Kills and then sniffs?

I'm feeding my BP as i type, i feed live mice and after he kills them, he sniffs them everywhere before he eats it, he tries to eat it backwards sometimes, he even tries to eat it from the side, eventually he figures out where the head is and eats it but, ah there we go he finally found the face hahaha, does any of your BP's do this???

Definitely. I'm pretty sure they smell the body to find the head. I imagine that they have been programmed to smell both ends and then swallow from the end that doesn't smell horrible lol. All animal's fur point away from the head (probably to limit air resistance when running, among other reasons) so it makes sense to swallow from the end that offers the least resistance going down.

Yep, mine do it too. One more than the others.

all of mine do it. it is completely normal.

My normal bp smells, drags, and wrestles with her mouse before eventually starting to swallow. She may even start to swallow and spit the mouse out and then restart to swallowing. Sometimes this goes on for a few hours before she is finished eating. :snake:

My old lady saw Pancake doing this and yells to me " I think he's raping the mouse " from the other room lol

What a funny post. I think its a predatory experience thing. I have snakes that will grab at an instant face, neck, body etc. then readjust after constricting them on the other hand my 11 year old bush baby girl is the perfect opportunistic predator and will wait sometimes hours for the single strike perfect grab and after constricting simply continue her grab to a swallow, rarely readjusting - I think it comes with experience and the snakes level of predatory skills.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reno-cg

programmed to smell both ends and then swallow from the end that doesn't smell horrible lol.

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LOL

Normal to sniff their prey yes, not so normal to eat it backwards or sideways.
This would tell me I'm feeding them too small of a prey item(In General).

One of my boas does the same thing. She'll rub her nose over the whole body hard enough to ruffle up all it's fur then finally go back to the head to eat it. Their mannerisms when it comes to eating can be pretty funny sometimes.

I have never seen a BP that doesnt do this:rofl::rofl: