BP regurgitated mouse before fully swallowing it. Should I be concerned?

[MedicalAuthor]

Got two mice for my maybe half year old BP. Feeding in enclosure. Ate the first one after some time, swallowed without issue. After it was well enough down I introduced the second mouse, killed it quickly and then was consuming normally, but one thing i noticed is that some time into swallowing it wrapped around the mouse again as if it were still killing it, but the mouse was clearly dead. I think it got the mouse maybe a little over halfway down and then I came back a few minutes later and it had thrown the second mouse up. First mouse still securely in belly, deep.

It ate the second mouse after some time and now, next morning, chillin in hide.

I know regurgitation can be a sign of stress and stressful/harmful itself. Does this count as a full regurgitation? Or more like a 'swallowed it wrong and started over?'

[Bogertophis]

Technically this is a regurgitation (ejecting the contents of the esophagus, as opposed to stomach contents which would be vomiting)- and this sure sounds like you should only be feeding one item per meal. The snake was hesitant to take both- that should tell you something, eh?

Regurgitations can harm, even KILL. Snakes cannot really cough- & when they regurgitate something, they can easily aspirate some into their lungs. I'm surprised your snake actually ended up swallowing both- & you're lucky he's keeping both down.

[MedicalAuthor]

Yeah, I'll do one in the future. The week before the reptile store suggested two hoppers, which he ate fine. Then this week it was someone new and they said that it should be full grown mice. And I asked if it should be two and he said, sure, if you want.

Will try to stick to rats in the future and just one of whatever I get.

Does it sound like this regurgitation was from too much food? Just trying to prevent in future.

[Bogertophis]

Yeah, I'll do one in the future. The week before the reptile store suggested two hoppers, which he ate fine. Then this week it was someone new and they said that it should be full grown mice. And I asked if it should be two and he said, sure, if you want.

Will try to stick to rats in the future and just one of whatever I get.

Does it sound like this regurgitation was from too much food? Just trying to prevent in future.

Hard for me to say- I'm not seeing your snake to compare the size of the meal to HIS size. In the subforum "BP Husbandry" you can always refer to this chart*- but I'll add that there is some disagreement (by myself & others) about feeding ADULT BPs on a weekly basis- this chart appears to be written by/for breeders of BPs for the most rapid growth- not always the best thing IMO. But at least you can compare the size (wt.) of prey to the size (wt.) of your snake.


Reptile stores make money by selling things- 2 is always better than one if you're the seller, eh?

[MedicalAuthor]

I have that chart downloaded on my phone, just didn't use it this time/trusted the store where I got the snake (they were literally feeding their stock of BPs at the time). The mice were NOT large than the largest girth of my BP. Hadn't handled snake in a week, temp and humidity been good.