Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When I was feeding my bp last night he went completely berzerk.

I normally feed him once a week and just moved him up to small rats and as soon as I got it in the room he came out of his hide and shot over to the side that I was putting the rat in on. I normally place it in with the tongs and have to dance it in front of him. This time he struk it 4 times really quick before I could even drop it. Well, on the forth strike he missed the rat and ended up with a mouth full of reptile carpet (I just happened to put the rat in right at one of the seems between pieces of carpet). Upon grasping the carpet he held on and coiled around the edge of the piece until he either thought it was dead or realized it didn't taste quite right. He went from there and (with the rat right beside him) he began striking up at the light.

Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior when changing from mice to rats? And on a side note, what else have people seen their bp's attack by mistake (other than hands, fingers, etc)?
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

That will wake you up quick!
I was caring for a friends large male BP for the weekend, I wasn't experienced with snakes too much. At the time I had Bearded Dragons, and Corns. I went to check on my visitor, slid the box out from the rack real slow and he came flying out at my face. I fell back and used my foot to close the drawer. Scared the crap out of me. Called my friend and told him about his pyscho snake. He said he must be hungry, defrost a rat for him. After defrosting the rat I grabed one of my dads leather work gloves and put it on just in case. I planned on droping the rat as soon as I got the drawer open. As soon as the drawer was open 3"-4", the rat flew out of the cage again grabbed the rat and the glove. (which was still on my hand only for another 1/10 of a second.) It scared me to death, it took me about 5 minutes to get the glove away from him. Thank goodness the glove was my dad's and came off really easy or the snake would have had the rat, glove and my hand.

Becky

I've got a nippy little female ball, who usually strikes pretty quickly when the smell of mouse is in the air. She follows anything that moves when she's in feeding mode. Just an agressive feeder is all she is. Your snake was most likely hungry and also smelled the rat so it was in feeding mode too. This is a good thing believe me, because ball pythons are sometimes very very hard to feed occasionally. And you don't seem to have this problem right now.
As far as the snake striking the light, most likely the light was warm and they sensed that because of the heat pits on there jawline.

Best of Luck! Oh, and use a snake hook and tongs when feeding.

Andrea

I don't think you should use a hook when feeding. I use a hook to let my snakes know it's NOT feeding time. That way if they are being a pain, I can use the hook to calm them down. If I were to use the hook when feeding what would I use when not feeding?

Have a good day!

I use the feeding tongs but I don't even own a hook. My wife is the one that normally pulls him out and she was trained in handling snakes and has done it for years. Me, I would end up scaring the crap out of him reaching in or would end up hurting him with a hook. I figure at some point I am going to get tagged one way or another.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

I've never had this problem when switching from mice to rats, but I have when I was keeping them under a too-bright light. I've found that, with anything more than a 40W white bulb, I get bit A LOT more often. I've read articles talking about the high number of cones (light receptors) in the eyes of snakes, plus their eyes are stuck on top of their head with no eyelids. Perhaps, blinded by the light and excited by the smell of food, your guy is just striking at the closest "purple dot."

...Just a thought.

Brian Engleman

3.6.7 Ball Pythons
1.1.0 Corn snakes
1.3.0 Cats
2.0.1 kids (one on the way!)
0.1.0 wife

I've got a male that is such a piggy we named him "munch"~ I think he would eat a doorknob if I warmed it up first!! I have to be carefull WHERE I drop the rat when I open his tub becuase if it hits his body he is just as likely to bite himself as he is to bite the rat!! Never slows him down long though, he usually realizes he can't coil around his own coil pretty quickly! LOL
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

Do any of you ever move your BP to another container for feeding? I am about to get a BP and am curious how most feed them - from this post it sounds like a lot of people just drop the food in. With my corn and milk, I have sterilte containers for them for feeding. I usually just pick them up and put them in their respective containers which already have the mouse/mice inside (they are both such pigs that they usually strike before I even set them down). Is that (separate container) a no no for BP's? Do not want to get tagged trying to pick him up when he is hungry, although I'm not a total baby about stuff like that. I do have a hook, but like was posted above, I do not really want him to associate that with feeding necessarily. Thanks! Just trying to learn as much as I can!

I do use separate feeding containers. Even with my big load of snakes, I line up a row of feeding tubs, place the snakes in, and feed each one, while they are eating I clean out their tubs, place them back in their tubs and change the newspaper in the feeding tub and add more snakes. I haven't been mistaken for food yet and I have yet to have a regurge. It's easy with one or two, more complicated if you have more and impossible if you have 100s. I would recommend it.
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Tosha

"Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed." Don Wood

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul)
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 Pool skimmer rescues for this season

Thank you! I do the same thing - clean house, change water, etc... while they are in their feeding containers. I was hoping to do the same with the BP and am glad to hear that people do. This will only be my third snake so it is still manageable doing this. I can't imagine having hundreds! Yikes!

I used to use seperate feeding containers. Now it would be a nightmare to move 60 plus snakes to seperate containers to feed!! Not to sorry though~ most BPs are not as aggressive about feeding as the ones described in this thread. And even my most aggressive feeder ~ Munch~ the one that will bite himself! Seems to know the difference between opening the tub to drop in a rat, and opening the tub to pull him out to clean or handle him. Probably because he is pretty far down in the rack system, and he has heard at least 30 snakes get a rat before his turn comes up!! Munch is a VERY aggressive feeder, but I know that~ so when I have a rat I am carefull~ otherwise he is a very mellow snake (and my favorite, and my only BP that is not a future breeder~ he is just a beloved pet). And I NEVER handle him with rat smell on me!! LOL!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den