Eating Question

[Reptile King]

I have had my female normal ball python since April of 2009. During the last several feedings I have been feeding her the large adult frozen mice that can found at Petsmart. She has grown a lot over the last month or so and I decided to up the size of her prey.

I went to a local pet store and asked for a large adult frozen mouse. The one that was handed to me was larger than the ones I have been feeding her. Eventhough it was larger I knew she could handle the mouse just fine.

Tonight I fed her and she constricted the mouse for sometime prior to consuming it. I assumed that she knew it was larger and therefore decided to coil longer just to make sure it was dead.

This is where it gets wierd. She consumed the mouse all the way to its butt. She appeared to struggled to consume the butt but after a while she got it down. In the process of consuming the rear end she rolled her self over several times before finally getting it all the way down. My questions is is this normal? I have never seen this before. I know for a fact that the mouse was about the same size as the widest part of her body. Although she usually "periscopes" when swallowing her meal this time she didn't.....she just stayed on the ground.

Has anyone else seen this?

[Kaorte]

If I give my snakes a particularly heavy meal they tend to just roll around and shove it in their mouth. Its probably too heavy to lift up so they just move their body to work it in.

I don't think its a problem.

[snakesRkewl]

Sounds pretty normal to me

[ssballow]

Sounds pretty normal to me

Mine did that last week. It rolled and rolled. The second mouse went down fast, though.