Anyone else experienced this?

Fed my one year and three month old ball python, Captain Hook, her first F/T rat ever and her first F/T rodent in two months last night. She ate it fine, took it right away after a few moments of getting the scent. Went down fine, actually the fastest she's eaten in a month. The reason for this is that the rat's entrails burst out just before she got the whole thing down. It went down fine just like normal but the entrails were hanging out of her mouth and looked very uncomfortable. I removed the entrails and proceeded to thoroughly rinse her mouth. The only thing that I did differently is that I thawed the rat for a couple hours so it was mostly thawed. Obviously I put it in the water for a much shorter time than I normally would. I have had some entrails come out while thawing but never while she's eating. I know that ball pythons have natural antibiotics in their saliva, but I have some antibiotics left from when she broke her jaw. Should I use it?

I think she will be fine, this seems to be a somewhat common occurrence with feeding F/T. Somebody else recently posted about the same thing happening. I don't actually feed F/T though so i could be wrong. But i would think it's fine.

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Originally Posted by Ezekiel285

I think she will be fine, this seems to be a somewhat common occurrence with feeding F/T. Somebody else recently posted about the same thing happening. I don't actually feed F/T though so i could be wrong. But i would think it's fine.

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Thanks, I figure they have natural antibiotics in their saliva for a reason so she should be fine. I normally feed her live but had two in the freezer that I pre-killed and she didn't eat cause she was going into blue, just to make sure she would still eat F/T. Now that I know she will i'm gonna feed off the three live rats I have left before they get too big for her.

She doesn't need any antibiotics. She'll be fine. :)

no, she'll be fine. I recommend tossing out any soiled bedding and washing her off with a little unscented soap and water, because entrails are nasty and the smell lingers. But it shouldn't be a health concern for her.

(F/T exploding happens when either the rodent wasn't completely fresh when it was frozen, or because the rodent's stomach got too hot for too long during the thawing process. The stomach and intestines are full all kinds of bugs and juices and they produce lots of gas and acid when they are revived and heated. It speeds spoilage of the prey item, and it's why human hunters throw that stuff away when they clean animals, so that they have a little extra time to get the meat to the freezer. Snakes eat their meals whole, so they need to eat it freshly-killed to avoid spoilage.

But a little exploding won't hurt her. It's just gross and messy. Next time it happens, you really don't need to wash her mouth out. It's enough to wash her externally.)

EDIT: Oh, and never put antibiotics in her mouth. External use only!

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Originally Posted by evan385

Thanks, I figure they have natural antibiotics in their saliva for a reason so she should be fine.

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Never heard this before. Most reptiles' mouths are actually highly bacteria-ridden.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Never heard this before. Most reptiles' mouths are actually highly bacteria-ridden.

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Thought I read that somewhere. Huh, maybe i'm wrong.

I have had F/T’s split while being consumed. I have even split them on purpose to get picky eaters to eat. None of my animals have ever had an issue from it. As long as the F/T was properly warmed up, I am sure she will be fine.

Well, dogs have natural antiobiotics because they EAT GROSS THINGS. I suspect snakes are somewhat similar.

In any case, I've noticed that ball pythons bites don't get infected the way other bites do. Cat bites, cat scratches, even pointy plant scratches inevitably get infected and hurt more the next day. But most ball python bites pretty much disappear after 10 minutes.

Hehe I had a couple of mouse hoppers pop in me it was the nasty smell that I hated but all my snakes were jsut fine:)