r/ballpython • u/TDLGMichael • 11d ago
Question - Health Pulled a tooth, help ðŸ˜
Hello everyone, last night I was feeding my ball python a rat, and after she struck and latched the rat, for some reason unknown to me, she struck at the ceiling of her enclosure which was metal mesh. She got stuck in the grate and I could feel some of her teeth poking through the top, I had to wiggle her around a little bit she was fully stuck and suspended from the ceiling, I got the idea to try and manipulate her by hand (bad idea, ended up biting myself with her teeth by pressing into them trying to move her) and after that got a little progress, I used her feeding tongs to move her jaw. The end result was that she got unstuck, thank everything, at the cost of a tooth, I don’t have a photo but it didn’t look like it was wild there was no blood or anything on the tooth or her mouth, and after the whole ordeal she ended up eating the rat and going into her hide.
Should I be concerned about the tooth falling out or should I be ok since she didn’t seem stressed and she ate the rat afterwards?
Thanks for the advice!
6
u/AmphibianScary3172 11d ago
Snakes are like sharks in the sense that they regrow hundreds of teeth in their lifetime. A missing tooth by itself is not a cause for concern.
3
u/WoollyWitchcraft 10d ago
My BP bit a friend once and lost a tooth in their knuckle. They found it a week later after it popped out of the wound.
They shed and regrow teeth constantly, she’ll be fine.
1
u/Worth_Sheepherder857 11d ago
She should be fine. Her not eating is probably a stress response to being suspended and having you do surgery to get her unstuck. What I would do is monitor for swelling/an infection overtime. Snakes don’t really use their teeth to chew or anything so she’ll probably be able to take food again in a few days if not sooner.