Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my snake was eatting a mouse just now and it was actualy a tiny bit smaller then his usual but not alot...anyways it looks like his one jaw is misaligned and he cant seem to swallow the mouse....he trys pulling it back up then trys again and he keeps struggling...I dunno what to do at the moment

They are amazing eaters. He will figure it out. I had a female friday ate one sideways, It took her about 30 mins to get it down but she did it.. And wanted more.. He should be ok.

he spit it back out and i took it away before he could try again. i will let him rest a few days to a week

Once a snake opens its jaws to eat, it looks very misaligned. If he was having trouble trouble with it, I would have just left it in there over night. If it is bigger than normal (though I think you mentioned it was smaller so this may not be an issue) he could also refuse it as being too big to get down. Some snakes just are more finiky on how their prey goes down...maybe he just didn't feel comfortable with you watching him trying to eat the mouse and he spat it out in favor of finding some seclusion in his hide. If you left him alone with it and didn't bother checking till the morning, he probably would have eat it fine.

nah it was stuck, he was thrashing around and finally gave up....He had it almost down but couldnt finish it due to how messed up his jaw was. I was just curious if this ever happened to anyone else before. I hope he doesn't refuse to eat now, he was a good eatter

dude,
by the time you read this it should have worked itself out. in 24+ years of keeping snakes, i've seen this more than a few times.
small sized prey can definitely contribute to this, as the python may not be able to hold the rodent in it's coil to control it. hence the snake relies more on it mouth to get the prey down, you may see it trying to pin it's prey against something in an effort to align it for optimum pre-swallowing position. it's possible it may have jammed it's jaw during the process.
anyway, should re-align itself, hope it works out quick for you.
peace , ck