BP forgotten how to eat?

I'm having a weird issue. So when I try to feed my BP, he is immediately very interested, and I get a quick strike, followed by him constricting while I wiggle it around. Then he usually slurps it down head first. The last two times I've tried to feed however, after constricting, he tries to swallow, but just gets it horrifically wrong. He usually starts at the head (I try my best to make sure he's facing head first when striking) but then somehow manages to slide round and try and swallow from the shoulder. Then he lets go, boops his head into a variety of things, including the rat, before trying to swallow again, this time getting it super wrong and trying to swallow it from the middle, as in genuinely biting the belly and spending 5 mins trying to work out why it wont fit in his mouth horizontally. Last time he gave up, I reheated, and tried again, and he ate without striking (never seen that before), this time he refused when I reheated.

Sorry if my description doesnt make much sense, difficult to show and I didn't take photos. Essentially he's suddenly getting the angles of swallowing all wrong. Like a dum dum.

What size prey are you feeding? Sounds like it may be too big.

Mine did this as well as he was going into shed I think he may've been somewhat visually impaired. :)

No recently shed, and last time I fed him a 20 gram rat and a pinkie (he got it wrong with both) this time just a 23 gram rat (he weighs 312)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dumdum333

No recently shed, and last time I fed him a 20 gram rat and a pinkie (he got it wrong with both) this time just a 23 gram rat (he weighs 312)

---

Oh, then size wise prey should be fine. Good luck with your snake!

Happens pretty often with at least one of my BP's too... about every other time LOL. You just have to reheat and reoffer.

Ball pythons can be dum dums. Usually this gets better as they get older and more experienced with eating. But sometimes it still happens.

Sometimes they get wicked excited and sort of forget they are supposed to eat the rodent. Sometimes mine will release the prey and rub her face all over it and then just cruise around it. I'll pick it back up and give it a blast of heat with the hairdryer and then present it again and she eats it. Unless the gets the head on the first strike. Then she pounds it.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I've seen quite a few times where the snake will strike, constrict, and then ignore it for a few minutes. I just leave it alone, they always go back and eat it. I feed in the evening and leave them alone with it all night, they are always all gone by morning.

Pretty normal. They aren't so smart. Does it happen to be a spider? I've seen their wobble throw them off striking and swallowing.

Love my BP's but they sure are the dumber of the Species lol.