Tail Wagging Before Eating

So, yesterday was feeding day for everyone and this was the first time I tried feeding a rat to my normal girl Isabelle. I'm one of the fortunate ones out there that has a snake that'll eat anything you throw her way and this rat was no exception. Though I did notice something pretty weird if not absolutely adorable (made me giggle) right before she went for the kill. When she went into the pre-strike position, she wagged her tail like a madwoman! I could have mistaken her for a rattlesnake the way she was wiggling that little tail around! The only reason I think this is slightly odd is because the only time I've ever heard of a BP wagging their tail was when they were breeding or "in the season". I haven't bred her at all...ever. So this seems pretty peculiar. In all honesty I think she was just super excited but who knows. I don't think it's anything unhealthy but correct me if I'm wrong.

TL;DR - OMG she wagged her tail HOW CUTE! :D Anyone else see this behavior while feeding?

Nope, but that sounds great! Can you try to catch her on video?

It sounds like she was thinking "gimme, gimme, gimme" :P

I'll try to catch her in the act next week so I can post.

It was just like, "WTH? I've owned you for 6 or so years and now you're laying on this "cute" act? What is this?! I thought you were cool Isabelle! Now you're just a big squishy softy that wags her tail when she's happy." :P

This occurs in multiple species that are not otherwise known for caudal luring (wiggling their tails to attract prey). It seems to be a case of overstimulation - think of a hyper kid with a sweet tooth who knows he's about to get a piece of cake. The snake smells the prey item, it's about to eat, those feeding instincts are going a mile a minute, and the tail wagging seems to be kind of an outlet for the excess energy...you know, since snakes' mouths don't water when they're amped up about food. ;)

It's fun to see, isn't it? :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kara

This occurs in multiple species that are not otherwise known for caudal luring (wiggling their tails to attract prey). It seems to be a case of overstimulation - think of a hyper kid with a sweet tooth who knows he's about to get a piece of cake. The snake smells the prey item, it's about to eat, those feeding instincts are going a mile a minute, and the tail wagging seems to be kind of an outlet for the excess energy...you know, since snakes' mouths don't water when they're amped up about food. ;)

It's fun to see, isn't it? :D

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X2 I have one snake and one lizard that do this.

I had a female who wagged.

Not fast like yours, but slowly, like a cat about to pounce. I never knew snakes could tail wag period unless they were rattlesnakes. But every single feeding, before she would strike, she'd back into her strike curve, and her tail would start to wag. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, them BOOM no more prey!

I always laughed to see her do it.

Gale

thats cute :) my leopard gecko wags her tail right before she strikes at crickets

Zina has/had an Angolan python who would wag her tail before she ate. SO cute, I'll try to find the video. ^-^ :D

Depending on the circumstance, "tail wagging" can mean:

1. "Oh please, do me, do me" (from a receptive female) often accompanied by an everted cloaca pressed to the substrate, spreading fluids about.

2. "Oh noooo, I'm afraid someone's trying to do me" (particularly with young, naive females), usually with the female seeming to continually flee from a male's attention.

3. "I'm feeling really intimidated by this situation right now, so if you don't back off and get the heck outta my grill, I'm going to have to change my alert level to DefCon 4 and launch my teeth at you." Kinda cute with a tiny snake; not so much with any of the fully-grown giant snakes or irascible blood pythons.

And maybe what Kyra said regarding caudal luring in species not known for that trait. I might have seen something like that with ball pythons long ago when I fed live rodents, but can't recall seeing such any time recently.

Edit: Funny, I ended up in this thread by searching on "Angolan" to see who else might be keeping that species and didn't notice that it was a few weeks old, and then started reading and forgot about the Angolan search and replied. Oops.