Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My approx. 4 year old corn snake scared me and my wife to death tonight! We were feeding all the snakes, and I always feed Morgan Le Fay in a plastic bucket...she took the first one no problem, and when she finished it off, I gave her her second and last mouse. She took it with no hesitation, and started to eat it when, all of a sudden, she stopped, let it go and wouldn't pay attention to it. I thought this was odd, and I took that mouse out, and had another one already thawed for another snake and gave it to her. When I got it close to her face, she jerked back, and moved away. So I put her back in her cage, and she has this wierd tense look to her neck and upper body. A few moments later, she regurged the mouse. When about 95% of the mouse was out, she just stopped moving COMPLETELY and just layed there. By this point, my wife is freaking out so we open her cage, and as we are doing so, she starts to move slowly. We discard the mouse and I go to move her and she strikes at me (she has NEVER striked at me before, so I know she wasn't feeling good) so I close her cage back up, and now she's roaming like she's looking for that mouse. I don't mean to go into so much detail, but this really concerns me because I've never had one regurge before. The temp was a little warm today in the snake room (got up to 90 degrees, usually stays about 85 during day, and 75 at night) but nothing extreme, and she seemed very hungry (as usual) up until she started the second mouse. The mice where the same size that I've been feeding her for about a year. Could the claws of the already swallowed mouse caught something inside and caused the problem, or is it something really bad??? Please, someone help releave MY stress!
below are two pics of her I took about a month ago

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-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)

There could have been something on the mouse that it didn't like.
There's a horror story I read about a mouse breeder who had a flea problem using flea powder on her mice.

It also could be heat - I have a male king who regurges in very hot weather.

My suggestion - Don't feed her for at least a week and then try again with a single smaller prey item. If she keeps it down, you can try large again. If she doesn't, have a fecal float done to check for internal parasites.

Good luck. She's a beauty.
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6.8 L. getula californiae - 11 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - 14 eggs (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

was the mouse completely thawed out?
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V.P.
Austin Herp. Soc.

thanks to both of you for replying...yes, the mouse was comepletely thawed; All the other guys ate good and had no problems. The change in her actions was instant...one moment she's swallowing one mouse and agressively taking the second one, the next moment she's acting all wierd and drops the one mouse, then regurges the other one. It was pretty scary when she was just laying there with it almost out of her mouth, just laying there with her head turned sideways and mouth wide open, but no movement! She seems to be fine now, and is wondering her cage as if she is hungry again, but I'm going to wait a week, then try again.
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-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)

.