While feeding my 2012 yearlings this evening, I noticed the pied was thrashing around a lot. He kept curling up and rolling around, like he was trying to constrict the rat. But he'd already half swallowed it. And his lower jaw looked kinda strange--the right side was INSIDE his mouth, like he was trying to swallow his lower lip at the same time as his prey.

Afterwards he seemed okay. It took him a minute to get his lower jaw back into shape, but then he started tongue-flicking as usual.

The rat was a weaned rat, which he's eaten several times before.

Is this normal? I admit I don't usually watch them while they eat. But I've watched them enough, and I've never seen that before. Do I need to reduce the prey size for the pied, or take him to the vet for an X-ray?

(Meanwhile a 2012 pastel male was in the tub next to him, sedately eating a one-size larger rat with no problems. HE was the one I was worried about, because that's the size rat I feed my adults, and that was the first time he'd eaten one that big.)