Newb with pics

[Kaorte]

ok, i just fed both of them, they grabbed and suffocated the mice immediately. oddly enough its taking both of them 45 minutes so far to get them down. theyre still trying but havnt even passed the first legs yet. what should i do? continue to wait?

Don't worry about it. Sometimes it takes a little longer for it to go down. As long as it does, its not a problem.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Just give them a little time. As long as what was offered is not too big for them to get down they will get it eventually. Rarely is the food item too big. Often its too small. Let us know how it goes.

A quick note on what you said about removing the eyecaps more than once now. How did you remove them? Raise the humidity when they are in shed or use some bacitracin on the eyes during a shed cycle if you think they have stuck eyecaps. Playing with them dangerous. You dont want to accidentally remove the protective cap which is supposed to be there under the outer eyecap.

[guntersxr]

myself and one of the veterinarians i work with did it. i held his head still and gently rubbed the eye caps with a saline soaked gauze and when they gave a bit he gently removed them with hemostats.

[Kaorte]

myself and one of the veterinarians i work with did it. i held his head still and gently rubbed the eye caps with a saline soaked gauze and when they gave a bit he gently removed them with hemostats.

I would be VERY careful when messing with eye caps. If it is only one stuck eye cap, I wouldn't even attempt to remove it. Just increase the humidity for the next shed cycle and it should come off on its own.

Their eyes are just so fragile it isn't worth messing with if its only one stuck eye cap.

We just had a story here recently of a vet attempting to remove some stuck eye caps and actually removed the protective layer over the eye. The snake is going to loose one of its eyes and possibly the other.

[guntersxr]

he knew enough to know what not to pull off too much. btw, george finally after an hour finally put it down. sally has still made no progress, she knawing on the mouse' neck. ill check on her again in a half hour i guess.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

If they were not fed very often when you got them maybe they are just hungry and excited but out of practice. She'll probably take it.

As for the eyecaps, I'm glad it was a wet gauze that was used but its still not necessary to remove them. Who removes them in the wild when they have a flaky shed? With just a little extra attention they will always come off on their own. Always.

Not getting on you at all. Im just saying its better to just let it take care of itself than to get into the habit of causing a snake that kind of stress more than once, or twice, etc etc.

Its really not anything you should ever need to worry about is all im saying.

[guntersxr]

no worries, im not offended by anything youve said. im extreemly greatful for all this information. they were only fed small fuzzies once a week. thats not enough for an 18" snake. theyre much healthier now that thier eating live.

[guntersxr]

so check this out, george is good to go but sally has had the mouse for almost 4 hours. it looks almost like its cought in her throat. i took a few pics to give u guys an idea of what im talking about. their crappy pics but i didnt want to bug her too much. she hasnt done anything like this before.

[Kaorte]

I think its all the stuck shed preventing her from getting her food down.

I don't really know how to deal with this situation, hopefully some other members can chime in. All I can think of is to try and get her to spit it out.

She doesn't look good though.

[guntersxr]

i could mist her with water, that always pisses her off. idk wtf to do.