Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, here's what happened. I put my young adult Ball Python in his feed box, and as usual the minute I put the food item ( small mouse, which is the size he's been on for the past two months and had been eating at regular intervals ) he struck and coiled, did his thing. I closed the lid, let him do his thing for about 20 minutes or so, and to my surprise he had uncoiled and was no where near the mouse. I figured it might not have been warm enough for his liking so I broke out some heat packs, heated the mouse back up to close to "living temp", and the second I put it back in the feed box, bam, he struck, in fact he was tracking my hand until I dropped the mouse in the box. I thought ok good he's taking it now, closed the box again, let him be, sure enough 15 minutes later, he was uncoiled laying on top of the mouse. He ate last week so I'm not overly concerned about him not eating, and I know Balls can be pain in the asses when it comes to feeding; he took 5 weeks to eat for me when I first got him from the breeder. But I've never seen and or heard of a snake striking, coiling then just leaving it be. Didn't think snakes killed for sport/fun?? Sorry for the long post guys, I just thought I should share, see if any one else had any run ins like this.
- Doc Z

I've had a couple of my pythons do this when they were close to shedding. That'd be my first guess.

He shed like two weeks ago, he's been eating like a horse so it's a possibility, although no tell tale shedding signs on his body as of now, thanx for the post!!

I have a subadult Boa constrictor imperator that I've had for nearly 3 years and it still routinely strikes, constricts, and releases his prey. If I can tease the mouse/rat away from him and offer it again he usually takes and eats it the second time around, but sometimes it takes multiple tries. If the snake keeps refusing the prey item I would just skip feeding it and try again in a week or two. Even small guys can go a couple weeks without a feed as long as their weight and body condition remains good.
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Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

Just thought it was kinda funny actually, he's been eating like a pig prior to pulling this stubborn kid not wanting to eat his food routine, so I'm not overly concerned, just figured I'd share my experience.

I've seen snakes in close quarters with their prey kill it just because it's too close to them and bugging them and maybe even frighening them, and they aren't hungry enough to eat it.

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1.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.1 Ball Python
1.1 Corn Snake
0.1 Gray band Kingsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
0.1 Pueblan Milksnake
1.0 Bullsnake
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback
0.1 Spouse
8 ball python eggs due any day now!

Yeah, after doing some research on it, that's pretty much the conclusion I came up with. Very proud mamma yah got there, have any idea what type she's gonna produce for yah??