Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is it normal for burms to take live mice tail first??? the past 2 have been that way, the previous 5 or so were head first... i'm not sure.

I've seen it ocassionally in colubrids, usually in the young and inexperienced feeders. It will probably go away on its own. Haven't seen it in my Burms. He does consrict and kill first though, right?
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Marcia Pimentel
Tango River Reptiles
GiantFeeders

How Big is your Burm..

It is possible that he is ready for a bigger food item, that is why he is feeding tail first

ooo that makes sense, she has been feeding on weanlings, and i think she can handle more. Brian said to bump her up to fuzzy rats.. what do you think?

she does constrict first though

thanks guys,
joel

1st - I'm guessing that your burm is very young - which is why you are feeding him mice. A young inexperienced snake will learn better after having eaten that hard way after just a few times at most.

2nd - Your snake may be very hungry, and so may be overly eager to get his dinner down, thereby not really paying much attention to his/her technique. This is probably an understatement for a young Burmese python. Young burms are eating machines - they get very hungry, very quickly. Maybe you can re-examine his feeding schedule.

3rd (last) - just a comment, or rather, a question: why is it that you are feeding him live mice? If your burm is young, well, that's the best time to start getting him on f/t, or at least p/k. Young snakes aren't much different from young people in the regard that they are very impressionable. Get him/her used to f/t now while it's easy and you will be thankful for it later on.

My burm has taken a couple meals down backwards. But that was quite some time ago - that is, when he was very young. He knows better now. And I keep him well, but not over, fed. Also, I've never fed him a live anything - not once. He's been on f/t from day one. It's good for him because I can always keep a stock of food on hand for him (no hungry days waiting for food from a pet store or a delivery, etc). It's also good for me because I don't have to make a trip to the pet store every Sunday to get his food, I save $BIGTIME$ on feeders, and I know that the rodents were put down in a humane way (I inquired with the company I buy from because that's very important to me).

I just got the sense that I'm starting to ramble on (sorry about that).

- Mark

>>is it normal for burms to take live mice tail first??? the past 2 have been that way, the previous 5 or so were head first... i'm not sure.

I tried a frozen mouse once and she did not like it at all, she takes mice easily. so i thought that was odd. I thawed the mouse in a bowl of hot water, it was in a bag. So it wasn't wet. She stared at it. I left her alone with it for several hourse, and she fell asleep with it...lol.

Just yesterday, I gave her a frozen pinky which she took just fine, i have a ATB that i feed those to. I thought I might try that just to see if she'd take it. Without a doubt she took it just fine. So I am going to try frozen again this weekend.

BTW, she is about 9-10 weeks old, and about a little over 2 feet long. I feed her on wednesdays and saturdays. should I alter that?

Any advice is alwasy appreciated. thank you.

Joel