Feeding while in shed and blind

[slickshadowrunner]

Hi all,

I had a rather strange experience with my normal yesterday while feeding. She's been behaving like she's in shed and has been for about two weeks but has not gone opaque. She's been kind of pissy and has hidden in her hide for most of the period. Having had it been two weeks yesterday between feedings I figured I'd try and see if she'd take a rat (she eats live mediums). She was VERY agressive and ornery when I opened the tank. She was hissing at me and violently flinched if I ever touched her. None of this was a problem as I figured she was likely partially blind by the old scales still on her eyes as she had not shed yet. I put in the rat, she hit it HARD, but where she normally gets a head bite she grabbed the shoulder instead. Having strangled it, she started to try to swallow it, but it was obvious that she could not see, as she could not find the head. She basically felt her way around the body until she found it (she even tried from the tail but that did not work either). Ultimately, within five minutes or so she had the rat positioned right and was happily pulling it in. I've just never seen this kind of behaviour, where BPs can't see and have to sort of feel their way around. Is this common during shed? I half-expected her not to feed at all, but I guess she was hungry enough to take it.

[Reinz]

My 12 yr old displays this type of behavior from time to time. If they are hungry, they will figure a way to get the food down.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I have some that do screwy stuff.
I they eat, let them eat. Just keep making sure there is a good coil on a bad strike.

[BiggBaddWolf]

I personally don't feed when mine are getting ready to shed, but sounds like your snake had a handle on things

[NH93]

Nothing sounds really odd to me. The "moving around the body to find the head" thing is very normal. Mine both do that every time they eat.

Perhaps if your girl is aggressive you should double and triple check temperatures and husbandry, if you haven't already.
Do you have a thermostat for your UTH?

[slickshadowrunner]

I do. About 85 to 88 degrees on the warm side during the day, dropping to about 80/81 at night. I don't have a hydrometer in the tank but the water bowl is always full and I have a towel covering 80 % of the top of the tank to keep the moisture in. I'm new to BPs and she's only shed once for me so far so I'm still trying to figure out her patterns. I figure environmentally she's fine. I just have never seen a BP do the whole 'look for the right end of the food' thing and wanted to make sure it was not a sign of something I should fix or keep an eye on. She was uber-pissy just before she shed last time too.

[Eric Alan]

My Spinner Blast girl does this every time. Half the time she finds the head, half the time she eats from the tail end. I always prepare her f/t rats the same way - making sure to blast their heads with a hairdryer so they're warmer than the rest of the body. She hits the head when she strikes, but decides from there where she wants to start. She's "special"...

[NH93]

How are you measuring your temps? Do you have a probe for the hot spot over the middle of the UTH, and a thermometer on the cool side for ambient temps? Or do you use an infrared gun?

[slickshadowrunner]

I have a probe over the hotspot of the UTH which is in her cave. I don't have another probe in the tank for ambient temperature, I use the thermometer in the room for that.

[NH93]

I have a probe over the hotspot of the UTH which is in her cave. I don't have another probe in the tank for ambient temperature, I use the thermometer in the room for that.

Keep in mind that the temp inside the vive - and especially depending on the type of vive - can be quite different than the air in your home.
If my house is 76F, my ball python's PVC vive is 80F, for example.

But other than perhaps getting another thermometer - doesn't have to be probed - for the ambient temps (which I do suggest), all sounds fine.
All the best!