This post concerns the sudden death of my mex/mex, a late '09 about 20" long. It had been feeding on large pinkies and I figured it was time to go to fuzzies. Tuesday the 17th, I opened the Sterlite 6.2 Qt. container and as usual he was right there waiting, struck at the fuzzie and missed. He had a good grip on the top edge of the tub and trying his damndest to constrict it. He finally gave up after about a minute and went looking for the mouse. About 15 minutes later
I looked and he was swallowing the mouse tail first. Wednesday morning he looked fine with a noticable bulge. Thursday afternoon I noticed He was laying partialy on his side. This morning he was dead!
I am at a loss to what could have caused his death, what did I do wrong? Could he have injured himself by biting the tub - by swallowind the mouse backwards - what????
Anyone ever had something like this happen? theOLDherper - Pete
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unknown cause of death??????
Replies (6)
Sorry to hear about this Pete. I'm thinking the reverse swallow was what did him in secondary to inner lacerations caused by the teeth &/or nails of the rodent while going down.
I have a local friend who is a Drymarchin breeder who also had several Boelen's pythons.......his largest Boelen's female ( /- 10 feet) swallowed a rat backwards, and the same thing happened.
Jeezuz, again so sorry about it.
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Jerry Kruse
UPDATED!
www.zonatas.com
And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."
That does sound reasonable! Then again who knows what actually happened. I'm gonna be paranoid about my butt munchers now! Thanks Jerry, lol.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra
My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com
Sorry about your snake Pete!
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra
My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com
Sorry your little guy died.
I did not think it possible for a snake to die from eating a mouse or rat backwards. Especially a small soft fuzzie, which would barely have teeth. If the food item was quite large in relation to the size of the snake, that I could imagine. One of the reasons I feed multiple small items instead of one big item.
Maybe your little snake had some sort of internal defect that pinkies did not challenge, but that the larger fuzzie did?
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.
What Jerry Kruse said! I had that happen with a gopher snake one time.
Very sorry about your loss my friend.
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Genesis 1:1
It is certainly possible for a rodent eaten backwards to lacerate a snake. Another concern is if a rodent is regurged. I once saw a burm that died a few hours after regurging a rabbit. Necropsy showed that the teeth lacerated several feet of the esophagus.
However I do not think that this is possible in this instance because I don't believe a fuzzy has sharp enough equipment. Lots of baby snakes eat small prey backwards all the time and are fine. I would say that your cause of death lies somewhere other than biting the tub or eating the fuzzy. Although rare some snakes do have internal defects that take time before they catch up with them. Husbandry issues and infectious diseases are aIl possible. If you still have the snake, a veterinarian can perform a necropsy that might give you a more specific answer.
Sorry for your loss. I know from personal experience that it is very hard when it is a surprise.
