BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hey guys... I noticed Marley hadn't pooped in 2 days or so, but he can continued to eat normally, so I didn't worry about it. But after eating today he started trying to go, the white hard piece came out, but the rest seems to be stuck. Sorry to be gross, but it looks like the inside of his butt is almost being pushed out trying to allow it to pass. What should I do???? Vet? Give him time? something else?

Not sure, but maybe give him a warm soak?

update: He was still trying to pass it when I went back, it looked like his insides were coming out, but i took a toothpick and attempting to break up what was coming through, which turned out to be some snail shells clumped together. It all came out at once, and was several inches long(the bit causing the problem was small though). I feel pretty bad now, I bet it was fairly painful for him... In the past he had no trouble passing snail shells, so I wonder what was different this time?

His backside looks back so normal, so I will be keeping a close eye on his bathroom schedule to make sure he didn't harm anything.

HAHAHA - you toothpicked your blueys butt hole! I know you had to help - but just reading that is pretty funny.

Glad the poop is now free flowing!

Haha, yeah, not the most pleasant experience. It really looked like some damage may have been done by the passing, I could basically see the inside edges of him expanding and starting to tear open. But he will probably just be sore for a day or 2.

The butthole is a strange thing - I swear I've crapped out blue stone bricks before - but I'm still in one piece - no doubt that was your blueys worst pooping experience, so i reckon he'll take more care in the food he eats from now on.

should i cut back the amount of snails he eats? I've been doing about a 50/50 mix of snails and spot's stew mixed with collards, and then blueberry/raspberry snacks. It seems like he drops/spits out at least half of the shell mass of the snails he eats, I wonder if he will chew better or anything like that on his own.

Take out the shell dude, I watch my blueys eat snails cuz i don't want them choking on shell. Sure they can digest it - but it's a better safe than sorry thing. If you wanna use it as a calcium substitute - grind it up into a powder and mix it in to the food, but apart from that - I'd go with no shell!

Don't get me wrong - I'm not 100% sure they don't get shell - but I see them spitting most of it out then I remove it from the general area.

I've seen pics of healthy adults eating very large snails, along with shells stuffed with greens (who posted those?) . And if you mean removing the snails from their shells, that would take away part of whats good about them. I'm guessing he swallowed a half chewed snail, and the intact middle shell spiral got caught coming out. Any chewed up shell pieces seem to come out fine if they aren't digested.

What is your basking temp? Higher temps mean easier digestion. I know Zach likes 95-100, but in larger cages I like 105+, as long as your cool side can handle it.

His basking area ranges from 103-105, max i've seen with the current bulb is 105.5 or 106.0. cool side is high 70s to low 80s.

Omega wrote:I've seen pics of healthy adults eating very large snails, along with shells stuffed with greens (who posted those?) . And if you mean removing the snails from their shells, that would take away part of whats good about them. I'm guessing he swallowed a half chewed snail, and the intact middle shell spiral got caught coming out. Any chewed up shell pieces seem to come out fine if they aren't digested.

That was my post, I did it to trick him into eating the greens, I find that the helter skelter bit in the middle gets seperated as he eats the BIG ones but not the smaller snails, also aquatic snails shells are much thicker/stronger and I know you've bred to feed those, so maybe feed them smaller, Marley may have learnt for himself to seperate that bit next time.

Omega wrote:His basking area ranges from 103-105, max i've seen with the current bulb is 105.5 or 106.0. cool side is high 70s to low 80s.

How long does he have access to these temps after eating?