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My snake pooped on me!

S

Synyster1337

New member
Hello all. I have a question about handling my corn. He's really young, (just bought him on Black Friday from Petsmart. While I was handling him yesterday (roughly 60 hours after feeding), he defecated on me. Do they have voluntary control over their excretory systems? If so, was the defecation a sign that he didn't want to be handled anymore for that time? Just curious, because I only handled him for about fifteen minutes that time, and he has been handled for far longer than fifteen minutes before without a problem. I'm sorry if I'm overthinking things, I just want the little guy to be stress free!

On an unrelated note, I'm thinking of naming he/she 'Charizard', from Pokemon, due to the similarity between his mature colors and the dragon, lol. He is a normal morph so he should be roughly the same colors, minus the purple and blue.
 
Oh boy. I am laughing a little on the inside :)
That was a very nice gift from your new pet, I am sure. Mine has pooped on me many a time - too many to count.
It is probably voluntary, as much as ours is, however unlike us they do not know of places where it is or isn't appropriate to go.
Some snakes kind of fling fecal matter/spray as a defense, but I do not think corns of one of them. I would not take this as a "sign" that your snake is upset, however it may be as good a time as any to put them away if they really got you messy.

If you really would like your snake to be stress-free, check out the corn snake care sheet on the home page :) It's great. If you have a proper enclosure, all should be well.

Congrats, and best of luck!
 
Just to add, make sure to wait at least 48-72 hours post-feeding to handle, especially with young snakes, so they do not get stressed and regurgitate. That can be extremely harmful and even life-threatening to snakes.

However, the reason yours probably defecated on you even during the short handling session was because you gave him/her some exercise and got things moving. You can always try handling for a shorter session and put back in the enclosure if you are worried about him/her going on you again, and hopefully they will go in the vivarium. Or you can wait until after they have gone (in which you may not be able to actually find the defecation in the substrate if it is really small, but you will notice the lump near the midsection/tail will be gone).
 
Gotta love the whole pooping on ya thing..LOL

NH93 said:
Just to add, make sure to wait at least 48-72 hours post-feeding to handle, especially with young snakes, so they do not get stressed and regurgitate. That can be extremely harmful and even life-threatening to snakes.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes and yes to the above, its very stressful on the snake owner as well, trust me on this.
 
Thanks for the replies all. They have been rather comforting. I have read to wait 48-72 hours after feeding to handle, I figured since the body was back to a normal shape with no bulges and him moving around the enclosure quite a bit meant that he was ready to handle. It makes sense that he would poop on me due to things getting moving, because he was very active in that handling session, very inquisitive to see what was beyond every little crevice of my fingers at a decent speed. I figured that they wouldn't be able to differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' spots to defecate, as most reptiles don't possess that kind of intelligence. On an interesting note, though, we watched a video in my herpetology class that profiled the komodo dragon's ability to train under mammalian training techniques, to a limited extent, such as being able to associate colors and shapes with imminent feeding.
 
I've only ever been pooped on twice, one by each of my corns; neither time was very pleasant, especially since mine are a heck of a lot bigger than a hatchling! From my observations, it is quite voluntary; my amel corn always chooses the back, left corner of her viv to poop in, and my other corn likes to dump in his water bowl. I've never seen them poop anywhere else. You can always wait until after the snake has pooped before handling him; it doesn't usually take too long, as long as they have enough warmth. On a side note, referring to your komodo dragon thing....my snakes know that when I bring out the blue bucket, it means I'm thawing out their food. ;) Snakes are a lot smarter than most people give 'em credit for.
 
I wasn't really intending to implicate that reptiles are dumb, moreso just less-sophisticated than mammals when it comes to intelligence. I just thought the komodo video was cool, because he would strike white targets to get food, when he could choose from white or black, with different locations. I would wait until after he pooped, if I could see it :3. He's still pretty tiny so I can't quite pick it out yet.
 
Rigby likes to poop outside his viv. He "holds it" and I can see a big bulge before his vent so I know when he's got one cooking up. I have learned to only let my daughter play with him on an old towel or some newspapers, and I can clearly see when he's about to let rip because he angles his tail up sharply and tenses his body. Then I yell POOP and we make sure it's going to hit somewhere disposable/washable.
 
Avatre seems to love pooping on me instead of in her viv, lol. I've learned the hard way to place an old towel across my lap when I take her out for the first time after a feeding. That when she inevitably poops on me, it lands on the towel, which I can just roll up and throw in the wash. Much better for both of us, lol! It's not entirely pleasant, but it certainly does make keeping her viv clean easy, lol.
 
After I've fed them, I personally don't handle my snakes until they've done their business to avoid this lol
 
^Me too

Sometimes if it's close I get them out and handle them for a bit. Once they start moving around they almost always poop. So I just hold them over a trash can and it's done :)
 
After I've fed them, I personally don't handle my snakes until they've done their business to avoid this lol
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I think I'd be waiting a very long time to handle Avatre if I did that, lol. Even three days after feeding, she still doesn't poop! She really just seems to like waiting for me to take her out first, lol. And, now that I KNOW she does this, it's just not a big deal for me to put an old towel over my lap until she goes, although I might feel differently when she gets bigger, LOL.
 
One of my corns is very lazy and doesn't move around much in her bin. So, she can go days without pooping.

I've only been pooped on once by a snake. I know to look for the bulge and I do not hold them if I see it.

If I know my snake needs to poop and I want to hold her. I will handle her for a few minutes and then place her back into the bin. She normally will poop. I come back after a while and check. If she pooped I will get her out.

Also, a lot of snakes will poop if you put them in a bath. Nearly every time I've ever had to soak a snake for a stuck shed, they have pooped in the water.
Some people just like to let their snakes swim in shallow water for the exercise. But all of my snakes hate this and I do not force them to swim.
 
yeah^^^^

when I first got Sirius he HATED water, any depth.. lol but as he's gotten bigger I guess he likes it now??
I don't know but I have used the bath method to make sure I don't get pooped on a few times now with him and he loves it now, lol he'll sit wrapped around my arm while I fill the tub and as soon as he hears/feels the running water he's streached right out almost trying to jump inti the tub!!

aha, ill put my hand towords it and he happily slips in! lol hell do a couple laps, poop, and then usually come look for my hand to climb out!

lol, they most definitely have personalitys and they can change, lol he's definitely showed me this! :eek:
 
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