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feeding stress

C

counterculture

New member
loki has been stressing me out with her feeding behaviour today, she's on 2 pinkies at the moment, we feed her in her tank on kitchen roll using chop sticks, fed her the first one she done her usual had a sniff about and got stuck in, but then once she had it past her mouth she started opening her mouth and flattening her head as though she was pushing the food back up, and at times the food was moving back up but then she stopped and it went back down, she then had a good drink of water and then dunked herself in the bowl.

i held off feeding her the second pinkie just to see how she was, waited an hour and she was very settled, roaming around the tank looking for her 2nd pinkie, so decided to feed it to her, on the basis that if she didnt want it she wouldnt eat it, she played about with it a bit more than normal then ate it pretty fast, however she started with the mouth opening, and the food moved back up her body again, but then it went down.

but she has been rubbing her nose on the side of her bowl which makes me think she's about to shed, ive been away for a few days so its possible i may have missed her while she was blue.

this is the only time she has behaved this way while feeding, and she's never had trouble feeding, she's a pig and eats in all conditions, hence the stress.

anyone got any ideas?
 
A few things if I may.

First off, if she was due to shed, it is very likely she would have refused to eat... so you needn't worry about it.

Also, snakes unhinge their jaws when eating and sometimes will have to push the food back and forth in order to find a position where they can stretch their mouth and take in the prey in fullness. It's alot of pushing about... so don't worry. The unhinging also explains your snake's later behavior- they will rub against hard surfaces in order to re-position their jaws into their original formation.

It's perfectly natural and as long as you maintain proper heat, the food will be digested without any complications.

Hope this helped.
 
aye the set up is pretty much spot on, so thats why i had a bit of a stressed moment.

the thing with loki is that she eats when shes blue, i fed her last time her feeding and shedding clashed just to see if she would take it, which she should, and i always watch her when feeding her, mainly out of fascination but just to make sure nothing untoward happens, this was entirely new behaviour that i saw.

thank you kokopelli
 
Excellent, even if you do feed her whilst she is due to shed- no real harm can come from it so... rest easy :)
 
I notice mine sometimes get the paws stuck as their swallowing the mouse, and theyll bring it up, swallow it, bring it up again, just to find a better position to get it down in. And they always slide their nose on the container when their done eating....even "yawning" is normal after theyve eaten.
 
Mine ate last week , same situation he ate right before shed, during the shedding process he regurged the pinkies?? So just keep a close eye on the little gal. :)
 
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