Feeding my BP

[Dboknight]

I'm new to snake so this question may sound silly to some but here goes.. Does it matter if my BP swallows the mouse head or tail side first? Wasn't much I could do to change it and he didn't seem to have a problem getting it down tail first..

[The Serpent Merchant]

As long as the snake actually swallowed it you should be fine. They do this from time to time. It freaks most people out the first time they see it happen.

[Slim]

That will happen a lot less often when you move from mice to rats.

[shadowsnakes]

Lot of hatchlings do this until they figure out which end is which. Kind of funny to see a snake sniff around the butt while looking for a nose!

[mehitabel74]

Our king snakes are both total butt-munchers. Not all the time, but quite a bit when they were smaller.

Nigel is much better now that he's on rats. One time trying to work around the tail and the back legs and he never does that anymore!

[Moneypit]

One of our new BP's has tried to eat mice sideways the last two feedings. Last night it struggled for 25 minutes and then made progress head first. After the front legs made it past the mouth, the mouse was rejected, it coiled around it for another ten minutes and then ate it tail first over the next 10-15 minutes. We had nearly an hour of trying to figure out what was going on.

This same snake has eaten mice head first in ten minutes or less. Not sure what it's thinking. We were convinced something was going wrong. Everything seems to be ok though.