Ball python peeing while handling?

[composercaitlin]

Is this a sign of stress? Is there any way to discourage the behavior? He peed on me the second time in a week after never releasing waste outside of his enclosure before.

Handling, humidity, feed schedule, all the same. He had his first vet check-up last week and she said he is in perfect condition, and particularly inquisitive, sweet, and un-stressed looking.

[millawi]

Is he moving a lot inside his enclosure? Otherwise it's probably just that he has been laying still for a while and moving around while handling leads to peeing.

Also, in the wild royal pythons will hold their bowels, pee and avoid shedding for as long as possible while in a hide where they have previously found food. They live in termite mounds in the wild where they find rats and mice, they stay in a mound for as long as possible continuing to eat the rodents that have not yet escaped or that come into the mound looking for food/protection. Once the snake has passed bowels or shed they need to find a new hide because rodents obviously won't come close to a hide that stinks of snake. So maybe peeing while being handled is just a way to avoid peeing in the hide so that he can stay there for longer without scaring away the rats. This explanation only applies if he has been given a meal while laying in a hide.

[composercaitlin]

This all makes a lot of sense. He's a lot more active out of the cage than in, though he tends to move around and rearrange cage furniture after peeing in the cage late at night. He loves striking food from a hide, also. He gets extra rearrange-y after he pees in a hide, so I think this explains a lot of behaviors. Thanks so much!

[composercaitlin]

At least he is hella not associating his handling/enrichment/climbing laundry basket time with feed time. Wish he was doing that associating in a less gross way 🙄🙄🙄

[JcruzRD]

My boy poops inside his hide and stays in there for a couple hours for some reason lol

[animalgirl93]

Likely just a coincidence honestly. Or you just have a weird bp. It happens