Ball python struggling to eat small mouse?!

[Staylor1290]

Please help or give any advice! Last night around 930pm(it is now 142am)I fed my ball python a small frozen mouse(thawed obviously) she grabbed it, constricted and then began to swallow, within about half an hour she had the entire thing in her mouth and ever since, the mouse has not moved any farther down. She was “standing” upright for a long time and would occasionally open her mouth and I was hoping she’d throw it back up but still hasn’t. She is now sitting in her tree in her tank. I also noticed last night some occasional beads of fluid of some sort on her around her face/where the mouse is. I will also add I fed her a mouse this size a couple weeks ago snd she had no issues. Please help! I’m not sure what To do, if this is normal or if there’s a way to help her. I’ve had her since about a week or 2 before Christmas and love her Dearly already 😭

[Ball_Pythons4life]

I've never had anything like this happen to me, and i'm sure there will be more experienced replies to follow. How big is your snake and how big was the mouse you fed her? (i'm assuming you bought her as a hatchling) if it was too big im thinking she will regurge, but like I said i'm no expert. If shes been trying to eat that mouse for 4 hours it was probably way to big. If you mean "small" as by what pet stores market it as, its probably too big at that age, but I don't know because there's no weight or age or pictures.

[Hugsplox]

This sounds like a prey size issue to me as well, although I've never dealt with it myself. Luckily the glottis is a fascinating part of a snake's anatomy and keeps your BP breathing with that mouse in her mouth. Can you give us an update? Hopefully by now this has corrected itself, but if not prey and snake size would be helpful. I understand that you think you fed a similar sized meal a few weeks ago, but "similar" is subjective and your BP could have had issues with that one that you didn't see, or you could have fed something that's actually bigger this go around that she wasn't ready for.

[bcr229]

Did your BP happen to start swallowing the mouse from the middle instead of at the head, so it doubled over on itself and was thus too wide for her to eat? That happens to mine sometimes, though usually they figure out the problem, spit out the feeder, and start over.