Reptile & Amphibian Forums

..... just sucks at grabing their food correctly? My albino just grabs it where ever, head, body, tail - makes no difference. Thank god, he's eating f/t. A couple of weeks ago I accidently dropped a live mouse in tub and he (literally) grabbed it by it's tail and wrapped himself around the back end of the mouse, I had to put my stats in the mouses mouth to keep it from knawing on the snake while it slowly died (and it took forever). He's a great eater, has not refused a meal, but I'm wondering if this is something I should be concerned about? Or is he just lazy?
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Tosha

8.10.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

I tend to think of Darwin as a clumsy eater

He has this tendancy to go for the mouse ass first

EVERY TIME!

there's been days where he's just tried so hard to get a big ol' mouse rump in his mouth
eventually, I have to stick my hand in and pry the damn mangled and sopping wet thing out of his mouth and turn it around for him

first time this happened, he tried to bite me, now he just kinda stops after a while and looks at me like 'well...? are you going to help me out here or what?'
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Alexandria Neonakis
Owner of:
0.1 Green Ig: Olivia
0.1 Flourescent Orange Cornsnake: Maize
1.0 Silver Ghost Queen Cornsnake: Onyx
1.0 Leopard Gecko: Peter Griffin
1.0 Ball Python: Darwin
1.1 Cats: Jasper and Pumpkin
1.0 Dog: Ripley (Yellow Lab)
1.0 Hamster: Hammy Time Station (don't ask...)

Tosha, I don't know if this applies but I have a small (5 ft.) burm who eats a 230 gram rat every three days. Even that often she acts like she's starved when she eats again. She doesn't care where she grabs. Sometimes a front leg, sometimes a back leg, once a tail. She will generally search for the head once it's dead, but sometimes not. Don't really have a cure, but I can relate.

Quig

Hi there,

You accidentally dropped in a live mouse, eh? lol! It's ok to feed live you know, God and Ralph Davis both prefer feeding live .

Anyway, I find that when a snake is overly hungry, that's when it gets careless about where to grab the prey. You might try offering food more often.

Also, if your snake is not used to eating live, then it's not going to be "in practice" - killing live prey is instinctive but there is still a technique to it. So, if you take a snake that usually gets pre-killed (does not matter where it strikes) and you suddenly throw in a live mouse, your snake may not strike just right. (For one thing, it's been waiting eons for you to throw in something alive and you finally did, so it's going to be pretty darned "excited" in snake terms.) Practice makes perfect!

Good luck,

Christy