I goofed up

[EL-Ziggy]

I must have pushed the envelope a little too far this time. Last night I offered my 450g Bredli a 57g small rat. He had been eating 35-45g rat weaners prior to that. The rat didn't really look too big compared to the girth of the snake but I guess it must have been too much for him to handle because he got it 3/4 of the way down before spitting it back out. My question is should I treat this as a regurge and not feed him for 2-3 weeks or should I consider it a one off and resume his normal feeding schedule in 7-10 days? I'll definitely be feeding him a smaller meal. Lesson learned.

[BigLou3]

It happens Ziggy. I'm surprised that he did that at that size. I would think he could handle that for sure. I can't say 100% because I'm not an expert by any means but I would treat it like a regurge and wait 2 weeks before offering food again. I'm sure that wasn't any good for his stomach acid situation.


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[Reinz]

I agree with Lou, Ziggy. Better to be safe and and skip a meal which will not cause harm.

When you start feeding again you might try adding an extra weaner. I was giving my Jungle girl 3 Weaners (at 1 yo) then one weaner and one small, then two smalls. Now at 2 years old the last feed was one small and one medium. Next feed I'll try 2 mediums.

Best



Esmarelda, JCP

[EL-Ziggy]

@ Reinz- That's what I did. I gave him 2 weaners a couple weeks ago which he took with no issues so I figured it would be ok to up his prey size. He didn't even get the small all the way down before spitting it back out. I thought once they got past the shoulders it wouldn't be an issue so that surprised me. I'll skip a meal and dial it back a bit and stick with the weaners for a while longer.

[Reinz]

Yeah, I can see why you are perplexed.

I think you are on the right track staying with weaners fo a while.

[Gio]

Not to worry.

I've had that happen with a larger quail early on. It is not a regurge at that point, they are simply recognizing the prey is too large and are backing out of it. A true regurgitation would take place after the digestion process has started. There could be a number of reasons why the snake backed out, but that's all it did. Back out.

Now if you were to see this happen a day after feeding or even a few hours, it is a different situation.

I would doubt you'd have any issues if you fed in less than a week, or even 2 days.

Unless something happened during the feeding that you are not aware of I'd say you have nothing to worry about.