Weird Mouth Movement

[Jolynn_2003]

So, I was feeding Buddy tonight (I feed live) and he was being his normal self... It always takes him a few minutes after I put his food in his tub before he becomes interested. Anyway, he finally strikes after a few mins of just watching and waiting for it to come close enough... Well, he misses which is RARE for him. So hes obviously interested so I leave it in there and continue to watch... The rat is a bold little fellow (like most I've encountered) and walks right up to Buddy again and Buddy strikes again. He gets the rat but also gets a huge mouthful of bedding and lets the rat go... He is no longer interested in the rat-he has aspen shavings in his mouth...he keeps opening and moving it all around... I take the rat out and I watch him for a couple of minutes to see if he gets the wood out...and just as I was about to get some gloves on and take him out and pry his mouth open and help him, he stops. He opens his mouth again a few minutes later and the wood is gone. Now, I'm hoping that the whole mouth opening thing was from the wood, and not something else...but the misses on the strikes worries me as well. Maybe no more substrate that is small enough to fit in his mouth lol...

By the way,hes an 06 male, in a 32 qt tub, in a homemade rack, belly heat-used heat tape on rack, warm side 91.4...controlled by BAH-1000 thermostat -bought from big apple supply. Substrate is newspaper and a little aspen to help hold humidity which is at 59%... 2 other balls in rack-seperate tubs obviously, eat the second food hits the tub...seem fine... Maybe I'm just a big worry-wart...I hope?

[joepythons]

So, I was feeding Buddy tonight (I feed live) and he was being his normal self... It always takes him a few minutes after I put his food in his tub before he becomes interested. Anyway, he finally strikes after a few mins of just watching and waiting for it to come close enough... Well, he misses which is RARE for him. So hes obviously interested so I leave it in there and continue to watch... The rat is a bold little fellow (like most I've encountered) and walks right up to Buddy again and Buddy strikes again. He gets the rat but also gets a huge mouthful of bedding and lets the rat go... He is no longer interested in the rat-he has aspen shavings in his mouth...he keeps opening and moving it all around... I take the rat out and I watch him for a couple of minutes to see if he gets the wood out...and just as I was about to get some gloves on and take him out and pry his mouth open and help him, he stops. He opens his mouth again a few minutes later and the wood is gone. Now, I'm hoping that the whole mouth opening thing was from the wood, and not something else...but the misses on the strikes worries me as well. Maybe no more substrate that is small enough to fit in his mouth lol...

By the way,hes an 06 male, in a 32 qt tub, in a homemade rack, belly heat-used heat tape on rack, warm side 91.4...controlled by BAH-1000 thermostat -bought from big apple supply. Substrate is newspaper and a little aspen to help hold humidity which is at 59%... 2 other balls in rack-seperate tubs obviously, eat the second food hits the tub...seem fine... Maybe I'm just a big worry-wart...I hope?

It sounds like to me he was readjusting his mouth after the missing of the rodent.Is it possible he is starting a shed and his eyes could be off causing him to see shadows? If so thats why his aim was off more then likely.

[Figure8]

This happened to me once before I started using newspaper for all of my snakes. The mouth movement is just your bp trying to get the substrate out of his mouth. Since it seems like he got rid of the substrate, he should be fine. When I fed on aspen, I used to put a nice big piece of cardboard in my BP's cage to avoid this problem.

[hoo-t]

I've had that happen occasionally. The mouth full of substrate seems to turn them off from wanting to eat. Since he got it out, he'll be fine. Just try again tonight.

Steve

[Syka]

This happened to me on the first time feeding.
It was after she had eaten and noticed she couldn't close her mouth due to stuck substrate. We eventually had to carefully use tweezers to get the piece out. Now we just feed in a separate tub... and no problems!!