Concerns about larger meal

[Hydrolicious]

I finally made the transition to rats from mice, and I am not pleased with my initial observations. Maybe I'm just paranoid, as usual. Prior to this feeding tonight, I would feed my BP 2 large mice a week - this worked out well, I suppose.

Alright, so I just finished feeding my BP a medium rat; actually, I was misinformed by the pet store. According to the guide at http://iansvivarium.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=75#p248 , the rat I fed my 26-27 inch male was about 6-7 inches long and is considered a medium rat.(head and torso by themselves, excluding the tail.) If these measurements include the tail, then HOO BOY. The pet store I ordered acknowledged that I was ordering a rat pup, then told me that they were getting me a small rat when I picked it up; I didn't have the option to get my money back as you pay in advance for live shipments. That thing was a monster and in no way whatsoever was I going to feed it live to Schemer. I don't want to get in the "bone-crunching" details, so I'll just state that this was also my first pre-killed meal. I did the zombie dance and he struck and coiled around the corpse.

What I'm concerned about is the fact that immediately after finishing his meal, he's been bobbing his head around side to side and rubbing it on his hides. He's resting now on his hotspot, but I'm curious to know if this is normal behavior after larger meals. It didn't look like corkscrewing, but just really jerky movements. Will he be alright? Also, is the meal size fine? I'll probably have to slow down the feedings; the clerk in the pet store said 3 weeks should be long enough, but I have my doubts that it should be longer what with the size and all, plus the fact that she misinformed me like 3 times about what I was paying for.

Here's a post-meal pic of his bulge:
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/56/1000832.jpg

[Lupe]

I have never seen a bulge like that in any of my snakes. My 400 gram girl is fed a small rat once a week and her bulge is no where near that noticeable. I wouldn't go by length of the snake/food either. Get a digital scale and weigh your ball right after he relieves himself, food should be about 10%-15% of it's body weight.

[Hydrolicious]

Huh. He didn't really have trouble eating it, although he did hiss at me a few times for snooping (just wanted to make sure he was alright).

Well, I just hope he survives my stupidity, then.
I've gotta see if they sell smaller rats anywhere...

[evan385]

Huh. He didn't really have trouble eating it, although he did hiss at me a few times for snooping (just wanted to make sure he was alright).

Well, I just hope he survives my stupidity, then.
I've gotta see if they sell smaller rats anywhere...

He'll be fine. I fed my six month old ball python a small rat because that's all I had. Well he had a huge bulge. I mean he looked like a blimp and could barely move. This rat was twice his girth. He survived but he got fat three days afterward. Took him a week and a half to burn off the fat and look normal again.

[Hydrolicious]

I actually have a 70 photo flip-album of the consumption process in the case that a., I would need some sort of reference if he got sick from this, and b., as an artistic memoir of his thick gut. I'll upload the files (75 MB, geez) to megaupload or fileshare if anyone's interested.
For now, here are 9 or so photos of the process just so you have a scaled down idea of what went on between this monstrous rat and my snake.











Enjoy.

I'm still concerned about that wobble, though. Any insight into similar behavior after large meals would be appreciated.

[notmyfault]

That's a fairly large bulge, larger than what I would normally feed my snakes. I would suggest not feeding meals this large as it could lead to a possible regurg, although it seems as though it wasn't you fault for this mishap in the first place. As long as your snake is fine and able to chill as he normally would than you're all good.

[Ezekiel285]

Definitely not something you want to make a habit of, but that's pretty impressive on his part.

[jasbus]

If the bulge is still noticeable after 2 days, it was too big. Just lookingat your photos, it does look a little big, but don't worry about it, he'll be fine. Just scale it down a size next time, and maybe give him an extra week before the next meal.

[Hydrolicious]

Yeah, he seems to be fine. He just let out a rather large urate and a puddle of urine this afternoon. He seems to be passing it fairly well. There's no bulging or distension any more, he just looks really fat. Here's a picture of what he looks like today(compared to when I fed him on the 31st).

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1963/1000833hz.jpg


And yeah, congrats to him. The little dude really did something amazing there... I will definately make sure I get a smaller rat next time. I'm going to have a word with the manager in a few weeks. It'll probably take 2-3 for him to pass the whole thing.