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I have a fiesty little 2 year old California King. She has always been an eager FT mouse eater. She used to just grab her food, drag it into her tunnel and consume it. Sometimes she constricts, sometimes not. Then, about 2 months ago it seemed she accidentally dragged the mouse through her water bowl before she ate. Now, every time she is fed she drags the (really quite dead) mouse over and dunks it thoroughly in the water before eating ("Not quite dead enough...there that's better!". It's really kinda comic. I've never heard or read of another snake doing this. So, I'm mildly curious as to why she might do this.
Anyone else have this experience? Any hypotheses?

Thanks,
michele
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4.3 Bearded Dragons (Rescues)
1.0 Corn snake (Rescue)
0.1 California King
4.5 Royal (Ball) Pythons (3 rescues)
1.1 Dogs (Rescues)
2.0 Cats (Rescues)
2.2 Humans
No, it's NOT a big house

Being wet makes it easier to swallow.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

the water, and then eats it.
we call him a fisherman

It could be a learning response. By that I mean she found out, quite by accident, that a wet mouse goes down easier than a dry one, so now she's learned to "wet it down" before swallowing it. She also takes in a little added moisture in the process. Interesting!

What kind of substrate do you use? She might be washing it off to ensure there's no pieces of substrate stuck to the mouse that she might accidentally ingest.
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MichaelB

she probably likes the moisture....my little hognose, who's only on pinkies, won't eat a pinkie if it is too dry--I have to make sure there's a drop of water on the nose she can drink off before she eats each one. it looks like she;s kissing them.
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
1.0 Crested gecko (Gator)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)