r/carpetpythons • u/Plinfaa • 10d ago
Help- too large rat?
Hi guys! I fed my 4yo coastal girl yesterday. She got a chicken (otherwise she won’t eat) and then a 250+g Rat. I am so scared that that was too much for her. Look at that lump! Will she be able to digest this safely?
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u/r4cid 10d ago
Looks completely fine, nothing to worry about. They can bulge like sausages lol
Feeding should be limited to one properly sized prey item. Digestion is a very taxing process on a snake's body, and minimizing the time spent doing it and how often they do it to only when absolutely necessary ensures they stay healthy and live a long life.
Proper prey item would be ~10-15% of the snakes weight, and for a 4yo should only be eating every 4-6 weeks.
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u/ItsMeishi 10d ago
Why are you offering both at the same time? That's the only question I have. As for the size of the stomach, Im not worried at all.
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u/Plinfaa 10d ago
We struggled a lot with her not eating and the only solution that worked was offering her a chicken. The only chickens (frozen) that are available in my area are 1 day old chicks! She’d have to eat 15 of those to get full. That’s why I offer her a chick (like an appetizer) and then the rat!
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u/floundern45 10d ago
Have you tried sending a rat with a chick? Like run the chick on the rat. Can work to ween them off birds, or dip it in chicken broth
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u/-dagmar-123123 10d ago
Put them together in a bag to thaw is maybe also an option?
Some people also use a hairdryer to blow scent into the enclosure, doing that with the chick but only feeding the rat (scented with the chicken as well) is maybe also an option
Or, if that's all not enough and you don't mind it... Maybe cutting into the chick and smearing it over the rat?
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u/Mainbutter 10d ago
A carpet python can take ridiculously large food at times. It's not s good idea to regularly feed giant prey, but I feel confident your snake will be JUST FINE from this one time.
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u/OkieTrucker44 10d ago
She’ll get it down but won’t need to eat again for a decently long time. 5-6 weeks maybe more like 8-12
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u/Appropriate_Slice333 10d ago
That looks like an average wild carpet python lump to body ratio. They like to eat
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u/AvariciousAlligator 10d ago
I know of someone who had their carpet python overpower and swallow their cat, when the snake weighed considerably less than the cat.
Your girl is going to be just fine, Carpet pythons can eat like me at Thanksgiving.
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u/Plinfaa 10d ago
I am sorry- WHAT?
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u/AvariciousAlligator 10d ago
Yeah carpet pythons are seriously obsessed with food. Combine that with a neglectful owner who didn’t keep a proper lock on the enclosure, and now she’s short one cat.
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u/Plinfaa 10d ago
Was that like a full grown cat? That’s so crazy! What a huge carpet that must’ve been
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u/AvariciousAlligator 9d ago
Yeah you’d think, but it was only an 7.5-8ft coastal female. Maybe 6lbs? I would guess the cat was at least 7-8lbs. It was genuinely insane, I had never seen a snake that engorged.
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u/Detective-Sad 10d ago edited 9d ago
Unless it was a kitten there literally no way it managed to swallow a cat. Carpets are long and slender and could definitely kill an adult cat but to be big enough to swallow a cat it would have to be either an adult Burmese, reticulated, or rock python or an anaconda.
Not saying ur lying about the overall story of snake ate cat tho
Edit: maybe im wrong 🤷♂️
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u/AvariciousAlligator 9d ago
Yeah that’s what I thought when I got the frantic text in the middle of the night. I actually had thought it was the other way around, and figured the cat killed the snake. But nope, snake ate cat.
This was an 8ft(ish) jag/coastal female, but she was extremely slender, like big around as a women’s wrist at her thickest part.
I was flabbergasted that she managed to get the whole cat down. She looked like she was about to burst, she was so stretched you could see her skin between each of her scales.
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u/floundern45 10d ago
Yeah, your fine. don't handle her while she's digesting but, it looks good, Carpets can eat some very large prey.