Diamond python huge bulge 4 days after feeding

[holliee231]

I have 2 diamond pythons roughly 6 years old I’ve nicknamed Grumpy (cause he’s an asshole) and Plod (cause he seems a little slow and special compared to the other one lol). On Friday I offered them each a large rat (have always fed them large rats without any issues) Grumpy refused (he shed 2 days later) and Plod happily ate his. However it’s now been 4 days and he still has this HUGE bulge and from the bulge down has gone all lumpy and fatty. I have them in a wooden enclosure with glass front 1350x600x1200mm with heat lamps on a thermostat and seperate lighting. Both are on timers. The warm end gets to around 28 and the cool end around 23-24. I live in Melbourne and it’s been quite cold recently. Plot still moves around the tank but for the last day or so every time I’ve checked on him he’s been on the platform directly under the basking lamp. I have their heat lamps on timers coming on at 10am and switching off at 2pm. Their lighting comes on at 7am and goes off at 7pm.

I’m starting to worry about him as the bulge is bigger than immediately after he consumed the rat. And normally within 2-3 days max there’s no bulge at all.

should I run the heat lamps for longer the next couple days to try help him digest his food? Or is a trip to the vet in order?

This is my first time owning diamond pythons, or any snakes honestly, I’ve had these guys for almost 5 months now and I’ve done as much research as possible but am in no way an expert and I don’t want these fellas to suffer or die. They’ve been together since the day they hatched but were basically abandoned at the start of the year until I said I would take them. Up until now I seemed to have nursed them back to health. They were both doing 10x better than when I got them... until now.

but now this fella is worrying me

The photo of the 2 of them was the day after Plod ate on Saturday. The one of him on his own was last night, Tuesday night.

he’s my favourite as he’s a little more placid and relaxed. Grumpy moves too fast and I’m terrified of being bitten. I don’t have much overall experience with handling snakes and I don’t want to upset, stress, or potentially harm either of them.

am I freaking out for no reason or am I in my right to go all crazy-stress-head-mum-mode on these guys? (I have 3 kids the stress of these guys getting sick is almost if not equal to the stress when one of my kids get sick!)

any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

 

[Sdaji]

That's not a huge feed lump. Google 'large python food lump' and you'll see things which make your look tiny.

I wouldn't be feeding Diamonds this early in the season, but if you are going to, I'd be giving them some time each day (but not too much time) with a basking lamp allowing them to get hot. Ideally, the ambient temperature will rarely be hot, but it's still important to give them the opportunity to heat themselves, and it's best for Diamonds to do it with a basking lamp. The full story is very long and complicated, and Diamonds are a tricky thing to keep properly, with most of them dying young largely due to bad heating. It's not quite as simple as keeping them cold, because Diamonds naturally get the opportunity to sit in the sun and get as hot as they want, but also are forced to spend a lot of time cold. Never allowing them to get above 28 is going to kill them eventually.

 

[holliee231]

I’m so glad he’s not in any trouble and will be okay. How long is too long for the bulge to be visible? The last time he was fed he was almost back to his lean self within 2 days. I’ve tried to tell my brother for the last few months they don’t need to be fed throughout winter but he insists.

The shelf directly below the heat lamp and occasionally the top of that entire side gets to around 30-32 depending how cold it is in my lounge room. Prolonged exposure to 28 and under is detrimental but how hot is too hot for these guys? I intend to buy a heat mat and place it under their rock hide hopefully next week. Their tank can drop to as low as 15 at night some nights. Is this too cold? I would assume they’d be exposed to a lot lower out in the wild but should I be running infrared heat lamps at night or just let the natural temperature do its own thing?

they only get 4 hours of heat from 10am to 2pm each day atm. Is this adequate? I use 1 basking lamp directly above their shelf and the other end has an infrared globe that they sometimes curl around their log under. Both heat lamps run off the same thermostat and timer. Come the warmer months Ill give them 0-2 hours max heat a day depending on ambient temperatures. Is it possible for them to become too hot in the summer months? My lounge room gets pretty warm in summer and their tank is directly opposite a window to give them natural sunlight and to soak up some natural uv rays.

sorry for the short stories and million and one questions I just want these guys to have the healthiest, happiest life possible from here on out.

 

[Benno87]

Ovulating? Maybe he is a she? If you are keepin 2 together it’s possible. Now is when female carpets are gettin ready to lay. I got no idea when it comes to diamonds tho

 

[Herpetology]

To me it looks wildly overweight, judging by the mass scale seperation throughout the whole body from head to tail

has it shat anytime in the last month?

they only get 4 hours of heat from 10am to 2pm each day atm. Is this adequate?

