Striking toward ceramic heat lamp while feeding

Our 10 month sweetie pie normal switched over beautifully from live to ft, but every now and then Millie's aim will be off, and she will veer off from her strike toward her rat and head toward her heat lamp instead. We figured she was just confused by the heat source, so we've been turning it off and moving it away from her tank during feeding. Millie is a little fussy about the temp of her rat, so we use a heat gun to make sure it's right around 95F, since she'll hesitate/ignore it if under 90F.

Last night we fed her and she took her rat like a champ, even though she's in deep shed. Millie was coiled around it and we put the lamp back and left her to eat in privacy. A couple minutes later I heard multiple banging noises coming from the tank and went back to find she'd dropped the rat and had struck instead at the lamp and managed to hook a tooth on the screen. She got loose before I could figure out how to help her.

Obviously we'll be keeping the lamp away until she's got the rat completely down from now on, but is this normal? I checked her today (even though she's completely blue and her eyes are milky white) and her mouth looks fine. Should she see a vet to have her mouth checked out?

Edit: Oh, and she ate the rat afterward without a problem.

There are two things that a ball python uses as feeding signals, scent and heat signature. All living warm blooded animals have a heat signature. When you drop a dead rodent it will have a scent which it recognizes and then it will go for the heat signature. This is how folks get bit sometimes when feeding because your hand has a heat signature and if a snake smells rodent it could mistake your hand as lunch. That's why he is striking at the heat.

Id think with her so deep in shed that she possibly mistook the heat from the lamp when you put it back as more prey. She ate fine afterwards id say she is fine!

In feeding mode, a ball python will strike at anything with enough heat to be considered food. I'd imagine that she went into that feeding crazy and felt the rat getting cooler to she went after the more intriguing heat source. I wouldn't worry about her mouth unless you notice her not wanting to eat or any swelling.

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

There are two things that a ball python uses as feeding signals, scent and heat signature. All living warm blooded animals have a heat signature. When you drop a dead rodent it will have a scent which it recognizes and then it will go for the heat signature. This is how folks get bit sometimes when feeding because your hand has a heat signature and if a snake smells rodent it could mistake your hand as lunch. That's why he is striking at the heat.

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That was what we thought was happening with the lamp. You mentioned dropping the rat, though. I hold it out for her by the base of the tail with the plastic coated monster tweezers (technical term ;)) until she grabs it. Is it better just to drop it on the substrate?

What you're doing is just fine. As long as she grabs it!

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Originally Posted by Luciferskeeper

Id think with her so deep in shed that she possibly mistook the heat from the lamp when you put it back as more prey. She ate fine afterwards id say she is fine!

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Originally Posted by Flikky

In feeding mode, a ball python will strike at anything with enough heat to be considered food. I'd imagine that she went into that feeding crazy and felt the rat getting cooler to she went after the more intriguing heat source. I wouldn't worry about her mouth unless you notice her not wanting to eat or any swelling.

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Thanks! She had me worried!