Over-sized Prey

[apocalypse910]

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.

 

[19cobra93]

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.

 

[laurarfl]

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.

 

[apocalypse910]

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.

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

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

 

[RickyNo]

How the heck do they digest bones that large?

 

[Deac77]

Same way they digest small bones

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

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

 

[apocalypse910]

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.

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

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

 

[apocalypse910]

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.