killed a mouse butwont eat it

[420 boa]

My bp quickly struck and constricted a mouse and as soon as it was dead he had no interest in it. what should I do?

[spix14]

Leave it in for a bit, leave him alone, and then if he doesn't eat it throw it out. Trust me, leaving it in overnight is a bad mistake. I made it once. Never again. *shudder*

[kc261]

It seems that usually if a BP kills its prey but then leaves it, it is because it doesn't feel secure enough to eat. Were you standing over it watching? This could have made it feel unsafe. This would be especially likely if you have a young BP.

Sometimes if you leave them alone they'll come back to the dead rodent.

There have been a couple of times my little girl let go of the mouse, but basically just made a circle and came right back to it. Both were times when she had ahold of the middle of the mouse and couldn't swallow it sideways. So I think either she just wanted to get a better angle at it, or the fact that it was taking longer than usual made her nervous so she just wanted to see if the area was still safe.

Next time you try to feed, make sure the room is dark and quiet, and stand back from the cage. I've seen some people post about especially shy BPs that needed to have a towel or something similar draped over their enclosure to feel secure enough to eat.

[FL0OD]

i just this last weekend had the same thing happen to me. i have had balls for six years and never had this happen. it was with a young animal that i just picked up. let me echo what others have said. what i was told by the breeder is to one, try smaller prey item, two, like others have said, wait another week. you let me know how things go on your side and i will let you know how they go on mine.

[Gloryhound]

We have one bp that eats well with a towel draped over the box and he eats F/T.

Then we have another that just likes alone time with his food, but he makes us nervous as he only goes for live. When he kills his prey he likes to hover around it for 15 minutes or so. If he doesn't eat it within an hour or so then we take it out!

Then our little girl Hathor (the bumblebee) likes a red spot light and someone watching her while she eats. If you take the red spot off her and walk away before she has the mouse half way down she will spit it out and wait till you come back and put the light on her. She eats anything from F/T, Fresh killed, and live, but likes an audiance!

We have found feeding time to be one place where the personality of our snakes really come out!

[420 boa]

thanks everyone for your knowledge and time. For the past three weeks he ate in a tub no prob. Last night he struck within 10 seconds of the mouse being introduced he killed and and completely left it alone. After about 15minutes i put him back in his cage with the dead mouse. He still seemed disinterested so I warmed the mouse up under the lamp offered it to him with tongs and he struck again but this time he finshed the job. I could tell he was still hungry so I offered him another live mouse and it was gone within 10 minutes. I did make sure he was supervised with the live mouse in his casge with him