BP Eating Problem? Not just a winter fast question...

[maverickgtr]

Our male BP is coming off his winter fast, and we got him a small mouse today with the plan of getting him two more in a few days and then trying rats to see if he's in a rat kind of mood to ease him back into eating after so long of fasting [right about two months]. Well, he took the mouse today, but while I was monitoring the feeding he had almost all of the mouse in his mouth, the rear legs/hindquarters and tail were still sticking out, it's legs started kicking like it was trying to get out and it's tail started flail wildly. Sparks [our male BP] looked freaked out and froze but he finished swallowing anyway and then just looked nervous. It's been about an hour and he hasn't regurgitated it. Should I be worried? He's coming up on 12 years old and he's only ever taken live [seriously we've tried so many times to get him to take frozen thawed] so it's not like this is his first time with a live mouse/rat before, so I doubt he would've released the mouse before it was actually dead, but this is first time I've seen this happen and I'm just really hoping for some reassurance that I'm not going to have a problem later.

Edit: Just to add a little more, he had a good hold/wrap on the mouse and held it for the usual amount of time. I've seen him have worse holds on mice/rats before and they died/were eaten well enough. Any advice/thoughts would be greatly appreciated, I'm still a little freaked out and will probably worry about it for the next couple days.

[dragonboy4578]

I have had the same thing happen with my het. pied female after a long fast. She did just fine with it.

[Slim]

I'm sure it won't affect him in future feedings.

[tjohnson722]

When my burm was a baby, we had to reach in after they had it wrapped and wiggle the tail. He would only tighten up after that. You could try that next time. It was his first meal after fast I wouldn't worry about it.

It may have been too small for him to get a good wrap also. You said he is 12 right which means he is full grown. So it may have been that. Keep an eye on him. Nothing you can do now but wait and see.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

[loonunit]

The mouse will have been further crushed and suffocated on the way from the mouth to the stomach. So it was dead 5 minutes later, guaranteed.

A lot of my snakes take a 2nd helping, and they seem to constrict and swallow it much too fast to actually kill anything. They all eat f/t now, but I've seen the babies down live mice so quickly I wondered if they were actually dead yet.

[maverickgtr]

Thanks for the help everyone! I know I didn't reply, but I was checking the thread. I've been working something like 62 hours a week, so not much time to really reply. Sparks turned out ok like y'all said. He had a good hold on the mouse so I'm fairly certain it was dead and was just like a muscle spasm or something from where on the body he was holding the mouse because as soon as he moved the mouse in his mouth a little the moving stopped. At least, that's what I'm telling myself... He's back to normal behavior wise which isn't saying much since he's a big lazy fatty on the best of days.

Again, thank you so much for your panic mitigation!

[gardenfiend138]

Blood is still pulsing through the body after we consider something "dead"...the standards of death have constantly changed throughout time. It's really surprising when you kill the prey yourself and see a twitch 5 minutes later! I'm sure he'll be fine!