The Serpent Shanty

 The other day I came home from work and started to removesome of the male from the female tubs. When I opened one tub I noticed something a little off. My Male Butter was sitting on the female and his hemipene was out. Now by looking at it from where I was standing it just looked like he finished copulating and did not fully retracted yet. But when I took abetter look… Oh man, he had a prolapsed hemipene.

I quickly removed all of the bedding from his enclosure and replaced it with paper towels. Then I took him out of the female’s enclosure to get a better look. It was still red and moist but had some bedding on it. I grabbed one of my spray bottles and to clean off all of the debris. Once it was all cleaned off I placed him in his tub with the moist paper towel and started surfing the net. I remember reading a post on Ball-Pythons.net. So that is where I went. The post said to mix sugar and water into a paste and generously rub it on to the area, so this is what I did. I checked on him in a few hours and his hemipene retracted. That was a relief. It has been a week now and everything seems back to normal. I popped him last night and both hemipenes look fine and he even had sperm plugs. I will be reintroducing him back to the female next week.

 We lucked out with this guy. It could have been alot worse and needed medical attention. I think the reason it did not get worse is because it was caught in time. If he was left unattended for a few days and it dried then there would have been problems. We check all of my animals everyday.   

The Serpent Shanty