Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Due to my current living situation, I am not able to feed frozen thawed. I feed live stunned or fresh killed. I was feeding my adult JCP one of her 17 mice for the week when she decided not to kill one of the mice. She started eating it alive. The whole time the tail was moving, the mouse was kicking and fighting. After it was swallowed, you could see the mouse moving inside her. Stick your hand up your shirt and move it around, thats what it looked like. After that, she would not eat any more. I'm afraid the mouse bit or scratched her way down and hurt her internally. I have had snakes my whole life, and have never seen this before. Also, this is the first time she has EVER refused a meal in the 3 years I've had her. I'm not sure that there is much a vet could do, so any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

Well for one any damage heals with time. Maybe you should give your snake a few weeks to heal just in case if it has some internal damage. Also that will give it enough time to work up an appetite.

might be time to switch to rats!

why in the hell would you feed your snake a almost alive mouse it wouldn't surprise me if this snake gets over it your snake could and might bleed internally if the snake was eatting frozen thawed and you couldn't feed it frozen thawed why not kill the mouse first then feed it. your just lucky the mouse didn't decide to chew its way out of the snakes body which it is most likely not to do that but it could happen. sorry if i sound mean

Well don't be sorry, you seem to forget that snakes eat live everywhere but in captivity. They are programmed to kill, when I feed my other snakes frozen thawed, many of them still constrict it, even after many feedings. When I fed the mouse to her, it was completely unconcious, I smacked it over the head with a large screw driver handle. I didn't check for a pulse, but it appeared dead. Most die right away, some don't. I posted my message looking for advice as to what to do, not for your two bit opinion. Thanks anyway, Eric

Ever swallowed a goldfish live? Must have felt just like that... ewww. I think I'd be turned off from eating to if I felt something wiggling its way down to my belly.

Just give her some time...and definetely look into starting on rats... 17 mice is alot of money compared to 1 or 2 rats...
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It sounds like you should have moved to rats long ago. And, this is why I think everyone should have a gas box for kiling their mice/rats. It really could depend how much damage the mouse did as to how it will affect your snake. It is possible the mouse busted some internal orgins. If it resulted in to much internal bleeding it could kill the snake. However it may have done nuthing but make the snake loose its apitite. Just hope for the best.