GAH - rat bite = pierced snake

I can't believe it, it happened right in front of my eyes!

I put a medium sized rat in Saharah's tub and of course Miss Garbage Disposal is waiting and ready. The rat walk/trots up to her to smell her.... she got ready, the rat moved and WHAM she got the rat on the side of it's face.... and the rat got her right on the neck as she coiled around it. I grabbed the tongs trying to get the rat to let go of her neck, but it didn't and I couldn't get it's teeth out of her. Finally she killed it and loosed her grip. I got the now dead rats teeth out of her skin and made sure she wasn't pouring blood or anything. Hardly any blood so I threw the rat back in to her, she ate it. I took her out for a better view and well that rat got her good! I'm not sure if it got her all the way through on both sides but she does have two gash's. I washed them out and sprayed some Bactine in to them. Hopefully they won't get infected. If so, I'll be seeing Dr. Gold once again. He's gonna get tired of seeing me soon.

http://www.willowdaisy.com/sahbite.jpg

another reason to never feed larger than a small rattie.

i'm so sorry to hear about this... hope she'll be fine without any additional care. :hug:

ah, rat bites suck

hope it doesnt get infected. things like this happen, take the bad with good, i'm always relived everytime i get a succesful live feeding

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

another reason to never feed larger than a small rattie.

i'm so sorry to hear about this... hope she'll be fine without any additional care. :hug:

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Agreed! Its just not necessary. Balls don't need that much food. They are already way overfed in captivity getting a meal every 7 days. A small rat is the biggest I ever go with even my largest girls.

If you can, clean the wound with a bit of chlorhexadine solution and put a bit of anitbiotic ointment on it.

i got my first rat "nip" with my male last feeding day. first i offered it to my female, she didnt eat so i threw it in with my male. it was freakin out and defending itself and ended up biting him.didnt pierce the skin but it did bend a scale or two. shouldnt have fed it because i knew it was alreadt stressed from being in my females cage. i should've known and i shou;d've let it calm down. dumb move on my part.

i wouldnt feed for a couple weeks, to let the wound heal and to keep the snake stress free for a while.

That is one of the reasons some feed prekilled. I am not trying to start a huge "live versus f/t" debate, but pointing out this does very occassionally happen. I feed some of my snakes live and some fresh killed (or f/t). I'd personally just use some antibiotic on it and watch it for infection. (red, swollen, etc) - Note that you dont NOT want antibiotic with pain reliever in it.. just normal antibiotic, or even triple antibiotic.

Let us know how she does...

Another issue you may have now, if your snake may become 'rat shy'.

Rick

is there a humane way to 'stun' the mice/rats?

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Originally Posted by Rascal

is there a humane way to 'stun' the mice/rats?

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This is going to sound terrible, but you can slam them on something, which should kill them instantly. To stun and not kill, maybe putting the rat in a dark bag and shaking him a little or something might help. That way, I think, it should be disoriented enough for the snake to get him without any trouble. I just thought of that randomly... don't take my word for it.

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Originally Posted by Sausage

This is going to sound terrible, but you can slam them on something, which should kill them instantly. To stun and not kill, maybe putting the rat in a dark bag and shaking him a little or something might help. That way, I think, it should be disoriented enough for the snake to get him without any trouble. I just thought of that randomly... don't take my word for it.

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Neither humane nor particularly well thought out. Lets remember these are living creatures too. The answer is, feed nothing bigger than a small rat.