She Regurgitated

Well I decided to try live feeding and my 08 carpet struck and strangled. I never watch my snakes swallow, I usually give them privacy by covering their cage with a towel or something like that. I gave her about an hour and checked in her cage. I pulled out a gooey rat with matted fur. This was an XS rat that was a little bigger than her girth. It did NOT look too big by any means.


What the hell is going on? I know its only been two weeks but regurgitation..?

Where do I go from here?

(for those of you that havn't been keeping up. My 08 carpet has been off feed for about two weeks. I was feeding too large of meals too frequently. Which could be why she hasn't been eating.)

-Zack

Should I just wait a week and offer a small, easy to swallow prey item?


I'm still curious why she might have regurged..

-Zack

Rather than a regurgitation, it could have just been an attempt to swallow. Sometimes if the prey item is too large, they give up.

Either way, offer a rodent to her next week that is quite a bit smaller and easy to swallow. If she gets and keeps that down, move up a size.

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Originally Posted by Michelle.C

Rather than a regurgitation, it could have just been an attempt to swallow. Sometimes if the prey item is too large, they give up.

Either way, offer a rodent to her next week that is quite a bit smaller and easy to swallow. If she gets and keeps that down, move up a size.

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Thank you. That is a good point you've made. I dont think the rodent made it past her throat.

Carpets can eat VERY big prey items compared to their girth, Zack seems sure he didn't offer a prey item that was too big.. But it's worth a try to offer something smaller.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

Carpets can eat VERY big prey items compared to their girth, Zack seems sure he didn't offer a prey item that was too big.. But it's worth a try to offer something smaller.

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Sure they CAN.

Out of the 17 Carpets I've owned, some of them were pretty picky about size. Quite a few people actually have a hard time switching them from mice to rats. Personally, I don't think it's much about scent as size. I offer a rat a size way smaller and they usually take it. Then I gradually upped the size to something more appropriate.

That said, out of the ones I owned, most were pretty much little pigs and ate anything thrown their way.

The only one I currently own (rescue), is picky about size, but not about type. She'll eat f/t or live, mice or rats. She's just a snot about size. :P

Regurgitations (true regurgitations), rarely occur so soon after consumption. Unless the animal was startled or moved, fondled, etc. It sounded to me as if the animal either loss interest or decided it was too big to struggle with at the moment.

Just my opinion though. :)

something a little bigger than it's width would not cause it to spit it back out unless it really wasn't interested in the first place. either it's not hungry or it's sick. if it's acting fine, just give it a couple weeks without food.

Mainbutter, that was my impression.

I'm still not convinced it was the size of the prey alone, rather than the combination of size and frequency. When I first got her the rats I was feeding her were definitely 2 times the size of her girth. My reason for doing so is because the first thing she took from me was a rat pinkie and I didn't want to turn back to mice. I started off with rat pinkies, they became un-available at my local petshop, so i moved to the smallest frozen rats I could find in the fridge. Around this time the prey was two times her girth. Now that she's bigger, she's getting the same sized prey, but since she's bigger it's seems appropriate for her size.

Colin, I'm under the impression I've been feeding too frequently (every 5 day). I don't think she's sick because she seems to be doing better than ever right now, temperamentally. She seems to be more confident and is coming out of her hides every night, even after the ?regurgitation? she's coming out and cruising the cage.

I still haven't figured it out yet but yalls feedback is helping.

Thanks everyone, im all ears.

Wait two more weeks and try something very small. Rat fuzzy for the next few weeks then something a little bigger. The snake has learned to eat when offered so you just have to reinforce the learned behavior. Be sure to allow a lot of time for the digestive acids to rebuild or regurge will happen again. I recommend a minimum of 10 days, preferably two weeks. Up the temps a few degrees if possible.

She ate, just to let everyone know.