red tails's mouth is weird

[whytepizza]

Ok, so i fed my red tail last night, and he has this weird mouth thing, now. I dont know if he bit down to hard (he's an aggressive feeder) or got some of the tongs but now one side of his mouth is rolled in, like he's bitting his lip. There are no female red tails around so i know he's not going, "Daaaaaamn, look at that red tip!" so i'm hoping it's nothing too serious. He still sniffs around like normal with his tongue but it does seem like he just hasn't clicked that part of his mouth back in place after feeding. His jaw and everything is in place.
Just figured i would ask and see if anyone else ran into this problem, or if i should even be worried. it's been about 12 hours and he's still like that.

[Rakk101]

Is it possible to grab some pictures so we can see what it looks like?

[littleindiangirl]

Snakes have jaws that separate in the middle and unhinge to allow large prey items. More than likely, his mouth is folded funny because of how he ate and he had not readjusted it properly.

If he continues with the folded lip for some time, you can attempt to open his mouth with a soft item like a rubber spatula to help out and look for damage.

If you are just concerned regardless, there is nothing wrong with calling and scheduling a vet appointment to make sure nothing serious is wrong.

[whytepizza]

Hey, sorry, i dont have a camera so i was unable to take pictures, but the good thing is i have a friend at Cook college who is in vet school. I took my lil red tail over to the school and had the professor look at him. He took a look, put the snake into a sleep, took an x-ray. Turns out he broke his jaw by attacking too aggressively. So the professor put him out for a little while, did some 'minor' surgery to pop it into place and woke the lil guy up. He said not to feed it for 6 weeks (i feed him every other week so it should not be a problem) and start with small prey but not to wiggle it. because he may feed to aggressively. Odd, since i could barely get him to eat as a neonate.
Anyway, all is good, for now! He did break it and the guy said it should heal fine and he was surprised it broke because the bone is VERY flexible. Anyway, all is well! Just thought i'd share.
BTW, did i post this in the wrong area? Sorry, if i did!

[whytepizza]

Well, it happened again. I fed him two small hoppers (still a small prey for him) both were live. I wonder if he keeps getting his lip stuck on his teeth, is this a possibility? Should i check?
He's only 2-3 ft long so i bite won't hurt too much but i figured i'd ask the professionals before i stressed the poor guy out.
BTW: his name is Stargazer

[KBakker]

Look for some skin witch is not shedded properly, i can search for a pic of my redtail witch had this issue, i checked for skin and found the solution



I hope you can identify the issue with this picture, as you can see on this picture there still is some skin above....

[littleindiangirl]

eh, nevermind, apparently I didnt scroll all the way up.

[whytepizza]

Look for some skin witch is not shedded properly, i can search for a pic of my redtail witch had this issue, i checked for skin and found the solution

I hope you can identify the issue with this picture, as you can see on this picture there still is some skin above....

Yeah, that's a pretty close picture to the problem, but it only happens on the right sade of his face so it is a little more pronounced. I'll take a look for some skin, thanks! I'll try and get my camera up and working and take a picture (Yay for broken HP's)
By the way, gorgeous snake you have there.

[KBakker]

Yeah, that's a pretty close picture to the problem, but it only happens on the right sade of his face so it is a little more pronounced. I'll take a look for some skin, thanks! I'll try and get my camera up and working and take a picture (Yay for broken HP's)
By the way, gorgeous snake you have there.

haha thnx, this female redtail also had it just on one side, it was really hard to see in real life, when i shot a picture of it i saw the issue, when i had removed the skin and the face was normal again