By Popular Demand, I Present Snake Poop

Yep, some folks want to see images of Ball Python or Corn Snake poop so they can really see what snake poop looks like, believe it or not. And I'm all about giving you what you want (said with both index fingers pointed straight at ya, in my best car salesman-like swaggering voice, complete with cheesy wink and a paused pose in case you want to take a photo).

Here's one from July 31st. I discovered it when I was doing my weekly feeding. The snakes were in their respective feeding containers and I was cleaning out their 20-gallon habitat. There it was, a solid one looking all Tootsie Roll-ish, about 2" in length. I've provided arrows so you can see where it begins and ends. Or ends and begins. However you wanna look at it.

Note that this poop was in the middle of the habitat, out in the wide open.

The next week, there were two poops, one against the pool and the other mooshed up against the lava rock. Notice how they are distinctly different. One looks like poop (or a giant fly), the other one looks like dry silly putty.

I don't know which snake made what poop, but I'm confident each snake had a hand in this work. If you check out Basic Ball Python Set-Up (part 2), Ralph Davis, of Ralph Davis Reptiles in Maryland, immediately says they (ball pythons) "like to poop in the edges." So maybe the one by the pool, being more edgy, was from Sleepy, my ball python. I dunno. Judging by appearance alone you'd think the one by the pool was left by the snake that left the one from last week, but if you'll recall, that one from last week was out in the wide open. It's a toss up.

Then there was a lack of poop for a while. Gordo did shed about 090111. I cleaned out the habitat and put the old skin in the garbage. Then I came home from work 090711 and found that skin right there on the living room floor. It used to bug me that Spooky likes to play with dead skin, but hey, whatever makes the little Dook happy. At least he isn't eating it.

Want more snake poop photos? Lemme know. Instead of snake feeding cards, I take photos and while I'm at it, I capture their bowel movements. I can't believe I'm sayin' this, but hey, it's what I do. Mom's so proud, I'm sure.

How Big are the Snakes?

Sometimes people ask me how big the snakes are. Lengths, I usually guess a couple feet for Sleepy and maybe 3 for Gordo. It's kinda hard to tell since they are so bendy and have an annoying tendency to never lay straight. As for the diameter of each, I incorporate a visual aid of my fingers making a circle. Gordo gets a skinnier finger-circle than Sleepy. I realize that helps you, the reader, none-at-all, but my visual aid probably isn't accurate anyway.

To me, they're a size that is easily manageable. What I mean by that is that if there was a throw-down between me and either, or even both, of the snakes you can trust that I will win.

Last Saturday, after I fed the snakes and returned them to their home, Gordo and Sleepy walked (ok, slithered) around and checked out what was new in their digs: the temperature of the water and if plenty of it was available, if I'd cleaned out all of the poop etc. You know, normal snake stuff.

Then Gordo started rooting. Gordo will scrape his face against anything to loosen his skin, thus the assortment of rocks and wood in the snake home.

The white arrow in the image above points to where Gordo's head is under the bedding.

Sure enough, Sunday I found Gordo'd left his old skin behind. While not a perfect shed, it was completely intact as in it was one whole piece, including the head.

So I whipped out my handy-dandy tape measure, and without having stretched the skin to full length and getting all anal about it*, Gordo's at least 44 inches long right now.

There you have it, Gordo's more than 3.5 feet long.

*Discarded skin is typically scrunched up in some sections and certainly twisted with belly-side up when it should be down. As it's not exactly moisturized, I was afeared that making it as straight as possible would break it, making it a bigger pain in the ass to measure. I'm good with a "greater than" value.

Snake Shed

I've got a couple of snakes, acquired when found in their 20-gallon habitat next to one of the complex dumpsters. Originally, Rodney and I had no intention of keeping them, thinking they should go back to Rightful Owner. Over time we realized Rightful was Deadbeat. Since Spooky, the cat, enjoyed the snakes like Live-Feed For Cats TV, we kept the snakes.

I feed the snakes every Saturday night during the warmer months and every other or every third Saturday during the cooler months. This makes snake maintenance easy for me and it keeps their growth regular, and best of all, essentially simultaneous, including their shed periods.

Last week, I found that Gordo, which means Fat in Spanish (so named because this corn snake will eat anything at anytime), had shed. Look at how shiny and vibrant he looks! This is his "going out clubbing" skin. I'm sure female corn snakes would find him a hot item, especially since he exercises regularly. Gordo, while toward the glutonous side when it comes to food, stays lean by constantly investigating and traversing his 40-gallon home.


Sleepy, named such as this ball python spends most of his time in a "ball" or lazily bathing and is exceptionally finicky when it comes to eating, was in the middle of his shed period last week. Look at how dull his skin looked and note the "blue" eyes. If you look closely, you can see a lesion just behind his head.

Tonight Sleepy's shed period was completed. I managed to catch him mid-shed. A couple minutes later, he was finished and was wearing a brand new snake-skin outfit. The old outfit was cast aside in a wad. Sleepy is only finicky when it comes to eating, but not at all conscious of keeping his old skin clothing neat. However, he has eyes and a pattern that would make any female ball simply swoon. Nevermind that he takes everything slowly. That makes any ball-girl hot in her snake-skin skirt, I'm sure.


He looks pretty sharp, doesn't he?!

If you didn't know, snakes tend to leave a nice poop loaf after shedding. Sleepy didn't let me down. And I was glad to see it since he hadn't crapped anything decent in weeks! The photos I'd collected weren't good ones so I didn't include them. Just imagine a Tootsie Roll, not the little 1.5" snack ones you get at Halloween times or the large segmented bars, but the ones in between, like the ones Bill tends to eat and sort of choke on after cramming the entire thing into his maw while yammering. Add to that a small, dime-sized hair ball with a smidgeon of bloodyish hangers-on and you've got yourself an image of snake poop from a snake that only eats fresh mice.

As for Sleep's lesion, I was concerned that it was viral because it seemed to get gradually bigger, but post-shed I see that it's smaller and not as nasty looking. It looks like it really was due to a mouse bite and he's recovering. I expect that it won't be long before it's just a small scar like his old ones. Maybe Sleep will learn that his strikes should be better.