Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 7 year old amel corn, and she's always had very strange eating habits. For the first 5 years that I had her, she never once struck at her mice - she just sauntered up to them, nudged them a little with her head, and eventually decided to open her mouth and eat them. Usually tail first. She was also easily startled by the mice (despite the fact that I feed frozen). If the mouse shifted and fell after she nudged it, she'd get frightened and go to the other side of the cage.

Anyway, now she's started striking at her food all of sudden, and even tries a pathetic attempt at constriction, basically knotting herself up like a Christmas bow in a way that doesn't remotely constrict the prey.

Is this kind of weak feeding instinct typical in corns that have been bred for color and not survival?

I'll start by saying some snakes are just weird. I had a Burmese back in the 70's that would not constrict. 2-3 year ago we had a cal king that would find his tail, coil up, and being on guard, start to rattle his tail. Seeing his tail rattle he would strike and constrict himself. He did this many times a day. We finally took him out of a 10 to a 20 long with a ton of bedding to hide and not find his tail. I've also seen a few snakes that are just bad constrictors. Wrap, unwrap, wrap again, or never really get the feed. I know many people have seen odd things

I have no explanation. Snakes very a lot.

Changes might be temperature changes, time of year, if you have other snakes I imagine pheromones may have effects. As long as they eat I usually don't worry. I might even enjoy the shows.

One thing I also have seen is a snake not eat a lot. A corn might need 3-4 mice a week as a large adult but only eats 1 then stops. While finishing up the 1st I hold a dead #2 and maybe #3 and just hold it in front and below the head a little and they just continue on to the next critter. Also a nice way to change to rats if they don't like rats. Rat is #2 in line, let the snake get the rat good and wiggle it a bit so it now constricts the rat. Then it eats it. Fairly good success with this in moving snakes from mice to rats if they don't like rats.

Did I say snakes are weird? lol
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.herpzilla.com

I got a couple of snakes that are wierd/have feeding problems. I got one that's 3 years old, and is about 1/3 the size of typical fall '06 hatchlings. Just eats enough to live, but won't grow. This siblings are almost adult size now, depsite a stunted start.
I got a king that likes striking at/ trying to eat his water bowl.
I got a king that tries to eat me every chance he gets.
I got a king that kinks his head at a funny angle while weakly constricting, it looks like he's trying to break his own neck.
I got a rubber boa that opens his mouth when he sees me walk to the cage, and just holds it open, waiting for me to hand feed him.
I got a corn snake with such a bad aim he always tags me at least once before he gets a hit on the rat/mouse. He just goes right past the mouse and bites my fingers the first time, every time. If you don't hold the food he isn't the least bit interested.
Snakes aren't all wierd, but there are some wierd snakes out there, no doubt.