Coastal Carpet eaten self to death..

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Lloyd2302

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Hi all,

I was called to a house to remove a coastal carpet python that had entered a guinea pig hutch (the day after the night of the 45 degree day Brisbane had a couple days ago). Upon arriving, the snake was dead and had been for a few hours or more, and without any human interference, I wondered how? Had the snake simply eaten itself to death? Eaten too much guinea pig substrate? I will attach a photograph of the snake after I hauled it out of the hutch. The lumps were big, very big, I was almost certain there may have been three guinea pigs but was told only two were in the now empty hutch.

On a brighter note, as I was about to leave the residence with the dead carpet python, the two dogs were going at a beautiful common tree snake, which I also removed in fear it was gonna become just another glorious harmless snake eaten by well fed canines.

Cheers and looking forward to hearing others' thoughts and opinions..
 

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Wow that is one big meal. Sorry I can't help you as to why but am I able to show this picture. The CTS is very nice as well.
 
I'd say overheated as well. A snake with that sized meal would struggle to move and won't be able to thermoregulate.
 
First thought was did it get stuck in the hutch during the day and overheat (sunday was still pretty darn warm too).
Second thought is that the second feed seems to be around the lung area. Is it possible that its eyes were bigger than its belly on the second meal and that it either asphyxiated itself with the pressure that the second feed was putting on the lungs or there was too much pressure placed on the heart? Maybe it couldnt regurgitate the second meal for some reason?

Aaron
 
Was it much hotter in the hutch than outside?

- - - Updated - - -

Is it possible that one of the pigs was only unconcious when swallowed and then woke up and killed the snake from the inside by kicking and struggling?
 
First thought was did it get stuck in the hutch during the day and overheat (sunday was still pretty darn warm too).
Second thought is that the second feed seems to be around the lung area. Is it possible that its eyes were bigger than its belly on the second meal and that it either asphyxiated itself with the pressure that the second feed was putting on the lungs or there was too much pressure placed on the heart? Maybe it couldnt regurgitate the second meal for some reason?

Aaron

^^^^^ What Aaron said was my thoughts also.
Cheers
Congo
 
Maybe the snake's restricting wasnt quite as good the second time after having to kill the first and being full maybe it couldn't restrict the second pig to death and had eaten it and the pig could have killed it from the inside, i have seen this happen once my nanna fed her captive bred snake a live rat and it killed it from the inside it was the most horrific thing ever.
 
Maybe the snake's restricting wasnt quite as good the second time after having to kill the first and being full maybe it couldn't restrict the second pig to death and had eaten it and the pig could have killed it from the inside, i have seen this happen once my nanna fed her captive bred snake a live rat and it killed it from the inside it was the most horrific thing ever.
done that before, only with hatchys and pinkys (no claws or teeth) some baby hatchys don't understand the purpose of constriction the first few feeds
 
Some weird stuff suggested here. In all likelihood, the snake's inability to escape to a cooler place is the reason it died. I'm guessing it entered the GP's enclosure at night, had a feed, and then couldn't get out to return to its usual shelter. Anything over 40C is very dangerous for snakes, and will kill them quite quickly if there is no escape. During the death process, it is quite likely that it tried to regurge the guinea pigs as well. Gunea pigs, being herbivors, also bloat very quickly after death in warm conditions, and can double their diameter in a matter of hours. This can also cause significant problems for a snake. In moderate temps, the stomach acid of the snake will break through the gut wall of the guinea pig before it has a chance to bloat too much, and so the gas buildup is released before it becomes a problem for the snake, but in high temps, it all happens too fast for the snake's slow metabolism.

This is why you should never feed your snakes when a heat-wave is imminent. Even if you have aircon, the chances of power blackouts is usually higher in hot weather as well.

Jamie
 
Too bigger meal to digest, especially in such hot conditions.
Even in perfect temp conditions pythons can die quite easy if they eat too much, the food simply goes off inside them before they can digest it.
Ive seen this happen in wild and captive pythons.
 
Too bigger meal to digest, especially in such hot conditions.
Even in perfect temp conditions pythons can die quite easy if they eat too much, the food simply goes off inside them before they can digest it.
Ive seen this happen in wild and captive pythons.

Surely in this case the food would not have had a chance to go off to a point that it has become harmful to the snake?
 
Surely in this case the food would not have had a chance to go off to a point that it has become harmful to the snake?

Probably not. But herbivors can bloat very quickly, within hours, because of the methane-producing bacteria in their digestive systems. You'll see it in cows & sheep that have been dead for only a few hours, or even kangaroos - they look like they've been inflated like balloons. They can get very big very quickly in hot weather, and this could be a problem for a snake. But in this case I'd say it just got too hot - an hour or two at 40+ in an enclosure from which it couldn't escape would definitely kill it, whether it had eaten or not. The meal would not help though, given that their metabolism cranks up bigtime after a feed.

Jamie
 
Probably not. But herbivors can bloat very quickly, within hours, because of the methane-producing bacteria in their digestive systems. You'll see it in cows & sheep that have been dead for only a few hours, or even kangaroos - they look like they've been inflated like balloons. They can get very big very quickly in hot weather, and this could be a problem for a snake. But in this case I'd say it just got too hot - an hour or two at 40+ in an enclosure from which it couldn't escape would definitely kill it, whether it had eaten or not. The meal would not help though, given that their metabolism cranks up bigtime after a feed.

Jamie

Yes mate I took your point from your previous post but was distinguishing between bloating and "going off" which I took to mean rotting. I have seen many cows over the years working for a power company because the curious nature of cows has them sniff fallen power lines and sometimes you will get five or more cows bloated in a paddock after a storm, all are apparently the farmers best cows too.
 
As Pythoninfinite has said it would more than likely of been the heat, but in that sort of heat a dead animal will go off VERY quickly. I lost a few rats on that day they were fine at one stage but within 2 hours a number had died and were rotting. That quickly.
 
Snake stuck in hutch, 45°C day = dead snake.
 
Over H-- Eated I agree with most of the above and conclude that it over heated because of what it eated :D sad for the snake though :( and the pigs
 
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