Feeding a snake dead rat etc etc

doenoe · Aug 27, 2007

Couple of weeks ago i told some people here i would take some pics with the next feeding. So i fed Spot yesterday again and took some pics of it. And just to clarify, its a rat from the freezer.
#1 She went for the rat pretty fast and coiled around it.

#2 But she couldnt find the head and started nibling on the leg

#3 That didnt work, so she went for the body.....no can do.

#4 The she just stopped. I went away for a minute, so she wouldnt get distracted by me.

#5 When i got back, she was allready half way the rat.

#6 Its just amazing to see how big that mouth can get. Also noticed some loose skin around the head. I missed the signs that she was going to shed soon. So once the tension started to build up, the skin ripped. Also notice the eyes almost popping out.

#7 Almost done here. You can see the loose skin better too.

#8 You can see Spot's wind pipe open here. Pretty cool thing, she can move that around when swallowing a prey. So she can always get a breath of air. Still a bit of rat tail visible here

#9 After the swallowing snakes almost always yawn. This is to get the jaw bones in place again. You can see the windpipe is closed now. Another cool feature, so she wont get nasty stuff in her windpipe or eventually lungs.

#10 And then you have a snake with a nice fat belly

And she shed within an hour after finishing her meal. So now she is filled and all shinny with her new skin

Thanks for looking
Greetz Daan

Big Mike · Aug 27, 2007

Nice series Daan.

They can be pretty stupid sometimes, can't they? Mine would almost always bite the wrong part of the body and try to swallow it sideways.

Antarctican · Aug 27, 2007

That's quite the series of shots, Daan!! Very interesting to see the whole process documented, complete with yawn, and the start of the shedding process.

el_shorty · Aug 27, 2007

Great series. How old and how big is he?

Sweetsomedays · Aug 27, 2007

Those are all great but I especially like #7

LaFoto · Aug 27, 2007

Well, OF COURSE I had to call Sabine over to take a look at this wonderful series of how Spot feeds on the rat.

She has meanwhile taught both her snakes to feed on defrosted mice, so there are no more photo ops with live mice innocently (and unknowingly) waiting for their doom ... or with Mia ogling them up through the transparent box in which they used to live. I have series like this one here stored away somewhere, too, but I have stopped photographing the feeding scenes. So those pics I have are about a live/then dead mouse ... and I am not sure people would REALLY want to know about that or see that on here!?!?!?

I have NEVER seen either of Sabine's two snakes' windpipes, though, nor the yawns to bring the jaw bones back into order. But it IS amazing to see HOW WIDE they can (and need) to open their mouths to eat their prey!!!!

And they are skittish.
One distraction and they stop feeding.

Another reason why I now mostly stay away with the camera when they feed.

Sabine asks through me how long Spot is by now?
And she would like to know if she should start giving them three mice per meal now, as the one has grown from about 95 cm to 120 cm in the four months that she has had hers, and the other from about 90 cm to 110 cm ... are two mice every two weeks too little? What do you say?

Ah, and I meant to say how much I like Spot's contented SMILE in the last picture

...

doenoe · Aug 28, 2007

Thanks for the comments everybody

I think Spot is about 1.30m now. She can get 1.50 max (on average) And i have got her for 2 years now. Think she was about 6 weeks when i bought her.
I dunno about the feeding Corinna. For Spot 2 mice every 2 weeks isnt enough.
Spot is fatter that your snakes though. Spot mostly gets 1 rat every 10 days. But since she had a huge rat this time, its going to be 14 days.
Anyways, i havent got a clue what to feed your kind of snakes, but a ball would get 1 rat (think thats worth 3 mice) every 10 days when adult. About 7 days when young.