fed her to big of a rat?

[stylin97]

i dont know if this has been there for a little while, or if it was from her feeding today...

but my girl has some kind of wound or something right behind her head where her neck/body begins almost like she stretched to much trying to eat the rat or something. She hasnt been eating HUGE ones or anything but sometimes i wonder if she'll be able to get it down and she does.

I dont know if the rat got ahold of her right when she 1st struck, but after that, the rats mouth wasnt near her head cause she missed kinda and got the body, so the rat was trying to bite my snakes body (but i kept the rats head away while she killed it so it couldnt bite her)

so my question is, is this possibly a very quick bite wound i didnt see happen (would of had to be FAST cause i always overlook the feedings) or did i feed her to big of one the last few weeks or something to where her skin might of got stretched out?

also is the wound something i should worry about getting infected and do something about? Its not huge but enough for me to notice it.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

also is the wound something i should worry about getting infected and do something about? Its not huge but enough for me to notice it

Clean up the wound with some betadine and apply some neosporin on it (the one without pain killer)

Depending on how serious the wound is you might want to consult an herp vet.

How big was the rat you fed her?

[stylin97]

Clean up the wound with some betadine and apply some neosporin on it (the one without pain killer)

Depending on how serious the wound is you might want to consult an herp vet.

How big was the rat you fed her?

im not sure how big the rat was, but no bigger than all the other ones shes been eating...

i think the rat got a bite on her or something, or maybe it was something i didnt notice from one of the last few feedings but i doubt that.

heres a quick pic i took... i actually didnt notice the one on her head till the pic, the spot i was worried about is circled in green (doesnt look as bad from the pic, altho its not TO bad, but you can see a little pink under the wound)

[Lucryth]

It really doesn't look too bad. Don't think its anything to worry about, is she behaving weird in any way?

[rockyhorror]

I agree with the neosporin, make sure no pain killer. Also are you feeding adult rats, fuzzy, pup, what?

[stylin97]

im feeding her small rats, maybe 4" long? or so. i duno.

is this something that will heal up or will it stay looking like that?

ill get some neosporin w/no pain killer.... why the no pain killer just so i know?

[bearhart]

how big is your snake?

[bearhart]

she looks a bit chewed up actually.

I'm guessing you are simply feeding too large.

Two things: if you are feeding prey that are small enough the snake should be able to overwhelm them. In my experience this means that they only need to use their "neck" at first and, if the thing gives them trouble, they've got plenty of extra slack to squeeze it to the point that it can't move at all.

The basic description of constriction is that it kills prey by suffocation (aka respiratory arrest). This is only partially true. The high pressures exerted under constriction can also cause circulatory arrest as well as spinal fracture, both of which kill much faster than suffocation alone. The smaller a prey item is, the higher the chances of these other effects occuring. I have definately noticed that smaller prey items die much more quickly and are much less effective at defending themselves.

I wouldn't feed anything to your snake that doesn't give it some "slack" to work with. I've found that my snakes will use pretty much only their necks to constrict if everything goes well. However, if the prey starts to bite, they'll start cranking up the pressure and adding more coils. I witnessed this just yesterday when I fed my carpet a medium rat. He struck and coiled twice. The rat then attempted to bite him twice and he responded by squeezing much harder and coiling around the thing about 3 more times. In a period of a second or less the rat went from trying to bite to being completely immobilized.

[NickMyers03]

i feed live, given this is the chance of a bite happening. last wed when feeding one of my girls struck herself and i saw her pull the teeth out of the scales when she was backing up and it looked like it hurt...( would of happend even it was dead the rat was already being constricted dont knwo why she struck again)..i have also had to hold a rats head back while the snake was killing it so it wouldnt bite because of how low on the body the snake was constricting...im told im a bad person for helping the snake kill it but my snake would be scared up if not and they are worth more to me than the life of a rat or getting bit by the rat while helping

[bearhart]

stylin:

you might try substituting two adult mice for one 4" rat. I'm guessing maybe two medium mice might be equivalent.