BP eats mouse in water dish?

[steveb]

Here's something I haven't seen before, and i'm wondering if anyone has witnessed this behavior. He deliberately takes his (dead) mouse, drops into water dish and then proceeds to hold it in his mouth and rolls it around for 5-10 minutes in the water before swallowing. I've seen him drop into the water before eating, but today was the first time he has taken the time to thrash it around in the water. Pretty fun too watch, but is this a common behavior??

[vangarret2000]

THe thrashing is probably him trying to "kill" it, or help get it down his throat, or position it to get down his throat. The fact that it happened in the water dish is coincedental. Whereever he hold it or drops it on dry substrate or in water, he could have the same thrashing reaction.

[SlitherinSisters]

I'm with Garret. They do it purely by accident it seems. The "thrashing" is to position the rodent and align the neck in the proper position rather than twisted from constricting. I usually take the water dish out because I have a few that will accidentally constrict/drop the rodent into the water and then refuse to eat it once it's sopping wet. "You're the idiot who put it in the water!"

[Flatheadhunter33]

I read in an article that sometimes a snake will consume its prey in water in order to take in hydration...not sure how valid that is though...just my two cents...

[bigballs]

THe thrashing is probably him trying to "kill" it

ya i highly doubt that... they kill their prey by constriction.

i would think what the OP is observing as thrashing is the snake trying to get in to a position to begin swallowing the already dead prey.

[vangarret2000]

ya i highly doubt that... they kill their prey by constriction.

i would think what the OP is observing as thrashing is the snake trying to get in to a position to begin swallowing the already dead prey.

You are probably more right. It's more likely trying to position it to eat. But even constrictors don't contrict the prey 100% of the time before they eat it. And by that I am not saying they will choose to nessesarily thrash to kill it. Sometimes jsut the bitting is good enough for them. I have had plently of times where thehy jsut take the prey and start swallowing. I have also had times where they couldn't contrict the prey when they probably wanted to (body wraped to much on a log as an example) so they move the prey around instead. Not really thrashing though. jsut trying to let their teeth do more damage would be my guess. Then they grab it by the head and swallow.