Prey Stuck in Hide Opening

My BP has finally started to strike his food rather then wait for me to drop and leave. The problem is that he's always in his hide and when he does strike and the mouse gets stuck outside the hide while he has it in his grip from the inside. It doesn't seem like much of a problem now because the prey is so small but I gotta think this might pose a problem once I started feeding w/ bigger items. Anyone else have BPs that do this?

I just fed tonight and had to walk away w/ the mouse pinned up against the hide opening. Hopefully it's gone by tomorrow morning.

I’m not understanding why this is a problem? Can’t he just eat it with his head outside the hide? Mine often do.


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Originally Posted by Godzilla78

I’m not understanding why this is a problem? Can’t he just eat it with his head outside the hide? Mine often do.


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Sorry should of included a visual. He strikes it and tries to pull it back into the hide but the length of the mouse blocks the opening. It's like trying to pull a pop-sickle stick into the hide opening but it gets stuck. With bigger prey, I don't know if he'll be able to pull it inside.

They are not that stupid, he will figure it out.

Don't see it being a big problem, if he's striking the head or close to it he should be able to pull it into the hide since it wouldn't be sideways. I usually coax mine out of their hide(the ones that do have them). Just get their attention, then bring the feeder away from the hide, they will come out to eat. I only do this as one of mine misfired right into his hide, didn't clear the hole and dazed himself for a few seconds.

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Larger hide with larger opening? Increase size of the opening on the current hide? Both would solve any future issues

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Originally Posted by Momokahn

Larger hide with larger opening? Increase size of the opening on the current hide? Both would solve any future issues

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Well with the first option you get the chance of your bp not being comfortable in a bigger hide and that won't help with feeding if they get stressed

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Originally Posted by Plasma

Well with the first option you get the chance of your bp not being comfortable in a bigger hide and that won't help with feeding if they get stressed

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Agreed. I'll try and do a better job of trying to coerce him out of his hide w/ the prey. For the record, the prey was gone this morning so he was able to pull it into his hide.

My adult male spider ball python drags his prey into a hide to eat anymore. This includes the occasional medium rat I feed him on rare occasions. They don't mind at all trust me. Last feeding he dragged his small rat in half swallowed so they are pretty odd snakes indeed.

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Originally Posted by Plasma

Well with the first option you get the chance of your bp not being comfortable in a bigger hide and that won't help with feeding if they get stressed

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In all of my years I guess I have just been lucky not one of my snakes has ever needed Valium or attempted suicide to avoid the stress that is so commonly described in this forum. I guess it is just the grace and power of God that has allowed Ball Pythons to avoid extinction due to stress in the wild and in captivity.

I love the "you get the chance" quote. Another opinion or guess so commonly seen quoted. Was my quote a guess? No. And better yet none of my 3 Ball Pythons even have a hide. Two of them did until 2 months ago. Mine are so stressed they ate yesterday with 2 of them eating in their cage and the other one I fed on the living room floor while I attended to cleaning his cage. And I actually touched him after he ate and put him back in his cage. I'm still waiting for the regurge (have been for years) that is guaranteed to happen by posts I have read.