He's eating his dinner backwards

I just fed him last night and the first pink he ate head first the second pink bottom first. Will this hurt him? Could he choke? I think he just get's exited becouse when I fed him 5 days before he did the same thing.

Ugh. What an awful experience this can be. My snake almost always takes the mouse backwards (though I try to encourage him by tease feeding to take the head), but the first time he did this, a leg got stuck on the corner of his mouth and it took him close to 15 minutes to dislodge it and get it down. I was told there's really nothing we can do to help it along, but hopefully someone here knows otherwise.

If it eases your mind any, my understanding is all I can do is cause some mild stress. But like I said, I could be wrong. Others can help better.

I got a snake that really nearly choked. I have some calcium powder i sometimes put on the mouse. Now on the label is says just 'apply generously'. Oke. The mouse was a bit wet though from my hands. Add to that the snake seemed to have a lot of saliva. Now the powder became some sort of a thick substance when the snake swallowed the prey but pushed the goo forwards, to eat it at the end. It seemed like she was eating toffee and it stuck in her throat (Thank got they have an alternative way of breething or she would have suffocated) and mouth everything. Took her a while to either swallow it or rub it off. She didn't even seem bothered to much by it but i was about to just pluck it out personally. Now i'm really carefull with how much i apply. If that stuff got into her breating tube...

Jicin said:

I have some calcium powder i sometimes put on the mouse. Now on the label is says just 'apply generously'.

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I wasn't going to say anything, but... I know you need this stuff to dust things like crickets for Beardies, but calcium powder for snakes? Really??

calcium powder

I know....the pet shop guy gave us some calcium powder (which I was used to putting on my mate's leopard gecko's grub) but we haven't used it for our Bob yet - what extra would he need? He eats mice, bones and all!

Any expert opinions on this? Maybe we should use it?

Spirit said:

I wasn't going to say anything, but... I know you need this stuff to dust things like crickets for Beardies, but calcium powder for snakes? Really??

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Calcium powder is not necessarily needed for snakes. Althought it will help with Bone developement in growing hatchlings and then with keeping the bones strong when the snake becomes an adult. Unlike Lizards, Snakes get their calcium from the bones of the animales they eat. The more developed the bones in the prey animal the more calcium the snake gets.

I don't know... I'm REALLY leary about using calcuim powder with snakes for 2 reasons.

The main being as Jicin stated. Powder when mixed with liquid becomes a sticky tacky mess and will cause the snake problems swallowing.

The second being snakes get all their nutritional value from the mice alone, and don't need any extra suppliments. If for WHATEVER reason you want to add calcium, I would sooner put drops in their water than I would coat the mouse with powder, though I think both are completely unneccessary...

Feedback, anyone?

Edit: I was posting at the same time Paul was. Thanks, P. The "bone" thing makes sense.

Your welcome. Glad that I could put my two cents in...

The calcium powder and/or drops would be a good thing to use while your snake is living on pinks. This is because a pinky mouse doesn't have fully formed bones. Mostly all they have is a cartilage structure that helps to keep the body in shape.

Then, as you move up to fuzzies, hoppers, and so forth, you won't need it anymore as you now have fully formed bones in the mice.

Well, i didn't think so either. I was convinced otherwise. I was also pointed to a book called 'De Geillustreerde terrarium encyclopedie' by Eugene Bruins. It says (page 40) snakes in captivety get less calcium then wild ones because they eat less variated food, don't drink rainwater nor get dirt from the ground.
And especally fast growing ones, like our well few pets, use it for their sketelon development. It's supposed to be a valid reason for kinks. I was also told it couldn't hurt. Well, apparantly only if you watch carefully on how much you use. So i just thought better save then sorry.

Well that certainly is interesting!

I agree on that.

Jicin...The mice that you get for your snakes...do you know how they are raised? If there is a way that you can get in contact with the breeder and find out what the vitamins and nutrients that the mice are giving as they grow, you can figure out if the extra calcium is needed. i agree with you that because our captive snakes only eat mice that they don't have much calcium, but there are plenty of people that have had snakes for many years that haven't given their snakes an suppliments and never had a problem. if you are worried about Kinks, then all you have to worry about is to give calcium to the female just before breeding season. Also, I have personally read on a couple of cornsnakes sites about kinks being from incubation problems of the eggs. Too high of a temp, not enough moisture, etc.

But, with all that said, if you are giving calcium and not having any problems, then I am not telling you to stop. More power to you if it is helping.

The breeder whom i purchased them from told me they were given good nutricous food. I can only take his word for it. The mice looked good anyway. Except for the adults. Yeagh. Smelly road kill.

I haven't heard there is a 'definitive reciept' for developing kinks. If it's a nutricioun problem, incubation problem or genetic problem. Who knows a combination of these? While it's not sure, i just give them some calcium every now and then. Just to be on the save side. But i agree with you i might do it for nothing I will definately give the female extra calcium if i start to breed them.

cool cool...