I this just a fluke ???

[ryssa]

I have a a new girl she is 2 yrs old and was feed live I have tried f/t she does not want it . I have started my own colony and will have live on hand if that is all she will eat . I am just nervouse about what could happen I have a friend that her female was on live and the snake did not constrict it enough and it woke up INSIDE and was trying to get OUT . Need less to say she did not make it . My question is has anyone eles had this happen or was it just a freak thing ?

[ShaolinShadowBoxer]

thats a crazy story about your friend there, but im pretty sure the snake stops constricting once it feels the heart stop on the mouse/rat, and perhaps gives a few extra seconds of sqeeeze to jst make sure, anyways the degestive enzimes in a snakes stomach are super strong, def a fluke

[OhhWatALoser]

I find that really hard to believe, ball pythons by nature wait til the heart stops beating, then some. tons of bones are usually broken with the constricting also. Don't worry about it.

[ryssa]

Like I said i did not see it happen she just told me that is why she will never feed live again . So of course that has me a little freaked out

[jbean7916]

hmmmmmm, i'm not sure i'd believe your friend. I doubt that it would make it all the way down to the stomach without being killed by lack of oxygen on the way down at least. I know that my balls tummy muscles make some pretty strange movements when he's trying to get situated after eating, maybe that's what your friend saw?

[BPelizabeth]

I might venture to say that is a FOF Tale..."Friend of a friend". I think it would happen more immediately and not after a while even if for some weird reason it could happen. I mean if the stomach acids don't do it....lack of oxygen would.

I did have a snake that took a mouse that was still alive and just started taking it down. With that being said...it was dead before the whole thing was swallowed.

This is not something that you should worry about at all. They know what they are doing!!

[Ham]

Considering a mouse trying to survive inside a snakes stomach for more than 5 seconds is likely impossible I would say your friend is probably exagerating or mistaken, drowning kills fast and drowning in acid kills even faster, lol...

That said I have seen a corn snake swallow a live mouse without constriciting it at all, it just bit it in the face and started to swallow, once it was down it stopped moving once it passed the throat a ways...

I have never heard of a ball python doing that though...

What you need to watch out for when feeding live food is the rat or mouse biting your snake, they can really hurt your snake, they can get the python in the eye and blind them permanently or just cause nasty wounds all over the snakes body, if you have to feed live, try whackin the mouse in the head with tongs or smack it into something hard to stun it, then while the mouse is unconcious and convulsing from the head trauma try feeding it then. Usually the twitching and body heat will get the snake to feed as if its a normal live rodent, you can prekill them in this manner as well and the fresh blood will scent the air and this can sometimes excite the snake into eating.