im baffled

i dont get why my ball python cant figure out where the rats face is.... hes even tried to bend the rats body in half to swallow it... hes tried swallowing it backwards by the stomach, arms first.... i dont get it.... he should be old enough to know where to start swallowing. this always happens unless he gets the nose on the first strike..... does anyone have any tips for me to get my bp to learn? hes 7 months and eats like a champ (when he finds the nose).

I really doubt there's any "method" to training your snake to eat head first. As long as it's eating regularly don't worry. Some will do it their whole lives with no troubles. SnakebytesTV on YouTube did a whole episode on snakes eating butt first.

Do you feed live or f/t?

frozen thawed.... and he tried butt first but ended up letting go of it when he had just passed the back legs.... so after 4 hours, 5 strikes, 20 constrictions, and countless amounts of swallow attempts he finally got it and only because when he was constricting i lifted up the head by the ear with my tongs he saw the nose and struck it, then he released 5 minutes later and swallowed it..... one heck of a night... if im lucky he'll strike the nose the first time and its no problem, but not tonight. i wonder if its the size of the feeder because this only started happening when i upped the size

Try heating up the head significantly more than the rest of the rat - use a hair dryer or leave the rat's head on a heat pad for a couple minutes before offering it to your snake.

-Jen

Little Dude used to do that every time, it would usually take him 2 hours to eat a mouse. He grew out of it eventually, I think around 9 months.

Thanks for the info guys... Ill definitely try heating up the head more than the body.... But other than that I guess I'll just try let him grow out of it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LLLReptile

Try heating up the head significantly more than the rest of the rat - use a hair dryer or leave the rat's head on a heat pad for a couple minutes before offering it to your snake.

-Jen

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x2 this ^

That's too funny, typically they learn by that age, but maybe he's a late bloomer ;) I don't see how you could do anything, but let him figure it out on his own.

Yah I thought about that but what amount of time should I leave him be and to what amount of time of the feeder sitting out would I throw it away if he didnt figure it out... I'm just worried he won't figure it out and won't get any food in him... And if he doesn't figure it out do I skip to the next feeding? Or would I try again the next day?