# Over-sized Prey



## apocalypse910 (Oct 4, 2013)

I tried to give Loki a nice treat and gave him a whole quail (minus feathers & head). I thought he'd enjoy the stimulation of tearing it up and the variety. I know as a baby he'd break up prey pretty easily so I thought he'd do the same here.

He did not tear it up - he ate the entire thing and I was freaking the hell out the entire time. He doesn't appear to be phased - he seemed incredibly happy with himself if anything. I also now have a blood covered wall and a shoe with a bird heart in it.

I should have known better, and I'm not going to attempt this again. I was wondering though, do they know what they can handle meal wise or will they hurt themselves either by choking or overeating. I really should have known better and I'm pretty much having a complete panic attack right now. My logic was that they'd come across over-sized carrion in nature and would know how to handle it but I'm doubting that logic right now. I feel like such an idiot - especially considering the salmon scare earlier in the week.


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## 19cobra93 (Oct 10, 2013)

With both my large Tegu, and my Black Throat Monitor, they don't tear up their food. They'll swallow it whole every time. I feed them a lot of reasonably large prey items and they don't seem to have a problem getting them down. My BT once swallowed a small/medium rabbit whole. I was a bit nervous with that one, but he seemed to know what he was doing, and he got it down without a problem. 

Every spring I buy 30-40 chicks. I feed one every other day to my big guys, and when it gets down to the last few nearly a month later, the chicks are quite large. Aside from getting hung up on the wings for a few moments, they still have no problem with them.


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## laurarfl (Oct 11, 2013)

It depends. If it is too big to eat whole, they will spit it out. If it is really too big, they will tear it into smaller pieces. I use the width of the head as a guide to feeding prey, your mileage may vary.


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## apocalypse910 (Oct 11, 2013)

Thanks for the input! He does seem to be fine now - aside from wanting to eat all the food in the house. 

To give you an idea here's when he first picked it up-






I won't be attempting this again, nor will I assume that the tegu will only eat part of anything smaller than a horse. 
Granted that was one happy tegu.


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## SnakeCharmr728 (Oct 11, 2013)

I too feed good sized prey items with trusting that the will spit it out if too large or tear it up. They've done both but from your pic I do think that was probably a bit much and can understand your worry. You can always cut it up next time and keep the head on


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## RickyNo (Oct 12, 2013)

How the heck do they digest bones that large?


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## Deac77 (Oct 12, 2013)

Same way they digest small bones


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## SnakeCharmr728 (Oct 12, 2013)

Helps if you have good basking temps, too low of temps are where you can have potential problems.


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## apocalypse910 (Oct 12, 2013)

Yeah they smash things up pretty good too which helps, he bit down on it a few times and definitely broke most of its bones. The only time I've had issue with bones is when I gave him a duck foot and he swallowed it whole because he thought I was trying to steal it... It was not a pleasant day when that came out.


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## SnakeCharmr728 (Oct 12, 2013)

What is your basking temp at? Mine get duck and chicken legs/feet often and I've never ran into any problems. My basking is kept at 132


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## apocalypse910 (Oct 12, 2013)

Last I checked it was about 120 with spots hitting 130 (IR Thermometer) cage is at around 85. I was surprised he couldn't handle it (came out whole). I'm honestly glad to hear that others have tried it successfully - Loki seemed to really like it as a treat. I suspect it was just because he didn't finish breaking it up properly, haven't been willing to risk it again though.


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