One full snake

[Simple]

In the wild pythons are oppotunistic feeders. They eat when food is available (extremely unlikely to eat 3,4 or five food items in a row) and that could only be 2 or 3 feeds a year.. A large meal (not a massive one is ok) as long as it has good temps to digest and it has a cou[ple of week between feeds. Obesity is a huge problem and can severely shorten their life span by putting vital organs under undue pressure. Much the same it does in humans.

 

[wokka]

I suggest you are pretty safe if you keep food below 20% of the snakes body weight each feed provided adequate heat is available for digestion. If feeding antelopes to snakes I would cut the horns off as I cant believe it is beneficial for the snake to have its belly sliced open even though it may not kill it.

 

[DanTheMan]

I am fairly sure Sir Attenborough knows what he is on about. I have seen first hand a snake that actually tore the membrane (skin) between the scales. It healed with no problems. The snake was a 3 meter scrubby who at a wallaby on the Northern side of Cairns and got stuck behind a stock fence. He was taken to a care shelter for two weeks until he had digested it enough and he hd no ill effects (oh, and no medical intervention either).

Cheers

FNQ_Snake

I saw one similar with David Attenborough but it was an African Rock Python, had swallowed an antilope, and it had a few tares on its side, but he said that it will repair in no time and hell be fine.

 

[adazz]

I'm afraid I made a mistake... this being my first snake I'm still fairly new to this but i didn't think the risk was going to be this great, I did ask the question in an earlier post if feeding a wiener to a snake of her size was fine and i got some positive replies so on I went and fed it to her. She died with the rat 3/4 regurgitated yesterday... been pretty damn messed up about it. I would like to point out I only fed her this size as I couldn't get a hold of fuzzy rats at the time and honestly thought she'd be able to handle it...... live and learn i guess is the only positive thing I can say about all this.

 

[channi]

Adazz, I am truely sorry for your loss. Your snake's death has not gone in vain, many others on here have learnt the same valuable lesson as you have from this unfortunate experience. Thank you for having the courage to share the outcome with us.

 

[darkangel]

sorry to hear the bad news. hopefully many others have learnt something also so it doesn't happen to them also. i have always fed my less than most ppl as i was afraid of feeding them too much and them growing too big to quick and causing them problems later on down the track. not sure if i am doing anything wrong or not but they all seem healthy and are growing just a little slower than most ppls.

 

[Renagade]

well there you go, interesting thread. thanks for your honesty and updates.

 

[Justdriftnby]

Could be as unfortunate as this great looking snake that was going about its business in its own environment
.There is more pics but I am not sure that I am allowed to put them up on this site.\
GOES TO SHOW NEVER FALL ASLEEP IN THE JUNGLE

 

[jaih]

Thats huge. Probably to huge.

 

[TrueBlue]

adazz, sorry to hear the bad news, but when i saw the pic that you posted i thought that there was a good chance that it would not survive.
Goes to show that all the people that commented on this thread stating that its alright to feed such large prey items to snakes really dont know what they are talking about and should not of commented at all.

simple, yes and many snakes in the wild die from eating too large a prey item.

 

[TELDAC]

lol he looks like a Kransky

Ha hA Ha hE sO dOeS 2!!

 

[CodeRed]

pfft, that aint big. I wouldve offered him a second one

 

[RB25JET]

sad to hear about your snake mate... sad... and costly news....

 

[redbellybite]

wow .....tough lesson on you and the snake .........................am with you on that true ,have seen wild snakes that have taken way to bigger prey and come off second best ...........had a rescue of a snake that ate a guinea pig she looked like she had a full loaf of bread in her gut ,she was completely helpless as she couldnt move at all ,I had to keep her in a tub and move her in and out of temps untill she was able to pass and OMG the pooo.........was glad to release her later, she still had a bit of a bump but nothing that she couldnt deal with herself .

 

[Chris1]

sorry to hear that mate, that really sucks.

i wouldnt have expected it to die from a big meal,,.,

 

[TrueBlue]

why not chris1, its very common.

 

[Chris1]

misinformation from when i got my first snake and asked all the newbie questions, i was told a snake wont take a food item it cant handle,...lucky i never tested the theory!!

why not chris1, its very common.

 

[largeheaded1]

sorry to hear mate

thanks for sharing

 

[Mudimans]

Sorry to hear your news Adazz-I have been following this thread to see people's responses, and as Chris1 said-I've heard many times that a snake won't take a meal it can't handle! Have definitely learnt something here-so thanks for posting, but I'm terribly sorry for your loss!

 

[oddball]

Oh that's so awful. I really hope you're ok.
I just wanted to say, as terrible as this is, I respect your honesty in telling us what happened, it would have been easy to not say anything, and leave people to assume that he was ok. It must be very hard for you to go through, so thankyou for sharing this experience with everyone else. Hopefully reading this will make another new keeper re-think overfeeding their snake, and they will avoid the same fate.