Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I picked up a hatchling on saturday. I offered him a pinkie mouse today, possibly his first meal. Instead of constricting the mouse, he slowly started to swallow the pinkie while it was still allive, the pinkie was a day old. I could actually see it moving around while going down the snake, could this lead to any problems? I offered a fresh killed hopper right after, which he refused. Has anyone else encountered this before? thanks, Dave.

He knows the pinky is not going to pose a threat to him. Feed him at least fuzzy or small hopper mice, pinks are way too small.

Chad

Yup, happens to me alot.

I've noticed that they will sometimes consume rat pups while they are still alive. They have NEVER tried this with a mouse, however. I think they somehow know that it's ok for them to swallow partially living fuzzy mice and rat pups.

Wanna hear something disturbing? My yearling swallowed a rat pup while it was alive and after it moved it into its belly, it began crawling around. The disturbing part of this story is that you could still hear the rat pup inside the snakes belly making 'yiping' sounds the whole time!

I was deeply concerned about this but nevertheless, the yiping sounds have faded and the snake is ok.

Thanks for the replies, Just something I haven't witnessed before. I'm going to give it a few days and try to feed it a hopper.

Thanks again, Dave.

I have had Mambas & Cobras do this alot, but never a Ball.

Interesting,
Chad

Sounds like you are one of those fortunate people whose hatchlings will accept prekilled prey. I would definately not feed live anymore! If a dead mouse is placed in the cage, your snake should scoop it up and eat it right away.
Feeding live is too dangerous in my opinion. If the snake tried eating the mouse live, you should have stepped in and prevented this from happening, since that mouse could really tear things up in the snake's throat with its teeth.
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