Striking at Heat Lamp During Feeding?

[elleon]

My ball python is 8 months old, and has been a very good feeder for me since I got him about a month ago. Last night, however, he did something strange that has me concerned.

He struck at the mouse I offered him and coiled around it and held it for a couple minutes like normal. (Please no comments on how I should switch him to rats - I am already planning on getting some next time I can) He then seemed to get a bit confused because he was holding it backwards and couldn't find it's head, which was in his coil still. Then, he completely let go of it and went halfway across the tank, turned around, and zipped over the log in the middle of his tank and started striking at the heat lamp with jerky movements! He jerked at it a couple times before coming down and dunking his head in water, still moving a bit weird. He finally found his mouse again and just started eating it.

The optimistic side of me is thinking maybe I just didn't heat his mouse up enough, but the concerned-new-pet-parent side of me is worried he has some sort of neurological damage or something! His tank has been getting a little hot (90 ambient on the hot side instead of 85, which makes the ground temp under his lamp around 100) but whenever this happens I have found him in a cooler part of his tank. I have a CHE in a dimmable lamp right now, though I do plan on getting a non-dimmable lamp and a thermostat as soon as possible so this doesn't keep happening.

Should I be concerned about him, or has anyone else had their snake do this?

[RickyNY]

Don't be concern about him. Fix the issues you mentioned.

[bcr229]

Ball pythons have very bad eyesight. When they strike they aim at heat.

I have a SD retic that gets so stupidly foody he'll strike at the RHP in his enclosure, especially if he sees other snakes getting fed.

[elleon]

Thank you for your feedback. Turns out he shed just a few days later, so his eyesight was probably particularly bad because of that. He is still being silly about taking a long time to start eating, but again it might not have been warm enough for him. I will be switching to rats this week, and will see how that goes.