Opening the mouth

[Naf Eeknay]

Hi all! I have seen on here where people open up their snakes mouth to inspect the inside of it for mucus/substrate/rot, etc. My question is how you do this? I have seen my snake opening and stretching his mouth after downing his rat so is that when you are looking?

Peace!!

[wolfy-hound]

The vets at UF showed me a small plastic/rubber spatula that they use to slide into the mouth and then you bring it up, opening the mouth. You can do that fairly easily with 2 people, one to hold the snake's body and one to handle the head and the spatula.
I do it by myself, but it can be a real wriggling struggle.
Wolfy

[rynwilliams]

I have found that a large paperclip works really well.