Red in urates.

[Rob]

My female left small smears of blood on the substrate when she was 2 yr old. I had her fully checked by a well known herp vet, and his take was that she "not mature enough to breed, but starting to think about it!" I have spoken to other bhp breeders who have noticed the same thing with one of them saying that it was a sign that they are mature. At her age at the time though I doubted it. She still does it occasionally coming out of winter (not during ovulation). It looks nothing like this photo here.

I think this is the story I recall from you, and got confused thinking it was the same thing the OP described.

 

[cement]

Another look at that photo... that dump is heavily laced with urate crystals, I have never seen a snake in my collection do a dump that full of crystals. I would seriously look at the type and amount of food you are feeding and take advice re food from some of the other guys here that have been breeding for a while. My guess is that passing that pile has damaged the tract slightly on the way out.

 

[thomasssss]

Another look at that photo... that dump is heavily laced with urate crystals, I have never seen a snake in my collection do a dump that full of crystals. I would seriously look at the type and amount of food you are feeding and take advice re food from some of the other guys here that have been breeding for a while. My guess is that passing that pile has damaged the tract slightly on the way out.

this interests me a bit , i actually sent the op a pm about that as i get the same thing in my womas and i have been very cautious about what i feed my guys , when i got my male from snake ranch he had done a urate in the bag and it had the same crystals attached so i didn't overly worry but have been wondering the cause , snake ranch and others on here have told me its probably bile

when i say ive been cautious about what i feed them i mean that ive never gone over 15%(maybe 20% at times but aim for around 15 ) of body weight and only fed them on a weekly basis for the first few months , then they went on to feeds every 10 days or a bit longer at times and i have made them fast about 3 times for about 3-4 weeks , there only yearlings

about 3 months ago i switched them onto quail , i noticed a significant decrease in the amount of crystals and the colour lightened to a light yellow , ive been feeding them only quail and it is continuing to decrease

any input would be appreciated , im not sure whats going on but ive been thinking it may be that some individuals cant process the fat in rats as well as others of the same species can as plenty of people feed rats on a similar routine to mine with no problems , just a thought anyway

and sorry for the thread hijack mods , im sure the op wont mind though as ive been talking to him about this via pm to avoid hijacking the thread but thought it might be helpful to others on the open forum