the most horrendous eating habits!

Bela has the weirdest feeding methods ever documented in a Bp. Here's how her feeding went yesterday...
I whacked a nice rat weanling; it died instantly. I dangled it in front of Bela, and she snapped it up and constricted and stayed like that for a few minutes. Then she lets go, just like most Bps do before they start swallowing. BUT no! It seems as though after she let the rat go, she lost it; she began searching the entire tank for it, not able to find it! She'd literally go right past the thing lying right in front of her on the cage floor!!
So I picked the rat up by the tail, blocking her head from my hand with her hidespot. I dangled the rat above her again, and she opened her mouth and started swallowing it, taking it right from my hand! I gently set it down after she got the whole head in her mouth, and she ate it. Then after she finally swallowed the thing, she coils up and puts her head in the striking position, as if looking for another meal!
Bela is seriously the cutest, most adorable, and stupidest snake to ever live. :)

Doh ... at least she ate it :)

lol thats so funny!

Yup...
You should see my Ball Pythons at feeding time...They sure lose their cuteness in a hurry - as soon as they detect the odor of rodents in the snake room they start becoming agitated and will often lash out at empty air in their frenzy to feed. I have to use a snake hook to lift them out of their tanks and put them in their respective feed boxes as it would be unsafe for me to handle them at this point. They are all 100% pure mean eating machines when they want to feed. And after they have all fed I use the hook to put them back in their hides as they are still in KILL mode and will strike out at me - after they have settled down for awhile ( say five or six hours they are back to normal...but I always leave them alone for 48 hours after feeding to avoid any regurges....

EyeLashViper

Lol!

i think our snakes have become very slow eaters. they seem so used to having a rat dangled above, they hardly strike at all, only enough to get the rat down, and then they take their sweet time eating it after. sometimes roo will grab the rat, cruise around a little, then eat. i think that is good that they feel safe enough to eat that slow.