Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Cool pic i found... thought i would share

thats an awesome picture that should get 1st place for the week in review

.

maybe not, great pic.they dont eatem backwards to often. Looks like a berm.?
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Vince Pramuk
Vince Pramuk Reptiles

Its a Burm... actually, my Dum, my balls, and my Tanzanian sands eat backwards... my Dum doesnt even bother killingthe mice before he eats them backwards... he doesnt seem to mind at all. I have been trying to get him onto FT but he just wont switch over for me... i think he likes the wiggling... Anyone else have snakes that take thier food backwards??

I have a female that occasionally eats starting with the middle of the mouse/rat. It usually takes her about an hour to swallow the whole thing...really bothers me when she does that
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when life hands you lemons, make super lemons, bumblebees, etc...

my gulf hammock rat i have has a habit of doing that. she is feeding on live fuzzy/hopper mice. she tends to strike and just starting eating wherever she hits it. she rarely constricts them and usually just starts swallowing...forewards, backwards, and from the middle too. its kind of frustrating.
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"it takes a small person to beat a defenseless animal, and an even smaller person to eat it."

"it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
1.0.0 bearded dragon (spaz)
1.1.0 green iguana (zephyr,F and Liz,M)
0.0.1 columbian tegu (diablo)
1.1.0 knight anole
0.1.0 green anole
0.1.0 asian longtail grass lizard
1.1.0 golden gecko
1.0.0 ball python (guinness)
0.0.5 oriental firebellied toad
0.0.1 green treefrog
0.0.1 barking treefrog
0.0.1 cuban masked treefrog
0.0.1 gray treefrog
0.1.0 gulf hammock rat snake (fluffy)
0.1.0 eastern kingsnake (ms. king,kingy)
0.1.0 siberian husky (blue)
1.1.0 ratties (bonnie and clyde)
0.1.0 hedgie (karma)

np
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Rescued Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Rescued Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
1-1-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-0-1 Rescued Dieting Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
0-1-0 Rescued Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

I grew up keeping a large collection of various colubrids with my dad. None of my current snakes take their prey backwards as a rule, but I used to have a corn snake that fed that way almost exclusively.

I have noticed that in general, when a snake eats a prey item backwards, after fighting against the direction of hair growth and the way the limbs fold, the snake is a lot more worn out and thirsty. Make sure there is plenty of fresh water available always, but especially after you have a snake eat a meal backwards.

My best guess as to why the one corn snake that we had always preferred to eat backwards is that the animal's scent would be strongest there.

One word of caution though: I had a gray banded kingsnake that ate a live fuzzy mouse backwards and didn't bother to kill it first. The mouse apparently kicked and scratched all the way down his throat, and the snake spent a week soaking his neck - and just his neck - in his water dish. The snake was also a much more tentative feeder for a while after that, but recovered his usual gusto after a few months. He always killed his prey quickly after that!

Best of luck to you.

~Rebecca
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1.1 Ball Pythons (1.0 '05 Ghost, 0.1 '03 Normal)
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40 lb darling lap dogs)

np
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Rescued Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Rescued Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
1-1-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-0-1 Rescued Dieting Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
0-1-0 Rescued Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

"Jeepers, Creepers, where did you get those peepers"

Mike