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Snake keeps pooping on me...

Kaynein

Kaynein

New member
I recently acquired a young ghost motley. He was very skittish and prone to biting when I got him which is understandable for a baby corn. I gave him a good four days to settle down before interacting with him. His cage is 10 gallon aspen bedded, with a coconut hut and a driftwood log.

Now whenever I handle him he gets stressed out and poops on me. He eats two pinkies per week (Wednesday and Saturday). Is this common snake behavior for young snakes? I assume it is, I just want to make sure its not something I need to worry about. Will it eventually stop with proper and frequent handling?

Picture attached is the snake in question.
 

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That seems like it's a bit too often to feed IMO. I feed my hatchling weekly. I don't think many people feed more often than every 4or 5 days.

Anyway, maybe that's just when he has to go? My son's three year old corn poops on him once a week or so. It doesn't seem stress related, just like exercise brings on poop time. He is trying to learn to predict it so he can hold him over the toilet or bathtub. :p
 
I ageree that it is a bit much.

To prevent this I would put her in room temp water and that normally makes min poop.
 
Okay, I will reduce to feeding once a week. I was unsure of how much to feed since he was very thin when I got him - could see/feel the start of its vertebrae.

I've started to just expect poop and have tissues ready when it does happen. I could start giving him a bath before handling, that same trick works with my three year old, I just wonder if that would also stress the young snake out? He's a frightful little creature, but its slowly taming down it seems.
 
What a cutie!

Reducing the number of days you feed him may help control/consolidate the pooping too. Do you know how much he weighs? That might give you a better idea of how much / often to feed the little guy.

Pooping on you isn't something just baby snakes do: grown up snakes are more than happy to do it too! At least with babies the amount of poop is minimal ;).
 
You can also feed him as often as every five days- that's pretty standard. I like to give babies three days to digest, but I'm just very cautious with them. He's probably pooping so much because he hasn't had the opportunity to go before you handle him, with such a frequent feeding schedule.
 
Most of my snakes when they were babies also pooped on me all the time. However, older snakes will do it too, just probably not as often. Although, I have one that is 3yrs old this December and he still likes to try and poop on me quite a bit. The other 4 are much better at not doing so on me at least.
 
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