Feeding ??

[Shaggy]

My coastal has been feeding on pinkie rats, she has been eating 2 pinkie rats every seven days and the last time she was looking for more...

This time it's been 10 days..

I couldn't get into the store that stocks them.. so I thought i would try her on the same size mice. (About the same size as a pinkie rat, but furry) She took the first one fine, I gave her about 15 mins after that and then offered a second one. She grabbed it straight away and proceeded to swallow.. she got it about 3/4 way into her mouth and then backed off.. ended up spitting it out and leaving it. Was it too much for her?

Should I feed her earlier next time.. or is it just tough luck..?

[serpenttongue]

Firstly, how big is your carpet? What kind of gut bulge has she got when she swallows the 2 pink rats? When i'm giving any snake two meals at once, the second is offered as the back legs of the first meal are disappearing down the throat. There's never an interval between the two meals. Perhap waiting a while before the second meal gave her time to relax and realise that one meal was enough. Also maybe she's not that fond of mice and took the first one because she was hungry and it filled her up enough that when the second meal came along the scent wasnt that appealing to her. That happens to some of my snakes when i'm weaning them from one prey to the other. You can trick them into taking the first meal because they're hungry, but the second meal is usually turned down until they acquire a liking for the new scent.

Continue her on 2 pink rats or one mouse(equal to the size of 2 pink rats) until she likes mice enough to take two.

[Shaggy]

she's about 2ft .. i would prefer her to eat rats .. (i've heard they are more nutritional?) She's has a noticable bulge, but not substantiall..with the rat pinkies. She has eaten mice before .. ( my sister bought pinkie mice instead of rats) .. and she scoffed them straight down. She was very enthusiastic when taking both these mice.. just thought it was weird that she would swallow one so far and then spit it out.

[foxysnake]

I know of a person who has something like that happen to him fairly regulary (-spitting food back up), but he dos'nt keep any heat on his snakes and he tends to disturb his snakes when they're in the middle of feeding. Not saying that you're like him though so don't take offense. Also his snakes (coastals, diamond x's, waters and childrens) take almost 2 weeks to actually digest the food they eat, and lay around the cage all that time with lrg bulges in them. He feeds them every 7 - 10 days so the poor things never have a break an dalways have stomach bulges....

[Ricko]

why not try bigger sized rats instead of 2 pinkies next time and just wait till the store is open another couple of days isnt long at all.

[craig.a.c]

My young coastal would be 2ft now and she eats 1 fuzzy rat every 10 days. 1 fuzzy rat would almost be the size of 2 pinkie rats. Just start offering her bigger prey items.

[The Rock]

Most snakes if disturbed when devouring,ie movement etc infront of them, will spit it back up. They become more vunerable to predators at this stage.
Rob