Feeding incident
 

I fed my albino male a small rat today and I always check on my snakes when feeding live to make sure they have a good wrap on their prey. Well the albino had a pretty good wrap but the rat's legs were free to do what they wanted. I noticed the rat scratching my snake with one leg so I held its leg until it stopped moving (die). I guess the other leg was scratching as well but I failed to see it.
Here are the pics

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...IMG_2454-1.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...IMG_2455-1.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...IMG_2456-1.jpg

I'm hoping that the blood on the head is from the rat since I dont see any puncture on the surface and I dont want to try to wipe it down just yet.
The rat scratched my snake pretty bad. This is my first snake injury (if you want to call it) so I was thinking of applying some Chlorhexidine to it or Neosporin (non-pain reliever kind). Which one do you guys recommend? and When should I treat my snake, since it just ate? Another thing that may come into account is that the snake is also in shed, should I wait until he's done shedding? Thanks,

Diego

Wash it with original dawn dish soap (damp rag to wipe and rinse), use original neosporin and if you must feed live at least stun them. You got off very lucky.

Should I do that now? or in a few days? He just ate a couple of hours ago. This guy have been a picky eater since I got him (only ate asf, and I like my snakes to eat on rodents that are cheap and easy to find) but for the last 2 months he has being doing great on live rats would not do f/t or pre-killed. But like I said, I always watch my live eaters but this time I missed that one leg. Thanks for your help

I'd let him settle after feeding.

Then, I'd start getting him on F/T asap.

That's exactly why. What if the rat had bitten the eye? What then?

Yes, I agree with your comment. Most of the snakes in my collection are F/t eaters. I have successfully switched them to f/t since most of them were on live when i got them. But like I mentioned, this guy has been a pain in the butt since I got him. He wouldn't eat, he would only take live asf. and those are either hard to find or expensive around here. He started taking scented rats a few months back and now he takes unscented rats no problem. The next step is to definitely switch him to f/t as I hate dealing with live rats or mice and is much safer. I just hope he does not go food shy on me again. Thanks

P.S The blood on its head was from the bleeding rat. I just wiped it down (couldn't stop myself)

Agreed on all counts. Let him settle a bit.

Even if the clawing had been to the eye.

Try him on gerbils.

My ETB finally took a f/t sm rat just recently. It had been taking live mice exclusively. This happened completely by chance.

But before that, the sutbborn bastard got bit many times. Maybe he felt it was the rule of "fair chase".

Poor bastard rats and mice must resign themselves to being prey animals, dammit.

Edit: Those scratches look completely superficial to me, though.

Just keep it clean and he'll be fine, they're shallow and should shed out.

I know how hard it is to switch them. If he doesn't have a hide try giving him one and dangling the p/k outside the entrance and there's always that KFC thing :D

I would not argue with anything said so far, well maybe the gerbil thing ;)

Just to give you a little hope on switching to F/T. I had a female het pied that I got that had only eaten live mice. I spent 18 months getting her to switch to F/T rats. She is still a very picky eater but she gets F/t rats or get hungry for a while.

Is there something wrong with gerbils? I've been swapping them in and out of feeding on and off since I was a kid. or was that an off color joke? :shrug01:

I'm reading a boi that's over 111 pages long :ack2: my brain cell has run away & I'm pretty sure my sense of humor checked itself into ICU.