Today was my girls feeding day. Like normal I pulled her out of her tub before feeding so I could give her and her tub a good looking over. I set her back in her tub and she just sat there watching me in kind of a half way strike position. She knows when I do this is time to eat.
I got her rat and she made quick work of killing her pre killed dinner. Some how the back end of the rat got wet and a small amount of the aspen stuck to it as the swallowing started. I tried the best I could to pick it off with my tongs as she kept swallowing. I managed to get all but 3 small pieces. The where so small I'm sure they wouldn't have hurt her.
The problem was as the tail went down the pieces became stuck to her mouth. Once the tail was gone she was opening and closing her mouth like a person trying to get something out of their teeth with their tongue. She was looking at me with her head raised and showing that the aspen was bothering her mouth. I slowly reached towards her with the tongs (they are like giant foot long plastic tweezers) and plucked all 3 pieces out. The one that bothered her the most was one right in the corner of her mouth by her eye. She even let me get that one with out a problem. After I got the last one out she reset her jaw and went to her hide and started curling up as I put the lid back on.
I thought it was cool that she seemed to know that I was there to help. I know their brains don't work like ours but it sure seems like it sometimes. I didn't ever have to hold her still or anything. She stayed perfectly still and let me do it.