Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My '06 Kern Co. L.zonata multicincta has slowed his feeding response as of late, in the predictable pre-winter fasting fashion. However, every couple of weeks or so, I'll offer a small meal of a fuzzy or two to see if he will take some food before cooling. Well, this evening, I decided to defrost a frozen fuzzy and give it a go.

Ate the first fuzzy without hesitation. Decided to try anothetr for the hell of it. DEfrosted in the same manner and offered. Snake began to swallow the mouse and "gave up" midway through. I wigled the mouse around with some tongs and it went for it, only to give up midway again.

The mouse was fully thawed and warm. What kind of behavior is this? Neevr seen this before with any of my snakes.

Zach

Not sure what you meant here? Are you saying he stopped chewing on the mouse halfway through? or spat it out half way through?
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www.Bluerosy.com

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pretty much, yes. began swallowing it, then half way through, released it and didnt eat.

Probably more than he wanted to eat. Especially this time of year. Mountain kings are not Burmese Pythons, you can't stuff them full of food. At least in my limited experience.
www.4lakessnakes.com

Around this time of the season it is simply undecidedly torn between it's two instincts to not eat and brumate, or to go ahead and eat. This can be fairly typical behavior for many snakes at this transitional period.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Thank you for the info, Doug.
I figured it was just the instinct towards winter brumation.

.
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com