Was that rat too big for her ?

I just switched my new BP to rats. She was 252 grams last week. Long story short she was only being fed weekly mouse pinkies by her former owner. Way too little food for her from what I have learned here. So I fed her a small adult mouse week 1 that I had her. Week 2 and 3 were subsequently bigger mice. Her feed last week was the absolute biggest mouse I could find. That was when she weighed in at 252 grams , right before feeding. Well , this weekend I got her the smallest rat I could find. It was maybe double the size of a large adult mouse. It was *slightly* thicker than her widest part. I offered , she hesitated.I left it in there for a few hours in the dark and she ate it and went into her favorite hide.

That was Saturday night , have not seen her out since. Last night ( 48 hours after eating and being rather torpid ) I lifted her hide to check on her . She has a big lump more than midway down her body , I can see her breathing movements below the lump. What concerned me is her lower half was turned so her belly was visible. SO , she was belly down from her head to the rat lump more than midway down , and belly up after from the lump to her tail.

Normal , or was the rat too big ? :tears:

I prekill her food ( cervical dislocation ) . She was eating live pinkies before I got her , and I did not want to risk switching her environment and feeding type ( to f/t) . I have no problem pre killing for her , but if this rat was too big I'm not sure what I would do .Maybe feed two mice for a while? There is not much size variety in live rats for purchase it seems. Breeding them is not a possibility here . I would need a divorce attorney.

Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't worry about it. I've seen mine laying sideways or inverted after a larger than normal meal. As long as she doesn't regurge. May want to give it a little longer until her next meal though...

Ok , thanks :) I just checked again and the large lump is nearer to her tail. I am trying not to check on her anymore , and she is not being handled since eating of course. She usually eats on Friday and poops on Tuesday. Very small poop IMO. Even the largest mouse I could find was a bit thinner than her fattest part of her body. This rat was a smidge fatter than her fattest part.
I guess if nothing else I can expect a bigger more elaborate present out of her this week :puke2:

How many days before I feed her again do you think? I had bumped out her feeding day this week from Friday to Saturday because I want to ultimately feed her on a Monday night or Tuesday. We are often out and about on the weekends , and when we are home on the weekends we are most likely going to handle her. So I ideally want her weekly feeding to be an early otherwise boring weeknight .

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Originally Posted by zookeeper

Ok , thanks :) I just checked again and the large lump is nearer to her tail. I am trying not to check on her anymore , and she is not being handled since eating of course. She usually eats on Friday and poops on Tuesday. Very small poop IMO. Even the largest mouse I could find was a bit thinner than her fattest part of her body. This rat was a smidge fatter than her fattest part.
I guess if nothing else I can expect a bigger more elaborate present out of her this week :puke2:

How many days before I feed her again do you think? I had bumped out her feeding day this week from Friday to Saturday because I want to ultimately feed her on a Monday night or Tuesday. We are often out and about on the weekends , and when we are home on the weekends we are most likely going to handle her. So I ideally want her weekly feeding to be an early otherwise boring weeknight .

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If you want to change her feeding to Monday night this would be the prefect time. Just skip her weekend feeding and feed Monday. This will put you on the schedule you like.
It's a good thing when you feed your snake and can actually tell she ate just by looking at her.

Well if your leaving a "lump" in them, (when younger) i feed every 5 days, IF the meal if bigger then normal wait possibly 7-10 days, there is nothing wrong at all with her having a bigger meal! like he said as long as no regurge you'll be fine =) whats good is how easy you got the switch! You should slowly try to get Frozen, with larder its harder the dislocate and youll have to gas, If you dont mind that i guess you still can, just easier to keep a stockpile of rats!

I was thinking about that too..in the progression of things a larger rat will be harder to dislocate . I would be upset if it was not done quickly because of a struggle. Did you say gas? How do you do that ?

I will most likely switch to f/t for that reason ( prey getting larger) . I figure now though snake is a recent rescue , has been doing great for over 4 weeks now.I have a new T8 she will be in ( well half of it anyway ) by the weekend. I guess the best time to try and switch food is when she needs the next size up? It will let her settle in for longer. No sense messing with a good thing now , right?

So , gas? Is there a how to link?

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Originally Posted by zookeeper

So , gas? Is there a how to link?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1mIBYj5q8w


You can do that, i just buy F/T and dont let there picky habbits sway to live or pre killed due to mass amount of rat stock id need! But its pretty simple, just buying a Co2 tank and putting a little hole at the top to force the air out. and release slowly until rat is unconscious then release alot to kill them .