Help please?

I just fed my BP and she has a few small woodchips on the roof of the front of her mouth. She has been yawning and swaying wildly for about 15-20 minutes now. Am I supposed to lend a helping hand and somehow get her to open her mouth and get it out? She is very headshy and I don't know if thats what I should do or not. I also don't want her to regurge the rat either. What should I do?

I used a q tip a few weeks ago when one of mine did that.

Hi,

I've used a water jet from a spray can but she reacted as though I was the devil incarnate. :cool:


dr del

If she can't get it out on her own then I would try giving her some help. She will probably fight it a little. A q tip or some tweezers should work. You can use to q tip to keep the mouth open while you remove the wood chips.

After about 30-45minutes she ended up getting it out. I gave it a little try and she struggled to much so I let her go, and decided to do some research on how to open their mouths correctly. By the time I was ready, she had gotten it free...FINALLY!

I had never seen her thrash around like she was, it got me pretty worried lol.

Would this be benefit of feeding outside the enclosure, not having to worry about substrate getting digested/logged?

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Originally Posted by martin82531

Would this be benefit of feeding outside the enclosure, not having to worry about substrate getting digested/logged?

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99.9% of the time they get it out. And they digest it just fine.

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Originally Posted by martin82531

Would this be benefit of feeding outside the enclosure, not having to worry about substrate getting digested/logged?

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Nope I would never feed out side of the enclosure. First time this happened to one of my snakes a few days later I switched to paper towel bedding and have never looked back.

Yeah, but I've been trying to avoid that simply for looks. :/

I just switched from newspaper to aspen because of my UTH, I can only get it down to 93-94 on the dimmer switch I have it on and the aspen at least buffers the heat somewhat. I hope this doesn't happen to me before I can switch to Boaphile enclosures.

If you're worried about bedding getting stuck on food, just remove some of the items in the enclosure and lay down some paper towels. Leave one hide in so that the BP has a place to go digest and rest, remove the paper towels, replace the removed items. Simple as that.

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Originally Posted by BWyant

If you're worried about bedding getting stuck on food, just remove some of the items in the enclosure and lay down some paper towels. Leave one hide in so that the BP has a place to go digest and rest, remove the paper towels, replace the removed items. Simple as that.

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I was actually thinking of doing just that lol

I watch closely during feedings. I have my guy on cypress, keeps the humidity and it is always nice and warm. But I pay really close attention to feedings to make sure nothing gets caught in his mouth. It happened once so far (it is his second feeding with me) and I just let him sit for 20 minutes and then gently lifted him out, gripped him behind the head opened his mouth and gently removed the stuck piece with tweezers. After that I put him back in his place and didn't open the tub for 48 hours. He didn't even regurge so I am glad to say it worked.

Glad to hear she got them out on her own! Besides the Q tips, I use a set of 12" forceps to remove them and that way I do not have to get so close to her and stress her out anymore. Midwest tongs has a great selection of utensils that will come in very handy when working with snakes.