Snake ate too much.

I made a mistake. I have a male and female together, and decided to try and feed them in the same enclosure. The male took the medium rat immediately and ate it. I then warmed up the second one to feed the female, and when I slid open the tub, the male grabbed the second one before I could react!

Will he vomit the rats up? He ate 2 rats once before with no problem. He is not overweight at all, since he goes off feed once in awhile. Actually the female is the one a bit overweight, since I'm trying to breed her.

Thoughts?

This is hilarious in a good way. I bet he will be ok but OMG too funny to grab it like that.

Are they always housed together? Or just housed together currently for breeding purposes? What sized rats are you feeding?

Try to monitor him-- it may be too much and end in regurgitation, it may not. Either way I would skip his next feeding. You want to give his body some time to rest after such a large meal, and if he regurgitates his organs will need the time to heal. Plus you don't want to encourage him to go on any more fasts, since you mentioned he tends to do that on occasion. It may also be a good idea to remove him from the female, he will reek of rats and will most likely be too sluggish to breed for a couple days anyways. The stress and excitement of being enclosed with a female he is trying to breed may increase your chances of a regurge.

One extra large meal once in a blue moon won't hurt him, except for the possibility for a vomiting episode. That being said, regular overfeeding has been shown to cause fasting, liver disease, organ damage, and early death in many reptiles. Try to avoid that with appropriately sized meals and a properly spaced feeding schedule. Often what these guys get in captivity, even when only being fed once a week or so, is much more than what their bodies were designed and adapted to getting in the wild. Less can be more:gj:

They have only been housed together a few days, and I just decided to feed them without separating them. I will separate them now.

He is not overfed, he is not overweight, I feed him an appropriately sized rat about 1/week. This was an accident. The female is a bit fat, but she didn't eat today, so that worked out anyway.

Even when breeding males and females should be separated to feed.
If they're on a weekly feeding schedule then you feed, wait 2-3 days to digest and settle, put the male in with the female for a few days, separate once unlocked, and feed.

After a massive meal like that give the male at least a week off from breeding.

I'm sure he will be fine, I would give him a bit longer to digest before you feed again.

My GHI is my trashcan, she eats any leftover rats I have due to refused feedings. Once I freaked out because she ate a Medium and a small rat, but I had an extra Medium rat that I couldn't convince my picky eater to take. Well my GHI was staring at me from her tub after finishing her second rat so I jokingly swing the extra medium rat towards her and she took it too! She was about 1400-1600 grams at the time. The only repercussion was that she woke me up in the middle of the night a couple weeks later when she was ripping major farts and dropping a massive poop.

And thus she earned her name, Big Nasty :rolleyes:

Update, he didn't vomit, he was just a hungry monster. :snake2:

So the culmination of the "snake ate too much thread".... a beautiful shed and a giant poop...
this is a 55 quart tub, he is a big boy...
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...G/IMG_0781.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...G/IMG_0782.jpg

Have you ever seen such a huge male Ball at 2 years old? #GIANT2105BALLPYTHON !!!
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...G/IMG_0783.jpg
ME AND RAGNAROK...https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...b/IMG_0770.jpg

On a side note, i have seen that heater for sale online. How do you like it? Does it heat well?

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Originally Posted by SDA

On a side note, i have seen that heater for sale online. How do you like it? Does it heat well?

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O yeah, it is fantastic, I have one for the snakes room and one for my bedroom. Infrared heat is super-efficient in general. This is a Duraflame model, highly recommended.