Geeze Lulu - way to go! =/

Ugh, when I walked back in to check on the feedings I found this. My little Lulu eating her dinner backwards.... and to boot -- Alive. Scared the living HECK outta me!! Luckily she's ok, but man was that disturbing to see the lil rat wiggling inside her as it made it's way down to her belly.

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...thons/lulu.jpg

Looks like an awfully small meal for a snake that size. It may have been too small for her to bite and constrict.

It was alive? Freaky. Would have scared me too lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JLC

Looks like an awfully small meal for a snake that size. It may have been too small for her to bite and constrict.

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It's in between a pinkie and a fuzzy. The fuzzies make her wayyyyy too big in the middle. She can't even lay comfortably if she has a fuzzy, and pinkies are too small for her now.

She grabbed it at a horrible angle. Her mouth was right on the stomach, so her constriction was at the lower end of the hindquarters.

Yes that does seem really small. You can feed a snake a rodent that's the same size as the biggest part of her body. That's really the rule of thumb. If I had a good camera I show you a picture of my two that ate last night, nice and fat (:

And my male spider ball python did the exact same thing one time. It was a perfectly sized rat and he had just eaten not long before. It was so weird!

I agree with Judy, that rat looks far too small for her.

What do you mean it makes her too big in the middle ? She should have a bit of a bulge when she eats, if there isn't a bulge, the prey is too small.

Unless of course you're my het pied female. She only eats about once a month, one time it's rat pup which you can't even tell she ate, the next it's a good size small rat that leaves her looking like she ate a football!

But in all honesty, you should see a nice little bulge after she eats.

Gale

It might be the camera angle. She does have a bulge after she eats, I swear :)

I tried giving her a fuzzy a couple meals ago because I thought she was big enough but when she was done eating it she couldn't even lay at all flat. It was like on either side of the bulge (head side and tail side) she was lifted off the ground. She looked REALLY uncomfortable so I decided to go smaller on her next meal. I think in a couple more meals she will be able to comfortably handle a fuzzy.

what is the weight of your snake, feed her about 10 % of her body weight I want to say is rule of thumb. My hatchlings eat full grown mice with no problem, sometimes two at a time and they are around 200 grams just to give you an idea of their size

Don't worry about your BP eating meals backwards occasionally, this normally won't have any effect but can increase risk of a regurg.

Be sure to feed 10%-15% of body weight and you should be just fine, she should be on fuzzies if she is over 100g:gj:

I had a scare once because I gave one of my snakes a meal that I deemed appropriate size. I came in 15 mins later and the rat was stuck halfway down and covered in drool. The snake couldn't get it down. We ended up having to gently pull the rat out of his mouth. I have another snake of the exact same size that takes rats the same size just fine, but that male just can't take anything bigger than a very small Small without struggling.

The camera angle makes Lulu look bigger than she really is. She's only about 110 grams, no more than 115. I think in 2 more meals she will fully be capable of handling a fuzzy, but I don't want to risk regurgitation or having her be uncomfortable. Giving her a fuzzy does not give just a bulge; in equivalent human terms it would be like going to the buffet and eating two or three more plates after you're already full and making you not want to move for 2 days.

The meal may be a little small for her, but not by a whole lot, and certainly not enough to be telling him to go bigger.
I've had some snakes that stay on pups well into 500gram mark, not because I want them too but because they refuse bigger meals. They grow at their own rate.

Backwards meals will happen now and again, just keep an eye on her and she'll be perfectly fine.

Some people go for 10%-15% but I never go above 10% body weight for a prey item, no need too, I find they don't really absorb that much of a meal anyway, like my adult females (biggest is 3000+grams, most around 1700), they never get a large it's just not needed, a medium is as big as they get, and all males full grown only get smalls.

They're all great. ;) Although, sometimes no matter the size of the prey they will look uncomfortable, just happens if they swallow it oddly (backward) or they're trying to maneuver it into a better spot in their bellies, so it may just have been that and not a big meal issue.:)

Oh man I had that happen to me once and I was freaked out! It was one of my youngins' and I have no idea why she did it. She just grabbed it and started swallowing :rolleye2: Then my pin girl crawled over the rat and started squishing it to the floor, never bit it or constricted it like a normal snake. The babies this year are cuckoo!