Escapee returned with full stomach - Cane Toad danger?

[Jaymis]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll take a pic of the enclosure for you in a sec imills. It's one of JungleRob's although it's a bit of a mess at the moment, he's just had a massive growth spurt so he needs some new, bigger hides.

Very interested in everyone's thoughts on parasites and nasties picked up outside. I have a friend who's a vet, so I'll have a chat with her. Perhaps I could give her a poop sample for testing, so I don't have to expose Irwin to other peoples' animals.

We've decided that he was only out of his enclosure for a couple of hours (flatmate checked on him in the afternoon before we noticed him missing), so he definitely had a busy time! Of course, he might have picked something up if he was outside for 10 minutes, and eating a wild animal of unknown origin definitely doesn't help, so I'm going to keep a close eye on him, check him for mites, and talk to a vet.

I also would be interested in the size pythons can eat, being a new snake owner, im always unsure
THANKS IN ADVANCE....PLease hurry putting it up :-)

I'm not an expert by any means, but I've had Irwin for over a year now and seen him take a wide range of sizes as he's grown. As I said, this is the biggest bulge he's had, and I didn't see the critter pre-bulge, but it seems to me that prey 2-3 times the diameter of their head isn't even close to a worry for them. This bulge seems to be about 4-5 times head diameter, and that's when it's squashed down inside and with a day's digestion time, so I can imagine that when the bird (or perhaps a rat, or small possum) first started going down it would have been truly impressive.

For reference, here's a couple of timelapse videos I've done of him feedling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S28X7nMTYuk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhoqd2jiT3s

Neither of those are particularly big feeds, and the second shows him taking the rat while hanging from a wine rack (training for last night's adventure possibly), but it gives you an idea of what happens and how it goes down.

Irwin's a great feeder, never refuses a meal even if there are people around watching him or bright photographic lights pointed at him, so if people are interested in more of this kind of thing I'll happily do more and post them.

[Jaymis]

Well, I was going to take a picture of his enclosure but I don't want to get my big lights out and wake the house, so that'll have to wait. Here's some better pics of the bulge though, with his head nearby for comparison.





I'm not sure of the diameter as I'm not going to wrestle with him and a tape measure, but the overall thing is massive. I can clearly see his skin in between scales so he's quite stretched out, but he's as alert and inquisitive as ever, so it doesn't seem to be causing him any discomfort at all. He's spent the last 24 hours dividing time between his heat mat and that piping, which I'm about to upgrade. It looks like an overstuffed burrito when he's in it.

[TWENTY B]

that bulge is a damn sight larger than the little toothy opening on the front of your python,
and pretty long as well,
could be a large bird

[jessb]

Awesome videos! it gives me a way better idea of how big a prey item they can swallow!

[norris]

It could even be a possum

[Jaymis]

Yeah, it's definitely an impressive bulge. We're thinking it's either a bird (probably a noisy miner, we have a lot of them around) or a reasonably large rat. Either way, it's a pretty impressive move for his first ever live feed.

I'm glad you found the videos helpful Jess. Those feeds are probably 1/2-1/3 the relative size of what he's currently got inside him, so they could probably be considered reasonably small-medium feeds.

[dailyskin]

Man that looks Possum-sized to me! Or even a friendly neighbourhood kitty...

[COOP]

makes you wonder how dumb the dead thing inside it would feel for being its first live feed ever. Great pics

[norris]

this might be a stupid question but when you first found it is there a way you could have made it regurgitate? or would the stress etc caused not be worth it?

[Jaymis]

I guess that would be a good way to be safe about whatever he'd eaten, but he's never actually regurgitated, so I wouldn't know how to go about it! Irwin's a very placid guy, pretty comfortable with handling, even after feeding (or while, occasionally I've moved a rat around so he could find the head, because I wanted to go to bed and couldn't while he was taking so long eating his dinner on the coffee table).
What causes herps to regurgitate usually? I've heard of it happening if they're handled too soon after feeding or if they get stressed.. I guess I wouldn't know how to stress him, apart from handling extremely roughly I suppose.
He got some reasonably rough handling as I extricated him from the tree he was hanging out in.. Didn't seem to phase him much. I guess I'm just cursed with an extremely placid python

[Bredlislave]

Hehehe, looks like he found a nest of kitty kats

[pugsly]

You would be amazed what they can fit in.. We have all seen the Scrubby eat the wallaby pics.

Here's a couple, diamond after two chickens. Also a shot of the skin stretched about as far as it can!