Quote Originally Posted by srhcrawford View Post
Thanks for setting my mind at ease. I guess I just feel really guilty because she had such at rough time about it. At one point she stopped moving at all with the back end hanging out of her mouth and I thought I'd killed her. Omg, heart attack. She then resumed. It was pretty stressful for both of us I think!
Actually it's pretty normal for them to get going and then take a bit of a stop then off they go again swallowing. Remember they have that wonderful breathing tub, the glottis, that allows them to keep breathing while their mouth is stuffed full.

Btw, the snake didn't technically regurg that prey. Regurging is more when they've swallowed it, been unable to digest it or been disturbed during the process of digestion and have tossed up the prey and a quantity of their digestive acids (not a good thing at all). What your snake did was just back the prey out of her mouth for a moment to reassess the situation and start over. They'll do that sometimes to get a better angle on their prey or if you are too close or bug them while they are settling in to swallow their dinner. It's not like a regurge as there's no bringing up of those damaging stomach acids with the prey.

I think this was likely far more stressful for you than your snake. Since the prey was larger than it normally takes though, an extra day of no handling wouldn't be a bad idea just to err on the side of caution.

Some snakes get very nervy if you watch them eat so with ours we generally just confirm they have their live prey well under control then we leave them be until they've completely swalled their prey item. It's a very vulnerable time for a snake when it's mouth if busy like that so some will act up if you are too close during the actual swallowing part of it all.