Hi everybody,

I just experienced my first bloody snake feed. I feed Salzedo in a feeding tub and I dropped in a live 32 gram mouse.* He struck quickly, as he always does, but one of the back legs was not secured. It flailed a bit, just for a moment.

When Salzedo started to swallow I noticed 3-4 drops worth of blood on his body, near his tail. I carefully dabbed it off and did not see any visible fresh blood thereafter. However, when he moved to finish eating, I noticed another blood-smear on his underbelly near the tail. There seemed to be one scale that had more of a definitive 'ring' of blood around it, but there was no seepage.

When he struck the mouse he secured its head with his jaws, so I am fairly sure the blood did not come from the mouse. (Blood sometimes pools in the prey's mouth when he constricts.) Also, the head was farther away from where these two blood patches were located. As I could not see a wound, so I suspect that one of the mouse's nails may have got between a scale.

I am just wondering if small scratches of this nature are common when feeding live, and if I should do anything about them.

Could scaring be an issue, or do most smaller wounds heal and vanish with the next shed?

Thanks for your time!

* I normally feed rat pups in the 25-30 gram rage, but the store was all out.