What The...

[The_Godfather]

Last night was feeding night, I had a gerbil for Monty, but he wasn't hungry. Instead all he did was bite the hell out of it for 5 minutes.

So I put goldy into the cage with it....it was the most amazing feeding I have ever seen. She was freaking beautiful anyway. High Gold, female, striping, thick and muscular. Seriously, she is 35" or so and manhandles me during handlings, unlike all my other bp's, she has some serious strength. She's the most beautiful bp I've ever had (or seen), and seeing her hunt was nothing short of sexy, about as sexy as a snake can get.

Ok, I'll stop bragging about how awsome she is.... Back to the feeding. Well, when she smelled it she went nuts. I've noticed that my bp's typical strategy is to wait in strike position for them to come. but she actually chased it down. About 50% of her body was curled up in that zig zag strike posture. She was like a freaking spring ready to go, she was bulging cause all her muscles were flexed. Well when she got about a 10"s away she lunged her entire body into the strike and killed it. That itself was amazing as can be. But she was also doing something really weird, something I've never observed. She was waiving he tail back and forth. Not quick like a rattle snake, but about 3 inches of tail just waiving back and forth.

Anyone ever seen them hunt like this? Lunging their body like that, and tail waiving.

It was just the coolest hunting I've seen. And I've seen my share

[The_Godfather]

I'll have pics of her in 2 weeks....

[green_man]

wow that sounds really cool! That girls got personality!
Ive never seen that before either.
Ill be looking forward to those pics. I dont get to see your snakes too often.

[elevatethis]

Maybe BPs are already a step ahead of us on the gerbil thing and thats why they are so aggressive with them :wink:

[The_Godfather]

And the gerbil was severely injured before being fed... Monty took at least 15 bites.

[gozetec02]

Jojo feeds like that every time no matter what i feed him. He almost jumps on rats, when i hold them with the tongs he will come to the rat, pause then strike. But you should see him go after a mouse, as soon as a dangle the mouse into the tank he speeds out of which ever hide he is in and hits it hard and fast enough to almost pull the tongs out of my hands. I don't know what it is with Jojo and mice but he would take a mouse any day before he took a rat. This past week i fed him 2 large male mice and he hit both of them with equal force.

Aren't these snakes amazing?

And about their strength, when they get to be that size they become very stocky because they slowdown growth lengthwise but they just start packing on muscle. They are the ultimate body builders.

[elevatethis]

Oh yeah and about the tail wiggling thing.......I came across a black racer a month or two ago and it started shaking its tail like a rattlesnake. Is this just a shared response that all snakes inherently possess, including ball pythons? Maybe she was waving her tail like that to try to get better situated for a strike, but I've never seen behavior like that before. There must be some reason for it, BPs are pretty efficient with their movements and don't really do anything unless it is necessary.

[JLC]

I'm just guessing, but it could be that the slow tail-waving seen in bp's could be an attempt to distract their prey. Get the critter watching the little tail-wiggle and they will not realize a head full of teeth is streaking in their direction!

[The_Godfather]

I dunno, but it was amazing. She's so gentle during handling. But that gerbil got stomped. The tail wiggling was real sweet, I wonder if she'll be doing it from now on.

[QuenteK25]

I'm just guessing, but it could be that the slow tail-waving seen in bp's could be an attempt to distract their prey. Get the critter watching the little tail-wiggle and they will not realize a head full of teeth is streaking in their direction!

I've heard something to this effect before too. In reference to snakes using their tail as a sort of lure. To get their prey interested so they go and check it out then BAM!