Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, last night was my weekly feeding night for my BP. I decided to upgrade his food from adult mice to small adult rats. The rats I got looked like they are a little bit wider than my snakes widest part but not a big difference so I figured it would be worth a try. My BP could probably add a little bit of weight anyway and the adult mice to me seem a little small now. Anyway, I thawed out the rat and stuck it in Chopper's (My BPs name) feeding container. Then I put Chopper in there and he instantly pounced on it. Well, I left him alone in there for a while. I went back to check on him and he still had the rat and was coiled around it. I figured, cool he's going to eat it! A little bit later I checked on him again and Chopper was slithering around in there and no longer had the rat in his mouth. Now, here's the disgusting part! I took one look at the rat and their was rat poop just coming out of him near his rearend and the rat looked like he was all wet! I immediately got Chopper out of there and did the best I could to clean him off because I think he may have rubbed up against it and had a very foul odor from it!

Two questions. First, if a BP needs cleaned what is the best way to do it without exposing him to anything harmful? Is soap and water OK or would the soap be harmful? Second, what if I tried feeding him a rat again and the same thing happens? I know my BP does not like the smell of poop and tries to get as far away from it as possible in his tank right after he does his business. I can only imagine how foul smelling that was to him and I would guess as soon as the rat's insides spilled out like that he let it go. He was definitely trying to get away from it when I opened the container the second time. Have you guys ever had this happen? Am I making too big a deal out of it? It has never happened with any of the mice I've fed him. Anyway, any advice on this would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading all of this.

I think you're lucky he pounced right on the rat! Switching can be tough. I wouldn't worry about washing him, although I don't know what the really foul odor could be from unless the rat's guts were coming out. Maybe the rat was too hot or heated up too fast? When that happens with my mice, sometimes- it's icky- the guts come out of the tummy. Sometimes frozen prey does let go of nasty stuff after it has died and it could have only been feces/urine from the rat. Gross, but not life threatening. If you realy want to clean him off, I'd say just let him take a soak in water and only water. And by all means, try a rat again! Maybe he will swallow it. At least he knows it's food. That nasty stuff definately does not happen with every f/t rat. Pro Exotics (link at top of page) has a great FAQ about switching prey that could help you out. Good luck.

From your story, it seems that you are feeding live. This is one of thh many unfortunate side-effects of feeding live. Also, it seems that the jump from large adult mice(40g) to small adult rats(100g) might be a bit too large. I would try weanling rats, they are about 50g or so, and seem to be the next step up from adult mice. I also would not worry about the poop on the snake. Just use water to rinse him off, soaps can be harmful, and are unneccesary. No harm done.

No, I've always fed him F/T mice and this was a thawed out rat like I mentioned in the initial post. I've never had to feed him live thank God! You could be right though as far as jumping a bit too high in size. I'll try one step down from that, next feeding. I think it was considered a hopper rat. I'll try a fuzzy next time since I think they are a little bit smaller. Thanks!

That's really weird, I've never heard of a snake constricting so hard that it pushed out bowel contents from a dead rat. I wouldn't go as small as a fuzzy (15-25g) stick with the hoppers, or weanlings. Good luck.

I think freezing and thawing breaks the cells down to the point that thin skin areas, like the stomach wall, can burst. It's happened to me, once, with a rat that I defrosted. The wall of it's stomach popped as it was being swallowed, not constricted, and a loop of intestine snagged on a tooth. Needless to say, he was swallowing for a while......No worries. If you feel the need to wash him/her plain water should be fine.
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1.1 Ball Python
0.0.1 corn snake
1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.2 fish
1.2 cats
3.1 kids
1.0 husband

My book on BP's also mentions the cell degradation from freezing/thawing, adding that each subsequent freezing can break down the cell walls further, leading to weaker tissue.

It sounds to me, though, as all that really happened was that the rat's sphincter muscles were relaxed enough after thawing that the snake's constriction (especially if he was wrapped around the lower part of the abdomen) was enough to push the wastes out.

On a more amusing note, I bypassed this subject last night as I was perusing the forums just before dinner and thought to avoid something disgusting. When I read it this morning, however, I nearly laughed. Not at your problem, just at the thought that I've dealt with far more disgusting things in the normal process of raising children. After two kids, it's really kind of hard to gross me out.