Has your BP ever drowned its prey?

[MasonC2K]

I fed my BP last night and when he struck the rat and pulled in back to her she ended up in the water dish with it. The head was under wter and they tail end was up in the air kicking for a bit.

I wonder if what killed it first: the water or the snake?

[dsirkle]

my Mojave once constricted a live mouse in his water dish and when he attempted to swallow the mouse had to put his head under water and that confused him. He ended up letting go of the mouse and just looked at it floating in the water. I took the mouse out of the water but he never did eat it.

[kc261]

I seem to recall reading on here around the time we got our first snake (sept '07) that one member had a snake that preferred to drag her prey into the water bowl before swallowing it. Don't remember details; I might be confused.

The rat probably did not drown. Constricting would have prevented it from breathing in any water. Or at least constricting supposedly prevents the prey from breathing in and they tighten each time the prey breathes out. What you should have done, for the sake of science, was to take the rat away from your snake and done an autopsy to see how much, if any, water got into the lungs. OK, maybe not really, but it would be interesting to know.

[Argentra]

My BPs haven't done it yet...but my corns do that all the time with their PK mice. No matter how far from the dish I dangle that thing, they manage to drag it into the water. So they end up swallowing aspen with wet mouse. Sigh.

[darkbloodwyvern]

my male has done that a few times. the mouse made some bubbles, so while it did inhale some water -poor thing as if it isn't bad enough!- I doubt it was enough water to drown it. he kills them pretty quick.