Lesson for All *GRAPHIC*

[Royal Hijinx]

That is just awful. I know folks have their reasons for feeding live; just gotta be really careful. Looks like you have gotten a lot of good advice. Please keep us posted on the progress.

[Ohlacey]

Poor baby... I hope he recovers in a timely manner.

I've dropped food and left the room for a few minutes before, but... never, ever again. If it's anything at all know your post and experience impacted me, and saved me a could-have-been disaster.

[Otolith]

Wow, that looks horrible. I wonder why the rat kept going along the spine like that, trying to kill him? :/ Hope he makes a speedy recovery!

[The Serpent Merchant]

Wow, that looks horrible. I wonder why the rat kept going along the spine like that, trying to kill him? :/ Hope he makes a speedy recovery!

Probably just hungry

[wolfy-hound]

I hit "Thanks you" for the post, for being candid enough to admit that you had a unfortunate feeding accident. Sometimes things happen, and yes, feeding frozen thawed would have meant it wouldn't have happened, but again... sometimes things happen.

I do the same. I monitor feeding and check to make sure everyone has eaten. About once a year, I go back in the morning checking on snakes and find a sneaky rat that somehow hid from me in a corner the night before, an thus was still alive in the tub with my snake! Thus far I have been extremely lucky in that I haven't had any injury to the snakes, but I'm aware it COULD happen. It always makes me resolve to double check closer, and most of the time now I don't even close a tub before I see the snake strike and bind.

Many people would start saying "Oh, see that's because you feed live..." or otherwise point blame as if they've never had any sort of issue... but then how many "My snake got out!!" posts have we seen? How many "I fed too big and he threw it up!?" or other ACCIDENTS that were just happenstance and not a keeper who was careless or lazy... just unlucky.

I hope your guy heals super fast. They are very resilient creatures, and with some good care, I'm sure he'll heal up.

[blueberrypancakes]

Oh wow. That is really awful. Thank you so much for sucking up pride and posting this, so many people can learn from it. It is really important for people to see the effects that their live feeders can have on their snakes without monitoring.
Keep us posted on the progress!

[Otolith]

Probably just hungry

Ew. Somehow that is more disgusting lol. If it were a survival thing then at least somewhat defensible. Bleh rats are foul.

[Slim]

Bleh rats are foul.

I find their disposition much more agreeable after they have been frozen.

[Homegrownscales]

Oh man I'm so sorry. That does not look fun. I recommend doing the betadine washes. Keep him extra extra clean. As well as getting silverdine cream- I'm totally sure that I'm not spelling it right I always keep some in hand but I never can spel it right. Don't use neo. The cream will work much better. And not premote infection or scale flaking. Please update us with what the vet says.
Petstore rats are usually underfed and stressed making this situation much more likely. I'm so sorry you had to do through this. Not fun.


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[Otolith]

I find their disposition much more agreeable after they have been frozen.

Haha. Very true. No mess no fuss.