Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Quick question/story.... Hope, my baby snow has eaten 3 times since I got her 3 weeks ago. The first time she ate I left her with the pinky because I had to get to work. The second time I put her in her deli cup and she grabbed the pink by the side of the head but still ate it ok. Today she first grabbed(bit) the pink by the middle of the back, after a second she let go. But this is the part that worries me. After that she bit the pink square in the butt! I tried to gently take it out of her mouth but she had no intention of letting go of her meal and I didn't want to hurt her.... so she ate her meal backwords/butt first. I know snakes eat prey head first because it pushes the limbs to their sides but are there any other problems with eating prey backwords? she managed to get it down fairly easily but still doesn't mean she should make a habbit of it! Also, she is a good eater but she is apparently bad AT eating... is there anything I can do to make sure she gets better at eating? will she naturally get better as she gets more active prey like hoppers? (I feed live) thanks again everybody!

I feed mine defrost and in my experience, snakes of any age can happily eat a mouse butt-first. No harm ever came to mine when they did it.

However, I don't envy you having it happen when feeding live. I've had to do that for the odd problem-feeding hatchling and there's nothing more stomach-churning than the squeals of a live pinky being eaten backwards. At least head-first, the skull gets crushed relatively fast.

Ok, well what about when I am feeding live adult mice/rats? Of course they will be at the very least stunned but isn't there any way I can train her to be better at the process of eating so she doesn't hurt her self or get hurt?

All my Corns do it now and again - even the adult ones with large mice. Doesn't seem to bother them.

I guess with live you have to be sure that the mouse can't retaliate, but if you stun them first as you suggest, then I can't think that this will do yours any harm either.

I'm afraid I've never met a Corn that could be trained to do anything! Generally speaking, either they do something, or they don't. You could try feeding by hand and only ever offering them the head end first, but you'd be making a rod for your own back because you'd have to do that for the rest of their lives if you wanted to be absolutely sure that they never ate "backwards".

But I really don't think you have anything to worry about, if my experiences of this have been anything to go by.

Have you tried feeding frozen/thawed? I tried giving my snow a live pinky once and it didn't even know what to do with it. As the prey gets larger it's it could get risky feeding live. If your corn is a baby it should not be hard to switch it over. It's also more humane for the mice. One suggestion would be entice the snake with the live and when you see him strike at the live, pull it away and use the F/T. In no time, a simple tap on the nose should be enough. If you care for your snakes as much as I do you should think about trying to switch them over. One of my more pricey ball's got bit once and I know I don't want that to ever happen again. Just my opinion, Good luck. Joe

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0.0.1 "Aru" Green tree python
1.0 Albino ball python
0.1 100% het Albino ball python
0.1 Normal ball python
1.0 Hypomelanistic cornsnake
0.0.1 Snow cornsnake

It's normal for babies to eat backwards sometimes. I wouldn't be 'tapping it on the nose' or trying to get the item out of it's mouth just because it's eating it backwards. You may end up with a non-eating snake that will be very hard to get eating again.
Also switching to F/T is a very good idea. No need to worry about the prey eating your snake if the snake won't eat. Esp when those little pinkies turn into adult mice with teeth. Believe me it happens. All my snakes eat F/T from my baby corn that eats pinkies to my 6 foot jungle carpet that eats large rats.