ball python feces

Question
Hello Jennifer! I just got 2 1 1/2 yr old ball pythons. They are wonderful companions an prior tu purchasing them from the last owner I did a self exam everywhere I could think of to assure their health and they seemed to be in mint shape. My big guy Rhiley had his first poop yesterday. It looked like a log, with white specs here and there. Im just wondering exactly how a healthy feces should look ?
Thank you

Answer
Hi Joey.
The poop you saw from Rhiley is just the kind of poo you want to see :-)  Snake poo will look brownish with white mixed in. The white parts are the urates (pee) and it's usually excreted in a hard lump because snakes have a system where they use much more water than we do. Their bodies can absorb more. The brown part is the waste, same as with human waste and can sometimes contain fur or bone but is usually more solid and one color. Snakes also use more of the prey they eat and so most of the time you won't find anything except smooth brown and chalky white waste. Sometimes the urates will also have some more liquid clear wastes with the solid urate but that's fine that's just urate that wasn't absorbed by the snake completely. Hope this helped and thanks for writing :-)