garter snake died

so my garter snake is in the same tank as my bp and they get along just fine they chill in the hide together coiled up but then I fed a rat to sgt pepper and he didnt eat it and the rat ended up chompin on my garter snake, ok damn that really sucks but I didnt think he'd die from it and he looked fine jus scared, that was last night, this mornin I found him like really puffed up, when i picked him up he was completely limp and soft like a marshmallow, and the substrate was like jammed into his mouth and he was barely alive and only moved a little when I tried to open his mouth and try and get some substrate out of it, and I dunno but it might be the substrate cuz its jammed inside him?
does anyone know what could've happened?

It's unfortunate about your garter snake, however having the garter snake housed with the bp might be a factor in causing the bp to go off feed. I believe you posted last night your bp (sgt pepper) was not eating. (the garter snake presence was left out in your post last night)

In the future, or present if you still have another snake in the bp enclosure, I would strongly recommend housing all snakes separately. Particularly so if you're going to own snakes of different species. It's stressful to the snakes to have more than one in one enclosure.

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Originally Posted by Icatsme

It's unfortunate about your garter snake, however having the garter snake housed with the bp might be a factor in causing the bp to go off feed. I believe you posted last night your bp (sgt pepper) was not eating. (the garter snake presence was left out in your post last night)

In the future, or present if you still have another snake in the bp enclosure, I would strongly recommend housing all snakes separately. Particularly so if you're going to own snakes of different species. It's stressful to the snakes to have more than one in one enclosure.

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Perfect!

And also, if your garter was sick and died? Now your BP might have gotten the same sickness.

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Originally Posted by Mogley837

does anyone know what could've happened?

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The bite from the rat may have gotten infected or the rat may have caused internal injury to the snake.

In the future, if you feed live, always supervise the tank while the rat is in there. If the snake takes no interest in the rat you need to remove it before the rat can cause damage. Even if a few scratches or bites from a rat are usually not enough to kill a snake, do you really want to risk permanent scars or damage?

I have only seen a snake once with a mouthful of substrate, and it was a young boa who already had internal parasites and was extremely unhealthy and weak. It died shortly afterwards. I figured the eating of substrate was an after-effect of whatever was wrong with it beforehand.

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Originally Posted by Mogley837

so my garter snake is in the same tank as my bp and they get along just fine they chill in the hide together coiled up but then I fed a rat to sgt pepper and he didnt eat it and the rat ended up chompin on my garter snake, ok damn that really sucks but I didnt think he'd die from it and he looked fine jus scared, that was last night, this mornin I found him like really puffed up, when i picked him up he was completely limp and soft like a marshmallow, and the substrate was like jammed into his mouth and he was barely alive and only moved a little when I tried to open his mouth and try and get some substrate out of it, and I dunno but it might be the substrate cuz its jammed inside him?
does anyone know what could've happened?

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Its not a good idea to keep two snakes together at all, let alone a fish eater and a rodent eater.Where were you when the rat was killing the garter? Its not a good idea to walk away while a rodent is in the snakes enclosure :colbert: