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Early yesterday my BP ate a small rat that my of been just a litte to big for her. later on that night she threw the rat back up. and this morning she was dead....Do anyone out there no what could of happen to her, so that it wont happen to my other two BP. Thank you for you time

Oh, gosh, I am so sorry for you... I have had that happen before, too, and it's awful.

First, was the prey live or dead? If it was dead, how was it killed (or did you buy it pre-killed)??

Second, how large is the snake?

--Scales

The Prey was Live, and she was a little over 2 feet long.

Uh, the rat probably wasn't dead when your snake started swallowing it, and it probably bit your ball python while it was going down, or before. Even if it wasn't, you shouldn't be feeding live food (especially rats) to your pythons - fresh kill them or get them frozen, a live rat can kill a ball python without blinking an eye, they are vicious little buggers and you should never feed them to a snake while they're still alive- I'm very sorry about your snake, that's never happened to me and I hope it never does

Jon

I agree - the mouse may have damaged your snake as it was being swallowed. This is unfortunately a deadly consequence of using live food. Some people manage to never have a problem with it, but I just don't like taking that chance. I really do recommend using pre-killed prey. That way the prey can't bite, and if you use frozen/thawed food, it doesn't transmit parasites, either.

Just a suggestion!! I hope that your other snakes fare better.

--Scales

I understand the whole argument about feeding live vs. pre-killed. However, when the snake started to eat the rat, the rat was as good as dead, as he could be, every since I have own a BP (about 2 years now) I have always feed live, I watch the snake at all time to make sure that the rat or mice dose not harm my BP. Don't get me wrong I have tried to feed pre-killed but, one I guess I don't know what I'm doing or all of the snake that I have just wont take pre-killed, and believe I have tried just about everything that I know of to get them to eat pre-killed. so as far as the rat may of bitting the snake on the way down is very unlikely, cause the rat was dead.

My guess was that the snake aspirated when regurgitating the rat. If the rat was a little big, and the snake started to regurgitate and had trouble getting it out, it may have forced stomach acids into the lungs.
Mike

It may also have ruptured the stomach when the rat started to bloat. The rat itself may have been OK size wise, but when they die, they can bloat a little making them even larger.

Is to have a vet do a necropsy. This wil only work if you've kept the dead snake in the fridge. I guess you should hope it was physical damage and not some sort of sickness, but there's no way to tell for sure. I understand what it's like to have a snake that won't take prekilled, though!