eating issues, not a not eating thread.

Fed Kaa tonight and he too the fuzzy by the belly in the middle. He was struggling trying to back the fuzzy out of his mouth. He did this for about 10 minutes. I had to grab behind his jaws and pull the fuzzy out with tongs. :(
After I put him back into the feeding tank, I reintroduced the fuzzy to him which he took more cautiously. Well the fuzzy caused a mess so to add to my stress and his, I had to give him a bit of a bath as I didn't want him to go to bed with fuzzy guts on him. He ended up bathed and dried and back to his cage.

Was I wrong to help? I feel like a bad caregiver for adding to his stress :(

Why did you have to take the fuzzy away? Snakes have been eating for a billion years, you assume he couldn't figure it out? Sometimes they grab it by the middle and walk the jaws over to the nose end, sometimes they let it go and look for the nose. I personally wouldn't have pulled it out for risk of damaging teeth and for stressing the snake out for no reason.

He was trying to use his body to get it out of his mouth. Like making a loop and pulling his head thru backwards. He kept his mouth open and looked like he was trying to get it out of his mouth. I didnt know what else to do.
The last time he took a fuzzy in the middle he spit it out and found the right way to eat it. He's also a juvenile so I didn't know what else to do.

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Originally Posted by interloc

Why did you have to take the fuzzy away? Snakes have been eating for a billion years, you assume he couldn't figure it out? Sometimes they grab it by the middle and walk the jaws over to the nose end, sometimes they let it go and look for the nose. I personally wouldn't have pulled it out for risk of damaging teeth and for stressing the snake out for no reason.

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x2

Also why are you feeding him in a separate tank? Food aggression doesn't seem to occur in ball pythons.

I always feed in a separate tank. For one it gives me time to clean the housing tank. For two makes clean up a less of a mess in the instance the fuzzy doesn't stay in one piece during eating.

So now I know for next time leave him alone no matter how long it takes for him to eat.

I'm fairly new to this. I thought I was helping.

My BP tries all sorts of ways to eat her meal. Sometimes she'll try taking it by the middle, but will spit it out and go for the head. Other times she'll try to eat it butt first, and it just doesn't work out, so she'll have to start over AGAIN. Last time I fed her was the most amusing for me, she didn't grab the body at all, she just started nomming on one of the feet and just chewed on it for a good minute or two. :D I can see your confusion though. If mine looked like she was having a real problem getting detached from the mouse, the thought would probably cross my mind to help also, as I'm also pretty new to BPs. Although, I would probably talk myself out of it, as I'd be way too scared that I would injure her in the process. I'd probably just end up sitting there and watching her until she fixed the problem herself.

Feed your ball python, then leave it (if f/t or pre killed). Animals have instincts and either he will figure it out or he won't. Truly. The next morning you will find either the rat uneaten or you will find a fat happy BP. There is no reason for you to help and there is especially no reason for you to give it a bath because it has rat guts all over him. Maybe 2 days afterward (at the least) give him a warm soak. Besides that, it's really unnecessary and probably detrimental.
Remember these guys have survival instincts and they will eventually figure it out

Hm mine sometimes gets the rat in the wrong spot, taking more than 10 minutes to find the head. I don't disturb her at all, the last thing i want is for her to het freaked out and abandon the rat.
Next time if he gets it wrong, just leave him alone with it till he figures it out unless he's obviously given up on the rat.


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I appreciate the feedback. I know better next time.

It's a snake.. A wild animal.. A baby I assume if you're feeding it fuzzies. Just let it figure out what to do on its own. You can cause way more damage (to the mouth) and stress by doing what you did, than if you'd left it alone.