Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A couple of days ago I was feeding my male het genetic stripe. I feed him two rat pinks at a time because he is less than 100g. When he struck the rat, all seemed normal. After feeding some of my other snakes I noticed he was still constricting the rat. It seemed like he had been doing so for an unusual amount of time. I picked him up and everything looked normal except a little blood, but the pink rat was beginning to turn purple from the prolonged constriction. I put him back, and then checked on him about five minutes later to make sure everything was OK. I found him still constricted around the purple rat and more blood than the last time I checked him. I picked him up again and tried to uncoil him because I thought something was wrong. Well, something was wrong. I guess because the skin of a pink rat is so soft and thin that the row of teeth on one side of his bottom jaw got lodged in the rat's skin. He was trying to dislodge his teeth from the rat but was not having any luck. I could see that he was moving the other side of his jaw just fine. I immediately called Dewayne Richard of albinoballpythons.com to ask if he had ever had anything like this happen and how he dealt with it. He told me that he had not, and we devised a plan to help the snake out. Mind you, by this time the snake had been constricting the rat pup for about 15 or so minutes (seemed like an hour to me). We determined that I would have to pull his teeth out of the rat. I got a metal hanger and used the rounded end and pushed backwards because that is the way the teeth grow. This worked very well and the snake was able to eat. After eating, I opened mouth and checked and saw no blood or apparent injuries to his mouth, and he promptly ate his second rat.

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen, and if so, what method did you use to help the snake?

Thanks.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

I had a situation that was kind of similar a few weeks ago. While feeding one of my BPs she got very eager, and when she struck, she ended up catchong some of her own skin at about mid body. When I realized she was stuck, I just pushed her head forward, and held her body still, and she immediately came loose. It was only a couple teeth, but enough that she prob would have broken a few teeth if she had pulled loose on her own.
she finished her meal, and is no more worse for wear. In fact she continued to eat with my hands still on her! (noone messes with that girls chow!!)
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

What your seeing seems like a hatchling thing, and it goes away after a few feedings. I've never done anything about it, just let them be and they eventually figured it out. I had a hatchling Ball Python take its first mouse around 10PM, and finally got it down its gullet around 8 in the morning. I've never seen adults do this though.

>>What your seeing seems like a hatchling thing, and it goes away after a few feedings. I've never done anything about it, just let them be and they eventually figured it out. I had a hatchling Ball Python take its first mouse around 10PM, and finally got it down its gullet around 8 in the morning. I've never seen adults do this though.

Same here. It just takes them a bit longer to figure some things out. I have one female that would take upwards an hour to get a rat pup down.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

i had something like that happen with one of mine as well. I was feeding her mice at the time and she somehow managed to get the shoulder / elbow of one of the front legs of the mouse jammed in the back of her mouth at an angle and there was no way she wa going to be able to swallow. I had to literally hold her mouth open and loosen the mouse by pushing backwards like you did. My snake is such a good eater that once i dislodged the mouse i just stuck the head of it back in it's mouth and she swallowed it right down with no hesitation...lol. she's still a great eater but has been moved up to small rats now.