One Year Old Bull Snake Cant Swallow

[Skiploder]

Its been a while since Ive posted here, things seemed to have been going so fine for my reptile buddies everybody eating , shedding and pooping that is until about 3 weeks ago, my female bull snake which is 1 year old, 4 feet long and has been pounding rat pups for months now, shedding every month and growing like a weed suddenly seemed to have trouble eating her food.

I have never fed her in cage, so I know she has never ingested substrate. About 3 weeks ago I noticed her taking an unusually long time trying to swallow her rat pup, about 5 times she put the head in her mouth got to about the shoulders and spat it all out. She seemed frustrated but kept trying until finally she got it down. At her next feeding about 5 days later she went through the same ordeal only this time she didn't eat she finally left her food. Well its been 12 days since her last feeding I tried again this time I tried feeding her in cage over some paper towels, she grabbed her food voraciously and about 10 minutes later I found it just laying in a corner of her cage.

Ive looked at her mouth closely and Ive watcher her yawn and cant see any signs of redness, swelling, or anything that looks odd to me.

Any ideas guys? Has anyone ever heard of something like this happening?

Ive tried my best to be extremely careful in feeding and have never had problems this just happened out of the blue it seems. I cant put my finger on anything that could be causing this.

I don't think anyone outside of a vet will be able to help you here.

As far as snakes go, the esophagus is fairly long. If there is a growth there or an obstruction, a vet would need to diagnose it.

Snakes primarily use body movement to move prey items down the esophagus rather than the peristaltic muscular movement of the esophagus itself. In other words, if she isn't having any issues with mobility, the vet will need to examine her for a potential growth or blockage.