Wagging of the tails?

I have 2 snakes that when I try to entice them with f/t mice or rats they wont strike at them but instead will get nose to nose with the dead prey and the tip of their tails shake violently like they think they are rattlers. Has anyone else seen behavior like this? If so what could it mean.

Again they wont eat them from time to time but they act excited or something.

My corn snakes do that when they're excited (or cranky), and will even make a fake rattling sound... not sure if BPs do that, though! :confuzd:

Some of my baby spiders and pastels do that for some reason. Only when they are really young.

I have a king snake that does that. Most of the time he's just grumpy but I guess it could be from excitement too. He does it every time we pull him out of his tank and after we put him back in from a feeding. I chalk it up to him being grumpy. I did read that they do that in the wild as a defense mechanism, it rattles the leaves or something.

Wow, that is interesting. I have not heard of a BP doing that. I also have a northern pine snake, and that's the only snake that I have ever had that pretends to be a rattlesnake at times. But it doesn't do it to prey, just to me when I make it mad.

I'll be watching this one, I'm curious if anyone else has encountered this.

Colubrids will do this at times. Never seen a BP do it. Strange, but very interesting.

Jim Smith

I have never had it happen due to excitement. But Henry will wagg his tail 30 seconds before he poops. Everytime!!

my ball python did the wagging bit too just last week actually he peed that night and he was getting cranky too. I would like to know too.

My big female BP always wagged her tail when she hunted. Like a cat about to pounce. She didn't do it fast, just a slow little back and forth, back and forth, until she hit her mouse. It would stop while she ate, then with the next mouse, back and forth, back and forth.

It was funny to watch, I never knew a snake would do that. I'm not sure if yours is something different, since it sounds more agitated than what mine did.

Gale

I haven't heard of tail-wagging for food before - only mature BPs when they're "in the mood".

My best guess, judging from the nose-to-nose business and no striking, is he was one p*ssed off ball python. He probably had no interest in eating and just saw the rat as a threat. Did you hear any hissing?