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My carpet is currently eating a rotting rat
Just fed the snakes the other day, all went well, carpet struck and coiled, just as always.
I go into the snake room this morning to the smell of rotting rat, and I see that he didn’t end up eating it.
I open up the enclosure, grab the rat with my tongs, and he struck and coiled it and I’m assuming is going to eat it now.
Will he be okay? Can I expect him to regurgitate?
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He'll "probably" be fine. I actually have had this same experience with a sidewinder, back when I kept rattlesnakes. I had left him a f/t fuzzy mouse before I went to work that morning, & when I got home, my nose quickly told me that he failed to eat it. Before I could get my tongs & remove it, my phone rang, so I was delayed. When I got back to the sidewinder, he was just gulping it down! Made ME want to gag, but he was just fine, though I wouldn't make a habit of allowing snakes to eat rotting rodents.
This doesn't apply to your carpet python, but I can actually explain why a rattlesnake might do this: a rattlesnake's venom begins the digestive process- venom is actually a very concentrated version of saliva -much like we have that starts our own digestion. When a dead rodent sits for a while, it begins to break down & the smells given off resemble what the rattlesnake can smell when they approach their dead victim, so it triggered his feeding response. Thereafter, this captive sidewinder "recognized" f/t mice as food more readily (in the wild, they often feed on lizards first) and soon he no longer needed mice to reek before he ate them. He learned very quickly to accept them right away.
This doesn't exactly explain why your carpet python did this though. I suspect that if he regurgitates, you both will... So fingers crossed that he keeps it down!
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
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