Just had an exploding F/T rat

[lexanidubs09]

Hey everyone! New member, and long time lurker. I owned a few BP's years ago and unfortunately had to part ways due to lack of time and personal reasons... I knew when I had to give them up that one day I'd own some bp's again and thankfully due to a irresponsible and crappy ex gf I just got a normal female that's a few years old that my ex apparently decided feeding once every few months was "normal"......... So I've got this girl now and she's putting on some weight and starting to lose her cranky temper and is really becoming a sweetheart.


Now to my question, I've always fed f/t even in the past... I've never ever had a "belly bomb" in the past although I've heard stories of it happening... She took down the whole rat with no issues but it looks like there's a crime scene laid out in the middle of her tank... I guess I'm just wondering if I need to do anything special? I'm thinking I'm going to be spot cleaning the aspen in there and let her sit for 2 days or so to digest then pull her out and replace all her bedding (aspen) and clean her tank. Does that sound fine? Do I need to worry about her? I'm sure I'm over stressing this but I've just never seen it before and want to make sure it's nothing more than just a big mess.


Thank you for all you wonderful people do for this forum

[geminibutts]

Hey everyone! New member, and long time lurker. I owned a few BP's years ago and unfortunately had to part ways due to lack of time and personal reasons... I knew when I had to give them up that one day I'd own some bp's again and thankfully due to a irresponsible and crappy ex gf I just got a normal female that's a few years old that my ex apparently decided feeding once every few months was "normal"......... So I've got this girl now and she's putting on some weight and starting to lose her cranky temper and is really becoming a sweetheart.


Now to my question, I've always fed f/t even in the past... I've never ever had a "belly bomb" in the past although I've heard stories of it happening... She took down the whole rat with no issues but it looks like there's a crime scene laid out in the middle of her tank... I guess I'm just wondering if I need to do anything special? I'm thinking I'm going to be spot cleaning the aspen in there and let her sit for 2 days or so to digest then pull her out and replace all her bedding (aspen) and clean her tank. Does that sound fine? Do I need to worry about her? I'm sure I'm over stressing this but I've just never seen it before and want to make sure it's nothing more than just a big mess.


Thank you for all you wonderful people do for this forum

what a horrible ex did she do NO research whatsoever? did she not notice that the poor baby looked like a piece of spaghetti? wth that makes me really mad. good job on your part though! it's nice that the ball got a second chance at life. i've never actually heard of this happening before but i believe that spot cleaning until she has digested the meal is fine. get all the nasty stuff out, you know. i would probably sterilize everything too.

[lexanidubs09]

what a horrible ex did she do NO research whatsoever? did she not notice that the poor baby looked like a piece of spaghetti? wth that makes me really mad. good job on your part though! it's nice that the ball got a second chance at life. i've never actually heard of this happening before but i believe that spot cleaning until she has digested the meal is fine. get all the nasty stuff out, you know. i would probably sterilize everything too.

She had done the research and knows how to care for snakes, she's just a heartless person. If it doesn't better her, it's not a priority. I planned on sterilizing everything but was hoping it would be ok to wait 2 days as to not have to worry about regurge... If it left this mess I don't even wanna imagine what comes back out



Thank you for your help!

[blue roses]

This has happened to me one time, I waited for him to swallow, go into a hide to digest then cleaned up the area and replaced the cypress in the bloody area. The next day he had a little blood on his belly so i used a luke warm cloth to clean him up. That was the only time it happened.

[KMG]

Remove the soiled substrate and replace it with fresh. Wash anything else that was soiled and you should be good.

[Ax01]

gut bombs happen and explode when the f/t meal is too hot and the BP squeezes just right. it still happens to me sometimes.

just be careful with how much substrate your BP takes drags in with the blood and guts.

anyway what KMG says is spot on regarding clean-up:

Remove the soiled substrate and replace it with fresh. Wash anything else that was soiled and you should be good.

[lexanidubs09]

Perfect! Thank you everyone. I did watch to see if she was taking in any substrate with her meal and didn't see any so I think I got lucky there! She now has a clean tank and she's content in her hide probably to not be seen for a few days

[KMG]

My BRB has been my most frequent popper. He once popped one in his water bowl and then ate it under water with the guts out and all. Got it all down and didn't seem to mind a bit. It was something to see.