My ball pyhton is chewing its food?

Question

it already bit and killed the mouse but now it chewing! it wont swallow it and i got one i know it can swallow but last time it almost chocked or somehting on its last oneand now its feeding time again and it wont stop chewing its been at it for like 30mins. plz help!

Answer 1

First, always feed dead prey. 50/50 shot of injury to the snake every time with live. The size of the prey item's head should be a tiny bit smaller than the size of your snake,at most equal to it. Any bigger the prey is too large.

Snakes CANNOT CHEW! What you are seeing is the snake working it's jaws over and around they food in a seesawing fashion and taking far too long to do it. When done swallowing the snake will appear to yawn to realign all the tendons and the lower jaw.

Answer 2

Wow that's a first with all  my adventures with reps ( snakes) I have never heard that one.I am only speculating but I am wanting to say that the snake may have an infection. at any rate i would strongly suggest taking him to the vet

Answer 3

i've always feed my snakes live prey, and even if they get injured, seriously, they get over it. it's like a mother coddling her child.did you ever watch that commercial where the mom is raving about her brand new state of the art safety first stroller, and then her kid trips over the wheel and skins his knee anyways?  in nature, snakes get hurt. it sucks for them, but well, it happens. especially if your snake is used to eating live, and refuse to switch to dead... what do you do? starve it for a month to force it? please.

i've seen it happen where the snakes chew their food... (it happened to me once when my mom was waiting for me in the car, she wouldn't come in the house cause she was terrified of feeding, but she wound up needing to wait outside for nearly an hour) they are trying to work the mouse into it's mouth, and it takes forever. be careful of this, in the long run, your snake may develop bad lips or rums due to improper size mice. follow everyone's advice, and try for a smaller mouse. just because your snake CAN eat a larger mouse, doesn't mean you have to GIVE him a larger mouse. even if your snake is obviously big enough to eat a large mouse, in all bluntness, your snake might possibly be a really crappy eater. i raised some leopard geckos like that... worst hunters i'd ever seen... couldn't catch a cricket if i dropped em into the cricket tank. they sucked. but hey, sometimes, mature breeds idiots. (like my brother.) that don't mean you love em any less, it just means you be patient, and coddle them as best you possibly can to help them learn. (except not my brother. he is a troll)

feed it smaller mice, and adjust it's feeding scedule accordingly. if you have a big snake and you switch to tiny mice, you may want to feed him every 5 or 6 days instead of 7, that sorta thing.  

Answer 4

Snakes do not chew- but each side of their lower jaw moves independently. This may look like chewing. They do this to maneuver the prey item.

If it takes 30 minutes to swallow its meal, you are probably feeding too large a prey item.

Answer 5

First of all, use the spell checker.

Your snake probably isn't hungry; ball pythons only need to eat once a week, and if it's a small one, then maybe the mice are too big (too much food). Try feeding him less mice, or if you're only feeding him one a week, change to one mouse (make sure it's a feeder mouse!) every 10 days or 2 weeks.

Answer 6

Is he chewing or trying to get his mouth around the mouse? Maybe you need a smaller size. You shouldn't get a mouse bigger than the widest part of your snake's body. If the mouse isn't, than try a smaller mouse....

It would help if there was a video....

It could be that it is not chewing but moving its mouth to unlock its jaw...

Also it could be trying to realign it after killing it because your snake is not hungry...

Worst case Scenario....

Your snakes jaw could have been damaged and needs medical attention.