Two questions - "yawning", and rat claws

[icygirl]

Hi everyone, hope you all had a nice new years

1.) I have noticed that lately my BP seems to be "yawning" a lot more than usual. This is when she stretches her mouth open wide for a second, NOT when feeding, usually at night when she is roaming the tank. Anyone know why they do this?

2.) She had a f/t small rat for the first time last night, and she has previously been having f/t large/XL mice. The rat has much sharper claws than the mice. I wasn't able to watch her eat it since she dragged it into her hide to swallow it. She seems to be fine after eating, but I was just wondering if I should have clipped the nails off first, and if anyone has had issues with their snakes being hurt by sharp claws on frozen rats.

[jason4173]

My female BP does this a lot too...just figured she was sleepy, is it not normal? Don't want to highjack your post but will be watching for a response to this one for sure...

[littleindiangirl]

For #1.
All of my snakes yawn when starting their roaming at night. I think it's just a general stretching of the muscles, just like you or me. Except they dont have arms or legs to stretch lol. If she/he is sitting with their head elevated and is making popping noises etc, then that is when you should worry.

#2
Live rats can scratch. The only animals I have been able to see these marks on are my albino and the orange ghost. The ghost actually has a pretty little cut on top of her head that's healing up nicely. You generally wont see it on normals, or dark animals. That's why it's important to supervise all feedings, but it seems you got that down. I wouldnt bother cutting the rats nails, as I have a hard time doing it with my pet rats lol. Probably not worth it.
Just my .02$.

[icygirl]

Live rats can scratch.

Note that I'm feeding frozen rats. So maybe I'm a little paranoid..? I guess I was just wondering what happens while they're swallowing it. I mean, would you want to swallow something sharp? Probably not. Snakes must have evolved some way to deal with that so that the claws don't hurt their tracheas... right?

[littleindiangirl]

Ahhh, f/t. Haha, I still dont see any reason to cut them, so yes, you may be paranoid. Not to make fun of you, but they have been sucking down rats, claws and all for years. I think he will be ok. But if you want to, that's up to you. I see no reason to honestly.

[k1ingdomKaa]

can you paint my F/T feeder mices toe nails and give their finger nails a manicure? pls and thanks.

sry, i had to ask. lol..
thats good tho thinking of all possible things that can go wrong and trying to prevent them. good quality, i would have never thought of it.

[cassandra]

Don't worry about the claws, especially if the snake eats the prey animal head first. All the legs fold neatly back when swallowed and those pesky toenails get digested although with the rest of the animals, bones and all.

Given that, I sometimes will stop feeding if I'm feeding multiples if say, for example, my bp eats her 2nd mouse butt first and it "looks" painful to eat, but then that probably just my paranoia, hehe. =)

And like the others said, if you do not notice any symptoms of respiratory infection, "extra" yawns are probably just that - stretching, still get the jaw back in face, it feels good, etc. =)

[Patrick Long]

i noticed my hairless rats claws are much sharper than the haired rats