Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two adult female KSBs (one anery, one albino, not related, but previously housed together). When I feed them they go after and attack their prey with gusto, but then don't eat it. Sometimes it takes me presenting the same mouse 2 to 3 times before they'll eat this. They didn't start doing this until the past 6 months. They use to eat fine. Husbandry is fine, no other snakes in the collection have this behavior (all are within the same rack with exact same setups). No signs of respiratory problems. These girls are so greedy when it comes to attacking prey that they will almost go after your hand!

What are they doing? Anyone ever seen this before?

Thera,

I have noticed this with a couple of my females. I only notice it when feeding F/T. When I feed live(fresh killed) there seems to be no issue. So I feel it might be a scent thing.

When I feed f/t to them I usually let them grab it and do their thing. Once they release I grab the mouse and gently touch/rub the nose of the mouse to the nose of the snake....usually (for me anyways) the snake will open and re-grab the mouse's head starting to swallow almost right away.

Just my 2 cents....

Keep us posted....

Chris
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Christopher E. Smith
Contact
Captive Bred Herps

Nice try, but unfortunately it happens with live prey too. If I even nudge it they immediately LAUNCH at it again, go into a death grip (on a now dead mouse) and after a few minutes let go and kinda wander for a few moments and then act like they forgot they were eating.

So F/T, live, fresh killed, etc. etc. doesn't matter. THEY DO THIS WITH EVERYTHING. And they didn't use to. Both use to eat like it was no problem. Didn't matter what I gave them, gulp all gone.

For Eryx that have previously been accepting food readily, I take this to mean that a normal period of fasting may be on the way.

As for why they grab and constrict food which they then decide not to consume - dunno. Perhaps they are making sure a potential predator which might be confined in close quarters with them underground is rendered harmless? At any rate, I notice this behavior occurring far more frequently with sand boas than with other snakes I keep. I use the notation "GDNE" next to food items I have offered which a snake has grabbed but did not eat, and most of my Eryx will have these notations on their records, especially as they age.