Weird behavior eating

The last few times I've fed my ~10 month old (300g) baby ball he strikes without hesitation but when he starts to make his way to the head he lets go of the prey and starts sniffing it. After a few minutes he goes back to his dinner like nothing happened. Anyone else has a snake that does this?

Only possible reason I can think of is that he smells the mice that goes to my other smaller one and get a little confused (he's on rat pups).

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All of my snakes do that at times quite a bit.

Snakes are always doing strange things.. You'll never reall know why hahahaha. Some even try and eat without strangling the prey, some strangle but dont bite & just wrap around... My Ball has smelled the mice and not stuck, then go back 2 min later and strikes.... balls are harder to understand than some other smart snakes like Retics and Burms... Why they do what they do is always odd.

I have one of those weirdos that constricted without biting. That WAS rather strange. She's only done that once, so far, though ;)

I have another one that drives me crazy, though. OMG, I can't watch her eat. (they never see me watching, I peek around the corner)

She will strike. Then let go and sniff all around. Then she proceeds to try to eat it anyway but the right way. Backwards. SIDEWAYS (no kidding). Leg first. I've seen her do all of that. She will struggle and struggle.
Trying to remove it and getting her to start over doesn't work. Lining it up just right so she grabs it by the head doesn't work. She lets go and then starts over anywhere BUT the head.

And yes, the FT rat is warmed up appropriately. None of the others do that. Ever. I even tried warming the head more then the rest of the body. Makes no difference.

I literally have to walk away and not watch, LOL.

She always gets it eventually. Usually she gives up chewing the foot, middle or butt and goes to the head. But I swear she works so hard, it just kills me...

Woo thanks all! It's good to hear that's not something to worry about.
I'm still fairly new so when I notice something my snakes are doing something new I still get a bit more worried that I probably should.

If it weren't for this forum I'm not sure what would be of my life lol..

LOL at one point, when I offer food to one of my BP's, he just goes towards it... slowly opens his mouth... and starts swallowing. No constricting or anything. He's only done this twice though. Any other times, he's struck hard and fast.

Often they'll strike and constrict, let go and start sniffing it, and then give up if they don't find the head within a couple minutes. That's the most frustrating. Then I have to re-heat and offer again, and they'll strike and constrict again, as if nothing happened.

On my first feed my snake struck the belly and constricted. Started eating from the belly realized it wasn't going to work and got frustrated. The best way to describe it is the way bam-bam from flintstones acted lol


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My youngest does that, if she even bothers to strike it. Usually she prefers for me to just lay it in the tub and then she'll make her way to it, sniff it up and down, and start eating. She almost never strikes or constricts it.

I remember on my 3rd feeding after the strike & constrict, my lil girl was trying to eat sideways. She struggled for few minutes, trying to swallow from the belly rather than head. Obviously it wasn't working and I was panicking watching her puzzling over her meal. I was debating on whether to adjust the head or leave it be.
She was eating fine for the first two meals, dunno why suddenly got confused on her 3rd [emoji28]
I was half panicking half laughing watching her figuring out on how to swallow her prey.


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Lol mine has never tried to eat from the side which seems to happen a lot. However, a few times for some reason he just wanted to start from the butt which looked like it was no fun at all.

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