Feeding Mishap

The other day I was feeding my ball python. I feed him live rats. He constricted the rat and killed it just fine. He then proceeded to start swallowing. He got the rat in about halfway and then start spitting it back out. He completely ignored it after that. I left the rat in the cage for a day or two to see if he was saving it for later but he never showed interest in it again. The rat was not any bigger than the usual rats I feed him. Has this happened to anyone? Is this a problem? Should I try feeding him another one right away? Thanks for any information.

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Originally Posted by mmac2002

I left the rat in the cage for a day or two to see if he was saving it for later but he never showed interest in it again.

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I wouldn't want to eat a cold, starting to decompose dead thing either.

The prey may have been too large, you may have disturbed him during the feeding process, hard to say, however, leaving a dead prey in there for a couple of days isn't going to get him to eat or very good for his environment.

Wait a week, try a slightly smaller rat and stay very still during the whole process and see how it goes. If he continues to do this you may want to have him checked by an experienced herp vet to make sure everything is okay healthwise.

yeah you probably just disturbed the snake somehow, were u staring at it eating the whole time?

or u gave the snake a rat that is too large like already stated....

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I wouldn't want to eat a cold, starting to decompose dead thing either.

The prey may have been too large, you may have disturbed him during the feeding process, hard to say, however, leaving a dead prey in there for a couple of days isn't going to get him to eat or very good for his environment.

Wait a week, try a slightly smaller rat and stay very still during the whole process and see how it goes. If he continues to do this you may want to have him checked by an experienced herp vet to make sure everything is okay healthwise.

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I've actually had success with leaving a dead prey item in my BP's tank....there have been a few times that my snake didnt eat the live prey so I killed it, left it in the tank overnight or even 2 nights, and woke up and the mice were gone :D

but yes, if u keep the mice in the cage any longer than 2 nights, they will start to smell horribly

When my bp's start to consume the food, I always try to leave the room or stay extremely still, for fear that in the middle of them eating, that exact same thing may happen. Did you do anything that may have spooked it? move the cage around? sudden body movements? anything?

I usually take his water out of the cage while he is eating so I put the water back in while he was still swallowing and that may have interupted him. Could that be it?