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Mice legs getting stuck

T

Tork

New member
Hi there, I've been looking around on the forums for an answer to I question I had but I haven't been able to find one. Is it normal when feeding for one of the front legs to get stuck and stick out of the snakes mouth while they are trying to get it down ? Its only happened twice once when she was eating a pinkie and now once with a fuzzie. She does eventually get the leg bent backwards and gets it down ad she hasn't regurged but its scary to see her struggle so much. I was just wondering if I should worry about it ?:shrugs:
 
It happens. So long as the prey isn't oversized the snake will muscle it down there. You should see when they decide to try and eat something sideways.
 
It shouldnt be a problem, sometimes they just poke out for a while as they work the mouse down. If feeding takes more than an hour then i would worry :p even some of my adults are slow, sometimes they just take their time :)
 
As the mouse thaws I try and straighten out any limbs that are at odd angles and push the front legs down as close to parallel with the body as I can just to make things a bit easier to swallow. The snakes always seem to find a way to get it down regardless though.
 
If the snake's really having trouble at that stage, then it'll just spit the mouse back up again. I wouldn't worry, regardless of how long it takes (as long as the mouse isn't too big to start with).

Some are habitual "butt munchers", meaning that they eat the mouse butt-first, which makes the legs even more difficult to get into the mouth - they still manage it in the end, it just takes longer.

It's possible that standing over it or checking on it repeatedly, is actually spooking the snake a little and slowing the swallowing process down. Might be best to just leave it absolutely alone and let it get on with the job.
 
I get so tempted to "fix" the position of the mouse for my snakes!
But, I know that would just make them take longer to eat.

Snakes are funny about eating sometimes.
 
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