Can pythons choke if their food is too big?

[reptileKev81]

Hi guys,
Fed my MD yesterday. Wasn't able to get him a large rat, so I got him an XL one instead. It didn't look that much bigger, but it did take him much longer to get down.
Anyways,this sight did worry me a little

Does it look like the rat I gave him is too big? That huge bulge has me a little worried

 

[GeckoJosh]

It looks like its twisted or something?
Is he ok now?

 

[reptileKev81]

It looks like its twisted or something?
Is he ok now?

Yeah he seems 100%
But it did seem that he was struggling to get it into his mouth, especially at the rats widest part.

I hope he doesnt get any problems from that feed

The bulge doesn't look that scary anymore since he's worked it down to his gut, but I'm still a little worried I may have done the wrong thing by feeding him a bigger one

 

[antaresia_boy]

honeslty doesnt look too big for him.

 

[bfg23]

How old is the snake and did you get to weigh the rat before you fed it?
I am led to believe the general gist is that if its too big they will not eat it. Basically, if they can get it down then its not too big.

 

[Slytherin]

How old is he? By the photo, he looks fine. My MD looks like that when she eats and she hasn't had a problem. I go by the widest part of the snake when getting food for her. I use to be concerned because the rat was much wider than her head, but she is more than capable of downing food much bigger than her head.

 

[reptileKev81]

honeslty doesnt look too big for him.

I'm glad to hear that

How old is the snake and did you get to weigh the rat before you fed it?
I am led to believe the general gist is that if its too big they will not eat it. Basically, if they can get it down then its not too big.

The snake is 2.5yo and I was told by the previous owner he was a little small for his age. I didn't weigh the rat unfortunately, it was just marked XL.
I guess seeing his tiny neck stretch so many times larger worried me a little.
Thanks guys

 

[jamesbecker]

i dont think snakes can choke the same way we can.

as you would know they have a wind pipe in thier mouth, so for a snake to choke, something would have to get stuck in the wind pip id imagen.

 

[Slytherin]

That twisting in the pic is normal too. Snakey looks like that when she decides to go back up to the branch while swallowing. Sometimes she has to 'untwist' the otherway before she can slither more effectively. The straining in the neck soon goes back to normal when the food lump gets further down.

I hope this helps.

 

[AMY22]

I'm glad to hear that


The snake is 2.5yo and I was told by the previous owner he was a little small for his age. I didn't weigh the rat unfortunately, it was just marked XL.
I guess seeing his tiny neck stretch so many times larger worried me a little.
Thanks guys

How big is your MD? Mine seems extremely small for his age, he’s never grown very fast at all and I know other MD’s his age are huge in comparison. He definitely couldn’t eat an adult rat, but he has always been a great feeder.
As for the size of your MDs meal, from what I know a snake can stretch it’s head up to seven times it’s normal size. Snakes CAN eat too much and die, but going from a large to an XL is definitely not going to cause problems. Now if you fed him a rabbit you’d need to be worried...

 

[Dipcdame]

You'd be amazed at just what these snakes CAN fit in!!!!!! They are known to swallow things that look far too big! Not that I'd do it on purpose, but your fellow looks fine there!

Looks like he really enjoyed it anyway!!

 

[kidsheart]

im almost certain all snake can pop their wind pipes out the front of their mouths if the food item is overly large.

 

[jamesbecker]

yeah, they can eat big things haha

 

[Jak_24]

The twisting is just the way they get the food down, I just fed a yearling a rat and it looked just like that, stretched to the max it seemed, so no need to worry

 

[wokka]

How big is your MD? Mine seems extremely small for his age, he’s never grown very fast at all and I know other MD’s his age are huge in comparison. He definitely couldn’t eat an adult rat, but he has always been a great feeder.
As for the size of your MDs meal, from what I know a snake can stretch it’s head up to seven times it’s normal size. Snakes CAN eat too much and die, but going from a large to an XL is definitely not going to cause problems. Now if you fed him a rabbit you’d need to be worried...

I have never had a snake choke and i feed rabbits. I think the size is more relevant than the type of food.

 

[AMY22]

I have never had a snake choke and i feed rabbits. I think the size is more relevant than the type of food.

Oh yeah I was only joking, I meant if a snake ate a rabbit when a rat was considered a big meal then you’d need to worry.

 

[Cheyne_Jones]

Your snake will be fine, people seriously underestimate what size food snakes will eat.

 

[percey39]

It is very surprising to see in person what some snakes can take down. It goes to show how much people underestimate them, too many play it far too safe with food sizes all that does is cost more and you have to feed more often and more at a time

 

[amy5189]

haha percey sounds like me. i'm so overprotective i'm like 'oh here just eat 3 of these little rats instead of one bigger one. i don't want you to get hurt' lol

as for the original post, maybe just leave him a little longer before his next feed again. like if you normally wait 10 days then maybe wait 15 days or something like that. it could take him just a couple of extra days to digest this bigger rat if there is a big size difference....

 

[percey39]

haha i have a lot of friends who do the same thing, it doesnt bother them as i breed my own rats and rabbits and they get a good deal when i have heaps lol. But yes your snke looks fine and could easily handle xl rats from now on.