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Spat up a mouse

lazarin

lazarin

New member
Hey folks, I'm not sure if this is a serious situation or not but I hope someone can help.

I feed Zeke two fuzzies a week, and today his first mouse was a little bigger than usual, but still smaller than 1.5x his width. He struggled swallowing it for a very long time, and eventually gave up and spat it out. He had swallowed everything except for the butt and tail. The mouse is very wet and there's some yellow liquid (bile?) on it. I have not tried to feed the second, much smaller mouse. Also, his warm side temp is 86 with an ambient temp in the 70s.

Do I need to put Zeke on regurge protocol? Or do you think it would be okay to feed him the small mouse tomorrow?
 
DollysMom said:
I'd wait a week. Let him rest and heal.
Click to expand...

Ditto!

Better safe than sorry!

(Just wondering: since the rodent wasn't larger than the 1.5 rule of thumb, was there anything WRONG with it?)

Hope your little sneaky one heals appropriately!
 
Thank you guys! I'll definitely be feeding him smaller mice next week just to be on the safe side.

I wish I'd thought to take a picture of the mouse. I didn't notice anything funny about it but I'm the furthest thing from an expert.
 
You did not specify the age or size of your snake. Just curious - why are you feeding 2 Fuzzies a week instead of 1 adult mouse? Is it possible you are "Over Feeding?"
 
That could be the case- the fuzzies are between 6 and 9 grams, but I don't weigh them every time I feed. Since I feed him two mice, I try to use the smaller ones. Zeke is around 150g, two years old, and ~26in.

I got my mice at an expo from Rodent Pro, and after looking at my snake they recommended that I feed two fuzzies instead of one adult. I didn't think to ask why.
 
A 150 gram snake can easily eat a 14 to 19 gram mouse. So 2 fuzzies at 6 to 9 grams is ok. I was just wondering why not feed 1 mouse at 14 to 19 grams.

But since you were told to do that at an expo, I'll leave that between you and them.
 
There are only a few reasons to feed two smaller rather than one larger. One it is a baby and too big for single pinkies but too small for a small fuzzy. One is that the snake has a problem that keeps it from eating the right size prey like my Mandy who I was told on good veterinary authority has arthritis in her jaw. The other is that you have too many of a smaller size on hand and you need to use them up. No one likes to waste mice. There is nothing generally wrong with feeding two smaller and they can and do eat multiples in nature.

It's funny how different vendors size their mice, btw. With my vendor, 8 or 9 gram mice are hoppers. My hoppers generally run 8 to 11 or grams but I do have one "outlier" in my last bag at 13 grams. That's practically a weanling or small adult (my vendor calls newly weaned small adults). I'm definitely saving that for last out of that bag. Perhaps this fuzzy you were trying to feed was like that, an outlier?

One more thing. To make a thawed mouse easier to swallow you can roll it under pressure under the heal of your hand to make it longer and skinner. You can also make cuts in the back. That tends to let the mouse squish easier. Thawed mice tend to be a little squishy anyway, but if it's on the larger size you need to make sure. Also make sure it is the proper temp before feeding. 75 to 85 is a good temp range. If you figure a live mouse body temp is 98 you definitely don't want warmer than that and you don't want cooler than room temp.

P.S. Next week just feed one smaller mouse.
 
Thanks very much for the info everybody. I'll be careful for the next few weeks and keep you guys posted.
 
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