No, if you're only providing those hours of heating, its going to have trouble digesting food, which i imagine is whats going on here.

Come the warmer months Ill give them 0-2 hours max heat a day depending on ambient temperatures.

This is the opposite of what you will want, when months start to get warmer (august to march) You will want to provide more basking hours about 8+ with higher basking temps around 30c controlled by a thermostat

I use 1 basking lamp directly above their shelf and the other end has an infrared globe that they sometimes curl around their log under. Both heat lamps run off the same thermostat and timer.

This confuses me, you have 2 seperate heat sources at opposite ends? where is their cool end? or how can you have a cool end if theyre both being controlled by one thermostat?

You only need 1 large basking area to suit them both, and leave the other end of enclosure as ambient temp, this allows them to thermoregulate/control their own temps



Perhaps you have a picture of your whole enclosure setup including your thermostat probe placement?

Word of advice... seperate them please, into their own enclosures. You will find it vastly more easier to control 2 identical enclosure setups with same dimensions and heat source VS trying to control 2 heat sources in a single enclosure with 1 thermostat

seen many stories of one snake ate/attacked the other after living together for years

 

[Sdaji]

Ovulating? Maybe he is a she? If you are keepin 2 together it’s possible. Now is when female carpets are gettin ready to lay. I got no idea when it comes to diamonds tho

It's a food lump and looks nothing like ovulation.
[doublepost=1598456696,1598456226][/doublepost]

I’m so glad he’s not in any trouble and will be okay. How long is too long for the bulge to be visible? The last time he was fed he was almost back to his lean self within 2 days. I’ve tried to tell my brother for the last few months they don’t need to be fed throughout winter but he insists.

The shelf directly below the heat lamp and occasionally the top of that entire side gets to around 30-32 depending how cold it is in my lounge room. Prolonged exposure to 28 and under is detrimental but how hot is too hot for these guys? I intend to buy a heat mat and place it under their rock hide hopefully next week. Their tank can drop to as low as 15 at night some nights. Is this too cold? I would assume they’d be exposed to a lot lower out in the wild but should I be running infrared heat lamps at night or just let the natural temperature do its own thing?

they only get 4 hours of heat from 10am to 2pm each day atm. Is this adequate? I use 1 basking lamp directly above their shelf and the other end has an infrared globe that they sometimes curl around their log under. Both heat lamps run off the same thermostat and timer. Come the warmer months Ill give them 0-2 hours max heat a day depending on ambient temperatures. Is it possible for them to become too hot in the summer months? My lounge room gets pretty warm in summer and their tank is directly opposite a window to give them natural sunlight and to soak up some natural uv rays.

sorry for the short stories and million and one questions I just want these guys to have the healthiest, happiest life possible from here on out.

For a large Carpet it can be well over 4 days. The larger the meal and the cooler the temperatures, the longer it'll take. You do want to make sure they have access to their preferred temperature (30ish) for most of the 24 period while they're digesting if you're going to give them large meals.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the temperature touching 15 for a Diamond, but the concern is the number of hours at that temperature. If it's 15 at the coldest part of night, 15-18 most of the day and only 32 for 2-3 hours per day, then it's too cold. If there's a warm area of 36 degrees under a spotlight for 6 hours of the day, they can sit in the high 20s for most of the rest of the day and it just goes down to 15 briefly, no problem at all. Diamonds are tricky things to get right. If you treat them like a tropical form of Carpet Python (which any other type of Carpet will thrive in, including the other non tropical types), they'll die young and not be healthy for long. If you keep them too cold they'll also die. You need to keep these things a bit like a Bearded Dragon, not like you'd keep most other snakes.

Diamonds should get hot most days, but then have to work hard to hang on to that heat (hard enough that they'll work hard and achieve it, but not so hard that they can't do it). It's a tricky balance to get right, which is why most people don't succeed with keeping them alive long term.
[doublepost=1598456782][/doublepost]Oh, and yeah, one of them does look a little overweight. It's worth avoiding this in pythons in general, but especially with Diamonds.

 

[holliee231]

Their tank setup. Back right up top is where it’s warmest.

entire left side of their tank is significantly colder since it has a smaller infrared bulb with a bigger area to try and warm.

right on top of the shelf directly under the basking lamp is the warmest part of the tank.

I have 3 thermometers in there placed at different heights and depths so I can make sure the temp varies for them. I think it helps that heat rises and their tank is 1.3m high.


[doublepost=1598458002,1598457690][/doublepost]Here is how they usually look.

Would they be considered overweight? Should I offer smaller size meals next time?

I kept trying to tell my brother they don’t need to be fed until September/October but he doesn’t listen. I can’t fault him for caring enough whether they’re hungry or not. He just frustrates me at times lol.