Killing but not eating

[Matt K]

Hey there. As the title suggests, one of my snakes is having some trouble feeding. She is the only snake I have breeding this season, so I'm really hoping to figure this out so she can put some weight on for eggs. I'm feeding her once every 7-10 days, so I know it's not a matter of over-feeding. Her last two rats, she has killed, but not eaten. The first incident got her off feed for a week, as she killed the rat in her water bowl. She clearly wanted the rat, but couldn't figure out getting it from the water, and I think was turned off to feeding by the whole ordeal. The next week, she wouldn't eat. This week, I removed the water bowl, and tried again. She killer her rat, but I checked in 40 minutes later, and it went un-eaten. I'm going to leave it in there over night and hope she gets around to it, but I thought I'd make this thread to see if anyone has had any experience with this. She is nowhere near ovulation at this point, with relatively small, M&M-sized follicles, so I know she is not going into a post-ovulation food-strike. I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done to encourage her to eat what she kills, but any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. As I said earlier--she is the only chance I have at eggs this season. She didn't go last season (she did the season before), but has been a very fickle eater, and isn't a huge girl, so I'd like to make sure she gets the nutrition necessary to stay healthy and produce a healthy clutch. Thanks again for any help in advance!

Cheers,
-Matt

[Dave763]

Sometimes one of my girls will kill and then just leave it. I find if I pick up the dead rodent with a pair of tongs she will grab and constrict a second time. I give the rat a few tugs to simulate a struggle.
Then she will eat it most of the time.

[jbean7916]

Try bumping her down a size. I have a male spider that is big enough to handle a medium rat but won't eat one. If I try he does the same thing, kills but won't eat. So I stick with smalls and he never has a problem.

sent from my EVO

[Matt K]

Much thanks to both of you for the advice--I'll give both a try and report back!

Cheers,
-Matt