Urgent ! Piece of bark in snake's mouth !!

Help peeps !!

Fed my Albino Royal in her viv but on a piece of card so wouldn't get any orchid bark down her throat but after the mouse had gone down I noticed she was opening her mouth continuously , after a close look with the help of a torch I could clearly see a small piece of bark stuck on the top of her mouth ( inside) .

I guess snakes get all kinds of dirt and bits down their throat when they feed in the wild .....just slightl concerned.

is it large and stuck?

I figure the snake will either swallow it or regurge.

q-tips. Use one q-tip sideways to push her nose up and wedge between her jaws. Then use a second to fish the piece out. A second person holding her may help if she's not used to the q-tip treatment (mine are used to the q-tip oral checks, but they did a lot of squirming first time.)

Edit: You might want to use tweezers or a coffee stir stick to fish the bark out, actually, since q-tips can shred on python teeth. And then you've got cotton AND bark in there.

It's only a very small piece , under half an inch long and just stuck with saliva in the top of her mouth. She just looked in a bit of discomfort.

I think they can digest small pieces of junk, but 1/2 inch is a little on the big side. But mostly I can't stand watching them fret when it's stuck in there--I actually cut my finger fishing a piece out of my het pied's mouth with my finger, because he was kind of freaking out.

Not to worry. She'll spit it out. It may take a little while, but she will. And I doubt she'll regurge. Snakes get all manner of stuff in their mouths and manage. It's true its not ideal and good for you for using the cardboard, but I really wouldn't worry about this little piece. I've had Ella end up with a mouthful and she was fine. They get pretty creative in spitting out the pieces, lol... ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Evenstar

They get pretty creative in spitting out the pieces, lol... ;)

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That sounds like the beginning of a very interesting Ball Python story :P

I'd probably end up grabbing it with small set of hemostats...

i use plantation soil in my tanks sometimes they get debris in there mouths but one doesnt care, one yawns it out and the other girl spits out a ball of it after 10 mins or so.

Your snake should be fine if she yawns and keeps up her un happy mood then your can always get it out or flush it with water but not a tap lol with a mister or us your plastic coated forcepts to get ti outt and save yourself a finger lol.