Did I do it wrong?

[The New B]

I am relatively new to caring for BP's and got my first about a year and a half ago. About 30 minutes ago, I was feeding my 950g Mojave (she only eats live). When she struck the rat, I noticed the rat possibly was biting her. Half of its mouth was inside hers, and the other half was on the side of her skull. I took the tongs and lightly pulled its teeth off of her head. However, I of course didn't know what was going on inside her mouth with the other half. After that rat died, I left to clean her hides. After about 5-10 minutes, I came back and found about 7 little one inch long blood streaks all over the newspaper substrate. I panicked and instantly thought the rat did some damage on the inside of her mouth. I got real close to the cage and looked around but didn't see any blood on her. I decided that I had to take a peek at her because I didn't want her to injure herself more trying to eat the rat if she was hurt. When I picked her up I saw a little pin prick of blood on her neck about a half inch backwards from under her jaw. I then looked at the rat and the only place the rat was bleeding was a little tiny spot on its front paw. I couldn't picture that little spot giving out enough blood to cause all of the little blood streaks. So I decided to look in her mouth. When I got her mouth open, I didn't see anything. I felt terrible for inturrupting her meal time but I had to make sure.

Do you guys think I did the right thing by checking her? Do you think she will remember it and have it affect future feedings?

I removed the rat from her cage when I was holding her because I'm still not 100% sure she isn't inujured. Any advice on re-checking her for injuries?

Thanks for the help!

[MootWorm]

I've never dealt with anything like that before, but honestly I can't say I would've done anything differently. I'd say maybe tomorrow give her a soak and try to see the extent of the damage. Stressful as it may be, I'd also take another look at the inside of her mouth. From my understanding, you took away the rat entirely, so she hasn't eaten. Correct? If so, I would wait until your next regular feeding day and hope she wasn't too badly affected by this incident.

But it sounds like you handled everything as quickly and well as you possibly could. Keep us posted on her status!

[DVirginiana]

Snakes' teeth are like razor blades... I've had bites that I can't even SEE bleed all over my hand. If the mouse had any blood on it, I bet that's where the blood on the paper came from.

Keep an eye on her, but I doubt there's a problem. Plus, if there was enough blood on the inside of her mouth to leave streaks on the paper, you'd be able to see where it had come out of the mouth.

[The New B]

From my understanding, you took away the rat entirely, so she hasn't eaten. Correct? If so, I would wait until your next regular feeding day and hope she wasn't too badly affected by this incident.

Yes, the rat was removed so she didn't eat. Do you think she will give me problems eating now that she has had a traumatic experience during a feeding?

[MootWorm]

Really there's no telling if she's been traumatized by this experience until next feeding. Past behaviors can be an indicator of how she'll behave in the future, however. Has she ever been a problem feeder for you? Does she stress out easily? Balls don't have comprehensive memory recall, but they tend to have reliable behavior patterns. If she's pretty easygoing and/or has been an aggressive feeder, I wouldn't be too worried.

[The New B]

Really there's no telling if she's been traumatized by this experience until next feeding. Past behaviors can be an indicator of how she'll behave in the future, however. Has she ever been a problem feeder for you? Does she stress out easily? Balls don't have comprehensive memory recall, but they tend to have reliable behavior patterns. If she's pretty easygoing and/or has been an aggressive feeder, I wouldn't be too worried.

She does get stressed out very easily. However, she has been an eating machine as long as its live. She has never refused a live rat for me, even when getting fed double. So I guess I'll find out on wednesday. I guess theres a 50/50 chance then if she stresses out easily but is an eating monster. I'll just pray for the best!

[jasonmcgilvrey83]

My bp before I switched to frozen got bit as well one feeding on his back when he squeezed him didn't seem to bother his hunger next feeding. And kudos for really tion the way u did.

[BallPythonsAllDay]

Honestly its tough to do but try and keep a good knife handy when feeding live, because live can be very dangerous to your snake and if the rodent starts biting you will have to kill it before it kills your BP

[hypersomniacjoo]

better to stun or prekill the rat and using tongs, shake it in front of her so she thinks its live. if she is eating it live, and you think it may be biting her, she is likely to be able to constrict it/ take care of the problem herself, and then you check the mouth/ bite site when she is done swallowing and if she is wounded, rinse the area with saline solution and call the vet if any swelling or other problems occur the next day.

[Diamond Serpents]

I wouldn't have done anything different then you, how ever I do have a #2 pencil. I use the pencil for things like this to jam into the rats mouth so it will bite the pencil and not my snakes.