Always be vigiliant!!

[tigerlily]

Last night I had a complete freak out. I feed everyone on Thursday as normal, and Turtle (who is completely blue) took his food in less than ten seconds. The same size he's had for the last three weeks! Well, I saw him getting it down, and the next time I looked he was in his hide. I figured all was well. NOT! The next morning I smelled something, and did a routine poop check. Didn't notice anything right off, so I figured I'd catch it that night. Well I went to check that evening and still couldn't find it, until I hit the last cage... Turtle's. He was in his hide, but with the rat pup still stuck in his mouth! The pup was hanging half out of his mouth. ACK!! Poor thing was stuck like that for 24 hours. He's still blue, so not very active anyway, but I was just the teensiest bit panicky. (Ok, so it was more like full out panic ) Managed to get the pup out, and checked him over. Everything seemed fine. After a bit of encouragement I was able to examine his mouth and everything looked a nice, healthy pink. WHEW!! *faint* Shoot the more shocking thing, was my husband helped me hold him while I checked his mouth... being the first time he's every touched my snakes!!

Anyway, just thought I'd share my horrible story so that you guys know to be very careful when feeding. Always make sure the food is completely gone.

[rabernet]

Oh Christie! How very scarey for you! I'm so glad that he's ok, and thank you for the warning!

[tigerlily]

Thanks Robin. Tonight, I found a lovely shed. He seems fine, but he'll be under close supervision for awhile. Still can't figure out how it happened.

[mlededee]

holy crap i think i would've fainted right there if that happened to me! thank goodness he is ok! was the rat hung up on his teeth or could you even tell?

[frankykeno]

I know how upsetting this was for you Christie. I'm glad Turtle finished up his shed and is looking okay. I know you'll be watching him and won't hesitate to get him vet help if anything comes of this incident.


Snakes....sent to try us! LOL


~~Jo~~

[tigerlily]

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why the thing was stuck. It was FAR from being to big, and had even contemplated offering two. It looked like he tried to take it butt first, but otherwise nothing struck me at the time. I have just never heard of such a thing, so I thought I would share this with the hope it doesn't happen again. I think my heart rate is slowly returning to normal.

Oh and a big thank you to Jo (for calming me down) and Becky for walking me through the mouth check. Spatulas, not just for the kitchen anymore.

[MedusasOwl]

Gack, you poor thing! I'd have panicked too, big time! Thank goodness everything turned out okay !

[The Cleaner]

Hey Christie,


Scary...I am glad everything worked out!!!

[tigerlily]

Thanks guys. (I know I have a few more gray hairs now ) I just really want everyone to pay CLOSE attention when feeding.

[frankykeno]

No problem Christie, glad I was here and heck I'm sure you'd do the same for me (and likely will have to at some point) LOL.

Glad you posted about this. Not that it's likely to be all that common but still a good lesson for all of us to take note of.


~~Jo~~