Scratches & Blood

[NightLad]

Hi everybody,

I just experienced my first bloody snake feed. I feed Salzedo in a feeding tub and I dropped in a live 32 gram mouse.* He struck quickly, as he always does, but one of the back legs was not secured. It flailed a bit, just for a moment.

When Salzedo started to swallow I noticed 3-4 drops worth of blood on his body, near his tail. I carefully dabbed it off and did not see any visible fresh blood thereafter. However, when he moved to finish eating, I noticed another blood-smear on his underbelly near the tail. There seemed to be one scale that had more of a definitive 'ring' of blood around it, but there was no seepage.

When he struck the mouse he secured its head with his jaws, so I am fairly sure the blood did not come from the mouse. (Blood sometimes pools in the prey's mouth when he constricts.) Also, the head was farther away from where these two blood patches were located. As I could not see a wound, so I suspect that one of the mouse's nails may have got between a scale.

I am just wondering if small scratches of this nature are common when feeding live, and if I should do anything about them.

Could scaring be an issue, or do most smaller wounds heal and vanish with the next shed?

Thanks for your time!

* I normally feed rat pups in the 25-30 gram rage, but the store was all out.

[edie]

I've only had experience with one of my snakes getting injured by live feeding (both my BPs are on f/t now though)

I had to feed my adult male medium live rats when I first got him because he refused f/t for me.. I would sit there to stop the rats from hurting him, but the rats did bite him one time and he got a nasty cut from it.. no blood though, i treated it with neosporin and the scar has healed with each of his sheds.. but you can still see a little bit of a scar.

[BPBeth]

Most likely from prey rather than snake. Blood can seep from head, bite wound, even anus. Snake scales are pretty tough so a tiny bit of kicking will usually not result in an injury. Not to say that snakes are impervious to prey injuries, because they defiantly are not.

I had a snake that was bitten by a mouse and ended up with an infection on the face at the wound site. He ended up having to have a bit of surgical procedure, antibiotics, etc.

To avoid pre-strike bites from prey, I now place the prey in a close quarters container and allow my snakes to strike from above. This way, the snake is not exposed to the rodent before he is actually ready to make the kill.

I always have a good magnifying glass handy to really give my snakes a thorough look over (especially after a shed), so you may try this if you are concerned. When rodents are kicking if you apply some pressure, the prey will usually stop.

[NightLad]

Thanks for the quick replies thus far, if anybody has anything more to add, I'm all ears!

I always have a good magnifying glass handy to really give my snakes a thorough look over (especially after a shed), so you may try this if you are concerned. When rodents are kicking if you apply some pressure, the prey will usually stop.

I've stopped prior prey from kicking if a leg was not secure, but it seemed as though the prey was already stunned/incapacitated when it started kicking out of nowhere, quick briefly (far too breifly for me to react) but quite strong.

Blood from the anus... why didn't I think of that? Makes sense! I'm sure he did not get bit, because I did check the areas with a flashlight after cleaning the blood away, and he did have a secure hold on the head.

I did not inspect the bottom of the mouse when it was being swallowed - my eyes were glued to the patch of blood on his side, to see if it was seeping/growing. I can hope that this was the case.