Question about feeding hatchling rat snake

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Originally Posted by Turningstar

Blech....that so gross. I hope not, but Ill take it if it gets some food in him. The first time I tried a live pinky and it died overnight and from being on the warm heating pad was pretty rank. Just thinking about the smell makes me gag...

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I agree...the only thing worse than a dead rodent spoiled & reeking in a cage is when it's barfed up after partial digestion. Trust me...;)

Honestly my first "instinct" when that happened (many years back) was to try to stop the snake from swallowing it, but it was much too late. It wasn't a rat snake, btw, but this can happen with various kinds, and
it did happen to be a kind that typically feeds on lizards in the wild before "graduating" to rodents or mixed prey. And nothing bad came of it, & that snake took fresher f/t rodents from then on...it was something it
just had to learn I guess, & all we can do is let nature take it's course sometimes.