gagging?

[Cegninedorf]

I put Maizie in her feeding container tonight and I gave her a 10 g hopper. She's had hoppers prior to now for a couple of weeks, and never a problem. However, tonight, I went to check on her (as she's usually a fast & enthusiastic eater!), and I saw her flailing her head back & forth and the mouse was going nowhere. The mouse's head was in her, and Maizie didn't seem as if she was going to regurge. Upon seeing the flailing, I reacted on impulse by opening her container, and I took hold of the mouse's tail -- I didn't pull on it in the slightest, but something about holding it seemed to steady things for Maizie and she stopped flailing and she was then able to continue eating. Was she gagging? I'm grateful that I didn't walk away from her for more than a min or two. That was scary to see happen...:(

[Matthew]

In my limited experience with snakes, I'd guess that one of her retaining teeth was stuck into the mouse.

By flailing around, she was probably trying to dislodge the tooth (or teeth) so that she could rearrange the prey item to make it easier to swallow. With smaller prey, you rarely notice it because they're not stretching their mouths fully and all they have to do is open their mouth a little more and their teeth pull out.

With a bigger prey item that maxes their mouth size, it becomes more difficult to get those teeth out once they're in.

That's only my guess, and I hope it made sense. :)

[Checkerbelly]

Probably just getting situated.

Snakes are unlikely to gag. They have that trachea extension or whatever it is. That opening inside their mouth that they breath through while swallowing...

[Cegninedorf]

In my limited experience with snakes, I'd guess that one of her retaining teeth was stuck into the mouse.

With a bigger prey item that maxes their mouth size, it becomes more difficult to get those teeth out once they're in.

That's only my guess, and I hope it made sense. :)
Absolutely, that makes sense...because after moving another snake up to a new feeder size which seemed a bit big for his mouth, he actually "toothed" himself and had to untooth himself. :p Thanks!
Probably just getting situated.

Snakes are unlikely to gag. They have that trachea extension or whatever it is. That opening inside their mouth that they breath through while swallowing...
I thought as much, but just the flailing about was just unnerving to see, and naturally, as I've never experienced that before, I relate it to my own contextual human terms of looking like gagging...hopefully Maizie will be better prepared for the mouse next time! :) Thanks!