I have never seen any of my snakes do this. They ALL constrict their prey. I feed off of tongs and when they strike I tug at it and simulate struggling prey. They all constrict the dead rat or mouse for at least a few minutes. A couple of them constrict it for as long as 10 minutes. I place frozen thawed rats in a plastic bag and then place that into a zip lock bag. Then I heat up some water in the microwave and place the rats, head first into the water for about 10 minutes. Never put mice or rats into the microwave. The warm head and body and tugging with the tongs simulates live prey. This is one of the tricks I use to switch from live to frozen thawed.

Although I have never heard of or experienced egg binding with balls it is more common with colubrids and pituophis. Some breeders believe that it's better to feed live because it develops muscle tone. Snakes don't get as much exercise in a rack or cage as they do in the wild. Loss of muscle tone leads to egg binding. Rumor, hypothesis, or fact, I don't know for sure.

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