Biting. Spitting. Biting and spitting.

[redshepherd]

Cake has taken his first meal as frozen thawed! WOOHOO.

He was on live mice from his breeder before too. I was expecting a bit of a tedious struggle to switch him to F/T… But I literally thawed, heated the mouse with a blow-dryer, stuck the mouse in with the zombie dance for about 20 seconds maximum, and he struck and coiled. I was so happy and proud. ;_;

Unfortunately, he started with the feet in his mouth… spit it back out. Sniffed the thing all over and then bit again, this time on the side… and spit it back out. Then decided to start swallowing from the OTHER side of the neck… he spit it out again. It took him about 20 minutes to figure out where the HEAD was, and he finally fed successfully.

Oh Cake, didn’t you learn anatomy in grade school?

Hoping his feeding response stays this strong for a long while, but is this biting in the wrong spot and spitting common in ball pythons? And what should I try if he loses interest in the mouse after spitting it out a few times (assuming this happens again)?

or is Cake just a derp herp.

[Reinz]

My 13 yr old sometimes doesn't know the rats blank from a hole in the ground.

Its nothing to worry about. If they are hungry, they will figure a way to swallow it, wether it's the right way or not.

[KitaCat]

Yep, I've seen mine do this. Not a BP, but the first time we fed our female BCC, she took about half an hour finding the head. Just rubbing her face all over it and biting it in the wrong places... We joked she was cuddling with it.

[Albert Clark]

To minimize the backwards swallowing , you can offer the prey item with the tongs directly behind the head. As you "zombie dance" it close to him make sure the head is what he grabs first. Hope this helps. Handsome little guy you have there btw!

[AKA Dave]

I just went through this with Tucker and was relieved to find he is not the only one that did this. Apparently it's normal and he might grow out of it, but nothing to worry about.

Dave

[C2tcardin]

When they're young they have to figure things out, it's always entertaining and frustrating. If they lose interest I just reheat with a hair dryer and present again and they usually get it right the next time.

[redshepherd]

Well, thank god it's normal. I'm now amused at how normal it is, apparently... LOL. Our snakes need to take some anatomy classes.

Thanks for the replies guys!

[JoshSloane]

Definitely takes time for some to figure it out. I had a young Burmese python once swallow a rat that was almost bent in half. He had it by the head, and then decided the fold it somehow and take the tail portion down at the same time.

[Reinz]

Definitely takes time for some to figure it out. I had a young Burmese python once swallow a rat that was almost bent in half. He had it by the head, and then decided the fold it somehow and take the tail portion down at the same time.

Hey Josh, was his name Hans or Franz?

[se7en]

it's normally my younger snakes doing that

like in my avatar