When I fed him Friday like always I give him two FT mice. The first one he took down awkwardly. He normally coils around them even though they are dead, and in the process of unraveling his coiled body he ends up stretching out the mouse to full length and the body folds down properly. Well Friday he kept it bunched up and started eating it. I couldn't get it straighted out no matter how much I tugged and he wouldn't let go. He went from being his normal pink with little greenish yellow splotches to being dark pink and red in areas. He took quite awhile to get the first one down. I was a nervous wreck. I waited until he had the first one down for a full twenty minutes before I allowed him to have the second one. But after the first one I noticed his jaw was slackened a bit. Normally it's got no space in between it and he's fine, but now even after the second one and his realignment he does after eating, he still has the slackened jaw on one side. Is this because he balled that mouse up and had such a hard time and will spring back? or will it be like this forever now? He is still drinking normally and well acting as he usually does after eating, he curls up and ignores the world for a couple days. I'm just so worried, thanks in advance--Izora
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Frosty has a bit of an "underbite"
Replies (3)
I had a ball do the same thing this year. It stay that way for a couple of days and then fixed itself. Don't worry it probably just didnt realign itself all the way. You could try to feed another small meal to see if the jaw realigns right afterwards.
In talking with the folks at East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, Ca, I was told that a snakes jaw is actually in 5 separate pieces. This allows the whole mechanism to come apart when they eat large objects. When they are finished, they perform a sort of yawning action which puts everything back in it's proper alignment. Seems like yours just didn't do this last action yet.
I may be wrong, so no flame reply's to this please...
Interesting to note that I have never seen this bit of information in any book. The best info seems to come from word of mouth, forums, the internets....
You just gotta buy the right book 
It's in there, you'll find it
