Hi everyone. I am a noobie snake owner since last week. I got a baby male albino ball python last Saturday from a local reptile shop. They told me that he was eating live rat pups outside of his enclosure in a feeding tub no problem. On Monday night I fed him in a plastic feeding tub a ft hopper mouse that I had gotten from Petco. It was a little on the smallish side for him but he struck at it and coiled around it then ate it butt side first. Last night (Saturday) I decided to try a ft rat pup that I got from the reptile show. I thawed it out in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for a few hours then stuck the bag in warm water then blasted it with a hair dryer for around 20 seconds. I put him in the same feeding tub and even though he was cruizing around and looked interesting, nothing happened. I did the zombie dance and wiggled it but no response, all he was trying to do was climb up and out of the feeding tub. So I put him back in his enclosure and he immediately went into his hide. I put the rat pup right in front of his hide and turned off all the lights. I came back in the room 30 minutes later and the rat was gone, my snake was half way out of the hide and was finishing his last swallow but had a string of the sphagnum moss from his hide hanging from his half way opened mouth. I was able to get with the tongs the piece hanging out of his mouth but not the piece back in his throat. He quickly darted back into his hide and I didn't want to stress him out. I am just wondering if this is ok. I know out in the wild they probably ingest a lot of things with their prey but I just hope this won't obstruct him.
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