CRAZY... my bp swallowed a rat alive...

[redshepherd]

I just witnessed this happening, and it was pretty grotesque and also scary (for my snake). I've literally never heard or seen this happen anywhere before, and had no idea it was even possible, so didn't know what to do, so I just didn't intervene.

Basically, my adult lesser female is eating live during the breeding season, and I don't want to have her lose weight while trying to get her on F/T, so I've been buying her small rats. She coiled the rat, and within 15 seconds, it seemed to have only passed out. She dropped it, but it was still breathing heavily. And then started eating it, while it was still breathing and twitching, and apparently the breathing was making her throat expand up and down with each of the rat's exhales.

She got the rat halfway down to the end of the front paws when it "came back to life" and started thrashing and squeaking with its head way inside her throat. She then half-heartedly coiled it again using only her neck until it stopped moving again... but only for another 15 seconds or so. And this time, I have no idea whether it was only passed out again or really dead. She continued swallowing it all the way, but I swear I heard another faint squeak when she already had it down to the tail.

SO...

What was I supposed to do in this situation, because I'm sure there were risks of the rat maybe even biting her insides or biting the inside of her throat, when it came awake? How do I intervene this?

I've never heard of a snake eating prey while it was still alive! I'm sure she was ravenous! And I'm honestly still paranoid that the rat is still half-alive inside her right now. O_O Those coils were REALLY not good and not long enough to kill prey.