Ugh!!!!

Fed Ramona her f/t rat in her feeding bin. I was working on the computer too, not paying all that much attention to her. All of a sudden I smelled something foul, and thought it was just the rat smell hitting me. I started to light some candles when Dan said "Whoa, what's with all the blood?"

I rushed over to take a closer look and saw that the rat's stomach had exploded! All of its intestines were in the bottom of the bin. :bleh:

Ramona ate the rat, but obviously not the spilled organs. Will she be hungry faster, since she lost a lot of the good stuff?

(By the way, it was so gross and stunk!)

EEEWWWW .. rat guts :)
I would just wait until her next scheduled feeding day to feed her again. She should be just fine.

Funny, same thing happend with my last feeding with Obitus.
She bit into the stomach of the poor mouse so hard that the organs were hanging out.
Thankfully she took it down with the organs, but boy was there a lot of blood.

oh, the joys of snake ownership. :hungry:

Snakes are hardcore :headbang:

gross.....:D

it's okay if they eat popped organs?

i could never watch somthin like that, i would seriously blow chunks

hahaha brandon... my snake popped the f/t mouse's stomach once, but luckily there wasnt much blood. Pandora goes crazy psycho when she eats sometimes, and it just so happens that when she moved to swallow the mouse, she smashed it against the glass... smearing blood all over the side. i was watching and i yelled "DAMN IT PANDORA!!" and my mom came running upstairs and was like "angela, omg, are you ok?? did she bite??"

i could handle the insides of a mouse.. i see blood and organs all the time. yesterday at work i got covered in blood from some stupid dog that bit its IV out of its arm.... durrrrrr

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kontron

it's okay if they eat popped organs?

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sure! organs are organs whether they are inside or outside the rat. as long as they don't get substrate stuck all over them or something.

Way back when i was feeding live roxy struck at the fuzzy really hard and i guess she kinda missed but like grazed it with her teeth becuase the mouse throat was slit, it was kinda grody.but kinda cool at the same time.i love watching her eat,

semperfi, do you work at a vet clinic ??

yep. Union Lake Pet Services. the place is big, its awesome. theres 3 buildings on the lot... a rehab clinic (with a creamatorium in a garage attached to it), the hospital and the kennel, which has a daycare part and a grooming part. i've been workin at the kennel since about october, and they moved me to the hospital. i loooooooove working at the hospital, its so awesome cuz im an assistant in surgery. so i see everything that goes on!! cept, im everyones b*tch since im the assistant... "angela, get me gauze," "angela, get me fluids," "angela, go cap that IV and walk the dog" hehe but its 2 cool!

thats soo awesome ! my friends own a kennel its pretty cool

I gotta admit that is the ONE thing I hate about feeding F/T that has sort of discouraged me sometimes...every time I heat up a rodent to attempt an F/T feeding the abdominal wall of the rodent bursts open and I get rat guts all over my hands and under my fingernails. Yecchh...truly, not one of the most pleasant things about owning snakes....
EyeLashViper

Haha, this all sounds too fun. I can't wait to experience this. :hungry:

j/k.....or am I? :twisted:

I have seen some pretty nasty feedings while feeding live. Bela is so stupid, she tries to swallow still-alive rat pups. I have to whack the rat prior to feeding it, and not just stun it but make sure it's completely dead, or this snake'll try to swallow it alive. I think she deserves a Darwin award, lol.
I never personally saw the exploding stomach thingie, but I have seen rats bleed a LOT. I am just glad that I am not squeamish about blood.

If you're having rodents burst on you on a regular basis, you're either heating them up with too hot a heat source or you need another source for your rodents because they're being refrozen. I've only had two burst on me.

I thaw mine in a cup of warm, not hot, water. Just change the water several times as it cools frrom the rat. In a few hours you get a nicely thawed rat, and then I run it under hot tapwater to heat it up so that they can see it as prey.

Tigergenesis suggested this a couple of days ago in another thread. It makes sense to me. It doesnt seem like you would be thawing too fast or cooking the rodent as you go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tigergenesis

New method:
The night before feeding I take rodents out of freezer and sit in the fridge (in covered bowl). When I get home from work the next day I sit the bowl out (lid off) to get to room temp while I walk the dog, check the mail, etc. Then I throw on the light fixture as above. I like this way better because I'm not sitting around waiting or changing water. It takes less time to warm up as well, and it may be a coincidence but it seems I'm getting better feeding responses with this new method.

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Good advice! This was my first burst stomach, and I was trying to heat the rat too quickly I think. I used really hot water. Never again!

i dont think ill ever try to feed frozen again, i cant deal with all the freezing thawing and warming up stuff.I just like to bring home the rodent get it nice and dead and throw it in there and watch her eat, im a little im-patient .

it's really not that bad brandon. you just have to get into the habit of it. take rat out of freezer, seal in ziploc bag, thaw in warm water. that's it. and honestly if you do it right the bursting stomach thing isn't that common. i have only fed f/t to nellie and i have never had one burst on me. and she is a serious chewer too. she gnaws and bites and chews the mouse to death before she finally gets the head and takes it down. more than once i have stood watching with my fingers crossed while she just smashed and gnawed the soft little mouse belly with her teeth. and so far, so good...

I have never experienced the burst stomach thing either and I use very hot water to thaw/heat. It works fine for me but I'm thinking that I'm going to try Tiger's method next time, if I can remember to put them in the fridge the night before that is!