Between this and the fact that I did not realize he was going into shed, I had my first constipation problem with him. A warm soak and not even two minutes went by of fighting him into the water that he pooped! (I also noticed that he tried to fake rattle his tail at me this time, and was more lethargic than normal. Once I replaced his heat mat he has always acted as the same old snake, exploring during evening/twilight and hanging out on branches.)
I replaced his heat mat with a better one (Reptile Basics Inc), got the hot spots back up to 85 - 89 F, but Autumn hit in the midwest and my room temperature, as well as the low end of his tank, dipped to 60F with little humidity. He had another constipation problem, gave him a warm bath, and within 5 minutes he pooped. So I put a warm air humidifier in my room, had to adjust that as humidity fluctuated wildly, got the ambient air temperature back up to 70 but the floor of the tank was around 65 - 67F. I fed him with the humidifier on and off this past weekend. His hot end stays consistently between 85 to 87, with some areas that reach 89.
Today I found out he is constipated, again. The ambient temperature of the tank reached 70, his hot ends stay at the same temperature, and the cool end is between 65 - 67 F. When I gave him his bath today, he did not poop, even though I had them there for 20 minutes and he stilled like he was going to, but due to my angle I could not see if his vent was "pushing".
I feed my snake every 7 - 9 days on one f/t pinkie appropriate to his size. He has never refused a feeding, has never regurgitated or vomited. I never hold him two days after feeding. Between his first and second feeding during his constipation problems, I held off for about 10 days to make sure the humidity and the heat mat were both working. Last week I fed him on Saturday, it's Thursday and he looks like he needs to go. I am debating on holding off his next feeding.
I've included a lot of pictures of him (the boy's name is Apothis), his vent, and his tank set up. The fact that he didn't poop on his first bath today has me very worried and I'm going to start looking up exotic vets in the Twin Cities/Minneapolis/St. Paul area. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them!
Apothis, showing his swollen vent. No mites, very inquisitive, always checking out his surroundings. No open mouth breathing issues.
Another picture of Apothis, showing his tail/vent area a little bit more.
Overview of my tank set up. He has three hides, one on the hot end (near the viewer's left), one under the branches in the middle, and one at the very end with branches. There's various tank decorations he can also hide under. One water dish exists at the right side. The box is his humid hide.
Overhead look down into the tank itself, better look between all the branches. Cuts off the water dish a bit, however.
Apothis is housed alone!
I've browsed every internet search engine I can think of for constipation issues-- I've fixed everything that seems to be the normal issues (which tends to just be "hot end not hot enough" for 90% of the cases), but if there are any hints or if there's anything I can do, I really need to know! I'll be looking into vet appointments if his bath tomorrow does not make him go.
Thank you for your help.
He is a Blizzard morph hatched on August 13th of this year who I picked up at a local reptile show three weeks later. His first two to three feeds were normal, ate like a champ, found feces, everything was fine.
About three weeks ago I found out the Zilla undertank heater mat was not working well after I had fed him. Between this and the fact that I did not realize he was going into shed, I had my first constipation problem with him. A warm soak and not even two minutes went by of fighting him into the water that he pooped! (I also noticed that he tried to fake rattle his tail at me this time, and was more lethargic than normal. Once I replaced his heat mat he has always acted as the same old snake, exploring during evening/twilight and hanging out on branches.)
I replaced his heat mat with a better one (Reptile Basics Inc), got the hot spots back up to 85 - 89 F, but Autumn hit in the midwest and my room temperature, as well as the low end of his tank, dipped to 60F with little humidity. He had another constipation problem, gave him a warm bath, and within 5 minutes he pooped. So I put a warm air humidifier in my room, had to adjust that as humidity fluctuated wildly, got the ambient air temperature back up to 70 but the floor of the tank was around 65 - 67F. I fed him with the humidifier on and off this past weekend. His hot end stays consistently between 85 to 87, with some areas that reach 89.
Today I found out he is constipated, again. The ambient temperature of the tank reached 70, his hot ends stay at the same temperature, and the cool end is between 65 - 67 F. When I gave him his bath today, he did not poop, even though I had them there for 20 minutes and he stilled like he was going to, but due to my angle I could not see if his vent was "pushing".
I feed my snake every 7 - 9 days on one f/t pinkie appropriate to his size. He has never refused a feeding, has never regurgitated or vomited. I never hold him two days after feeding. Between his first and second feeding during his constipation problems, I held off for about 10 days to make sure the humidity and the heat mat were both working. Last week I fed him on Saturday, it's Thursday and he looks like he needs to go. I am debating on holding off his next feeding.
I've included a lot of pictures of him (the boy's name is Apothis), his vent, and his tank set up. The fact that he didn't poop on his first bath today has me very worried and I'm going to start looking up exotic vets in the Twin Cities/Minneapolis/St. Paul area. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them!
Apothis, showing his swollen vent. No mites, very inquisitive, always checking out his surroundings. No open mouth breathing issues.
Another picture of Apothis, showing his tail/vent area a little bit more.
Overview of my tank set up. He has three hides, one on the hot end (near the viewer's left), one under the branches in the middle, and one at the very end with branches. There's various tank decorations he can also hide under. One water dish exists at the right side. The box is his humid hide.
Overhead look down into the tank itself, better look between all the branches. Cuts off the water dish a bit, however.
Apothis is housed alone!
I've browsed every internet search engine I can think of for constipation issues-- I've fixed everything that seems to be the normal issues (which tends to just be "hot end not hot enough" for 90% of the cases), but if there are any hints or if there's anything I can do, I really need to know! I'll be looking into vet appointments if his bath tomorrow does not make him go.
Thank you for your help.
