Help feeding confused spider :|

I've got four other BPs (3 I got as a hatchling and 1 as a juvenile) and none of them have any trouble feeding and are currently pounding F/T rats. Technically, the spider doesn't has any issues feeding either (more about this in a sec).

I got her as a tiny 80 gram baby back in June, since then she has fed a number of times and moved from mice to rats without any problem. Now, the issue is... she's crazy about food (and being a spider, she does get very wobbly when there's food around): she strikes, coils, etc. BUT, if she doesn't get the right angle to swallow the rat in one go, she'll drop it and continue "hunting" for it. Only she just won't touch the rat again, even if she's laying right on top of it.

Every other snake of mine will detach from the rat (or whatever they're being fed) if the angle isn't right, position themselves and actually swallow it. She doesn't.

I'll feed her, she strikes, drops the rat so I go back and dangle it for her again, she strikes again, drops the rat again, rinse repeat the whole night long. Even if left overnight, she doesn't touch it.

I'm actually wondering if this might be a vision issue rather than just her being a wobbly spider, because if her rat isn't considerably warm she'll try and strike at the tongs or my fingers instead. Still, she's never shown any other signs of being visually impaired.

Any ideas?

I do think this is a vision thing rather then a spider thing. My spider girl has no sort of problem like this but my boy with no problem does the exact same thing. He will literally lay on top of the prey hunting for it. The only advice I have it to make sure you focus the heating on the head and make sure your are heating it up enough. I feel like the times my boy does this the most is when I don’t take as much care in getting the prey the right temperature or don’t focus the heat on the head as much so he strikes the side


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Even the snakes I have that I know see well and are not spiders will do similar things if the prey is not heated correctly. The heat sense overrides vision. They smell rat and will strike at the hottest thing in the vicinity. If they drop it and it cools down too fast, many will not eat it.

I am the owner of a 7 year old spider. Mine does have slight wobble. Actually technically it is moderate but with a low stress environment he is not displaying symptoms. He does have strike issues still. One of the solutions I have found to striking and missing is to slowly draw him away from his initial point of interest. This seems to get him to calm down a bit and focus on his prey. I basically just dance backward the rat until he comes out in an open spot then i hold it in place and let him strike. On the times he misses i slowly dangle it closer to him. 90% of the time this works without issue.

On those times when he misses more than twice, I always have to go and warm up his prey again to get him to restrike.

I strongly believe it is excitement, neurology, anxiety, and coordination or lack there in. For me and this might be useless to you, I have to get him to focus and calm down before striking. Now on occasion he just is too eager and will throw his entire body at the rat and engulf it but I do try and always get him to concentrate before going in for the kill.


So if this works... get you spider to focus and if needed reheat the prey after repeated misstrikes.

Are you sure the strike isn't out of aggression? Usually a food strike will strike and wrap and always eat, but an aggressive strike won't wrap the snake around the rat, never gets eaten, and repeating an offering with an aggressive snake will put it off of food even more. Sometimes I offer once or twice before I realize that it's striking out of aggression, I'll just give up on that snake. Or better yet follow up the next day with a live offering.

Yes, she'll strike and coil around the rat and not let go for a while (at least 5 minutes, if not longer). I'm pretty sure (but of course I could be wrong) that's not an aggression strike!