So, in my determination to get some good feeding shots, I set up a photo shoot with Zee. Now he went blue two days after his last feeding a week ago. I wanted to see if he would feed while blue- since he doesn't come out in the open ever, so, I wouldn't know if he was hungry or not. (All other snakes- when they go blue- I leave them alone till they shed, then feed that night.) Got Zee out. He's so blue it looks like his nose is starting to peel. Put him in his container. Thawed a fuzzy. Got the camera. Got a forceps to hand him the mouse with. Handed him the mouse. He was confused and bit himself, but quickly let go and bit the mouse. I took the following pic, then he repositioned himself to be biting the mouse directly over the abdomen, and is still holding it like that, 15 minutes later. I think this confirms my theory that he is instinctively envenomating the mouse before he repositions it again and swallows it head first. He's not a constrictor- how else would he kill it? This has been his feeding behaviour for all his meals with me. BTW- when I went to check on him again, he was swallowing the mouse, head first as always. This little guy is _such_ a ravenous reliable eater. I don't think I like feeding the mouse to the snake, though- I like to put the mouse in, then put the snake in.

Nanci



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*****
0.0.1 Normal Corn, 0.0.1 Cali King 0.1 Nelson's Milk
0.1 Tricolor Hog, 0.0.1 Eastern Hog, 1.0 Eastern Box Turtle
0.0.2 Desert Torts, 2.0 Feral Pigeons

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