Does anyone else's picky eater hide their food?

My male is a somewhat sporadic eater - not to point where I'm worried, he's steadily putting on weight and his body condition is good. He just has an odd habit I haven't heard of before - if he doesn't want his rat he won't leave it where I've dropped it in his bin, he hides it. His favored method is digging a hole in the substrate and carefully burying it, he's also stuffed it in the back of a cool hide and the latest one went in the water dish. I always check thoroughly the morning after feeding him so they don't stay in there long, and I disinfect whatever he shoved it in and remove substrate that touched it to prevent germs. I've been assuming this is just his way of saying "Gross, I don't want that! Get it out of here!" - it's definitely not accidental as I've watched him pick the rat up in his mouth and carry it away just to abandon it somewhere distant from his sleeping spot. Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior? I just want to make sure I'm not misinterpreting something that might be indicating a problem. I think this guy is just a little odd, lol, I love his weird habits but could do without this particular weirdnes.

When I've had a couple of younger snakes do this, it was because they wasted too much time and the meal wasn't warm enough for them to be interested anymore. Usually another zap with the hairdryer or a ziplock bagged meal in a bin of hot water does the trick

The worst I had was one that regurged and then cruised around a bunch ending up hiding the mess and with me needing to go on the worst kind of treasure hunt.

I wonder if your snake is just having a problem with substrate sticking on the rodent & with the rodent cooling off, so by the time he feels safe enough to eat it (hiding, out of the way) he no longer finds it appealing & loses interest.

I've never seen a snake do this, but another possibility occurs to me: Since BPs are snakes that lay low & don't travel much, it's possible that he IS deliberately removing it as far as he can from where he is holed-up, knowing that a predator (or a scavenger) that's attracted to the dead rodent might also find HIM nearby for dinner? This really makes evolutionary sense to me, & if true, it's a pretty good instinct to have.

I probably should've mentioned, he's currently taking weaned fine, the ones he's rejected have all been smalls. The weaneds he drags entirely into the hide with him to eat - I wonder if maybe he can't fit the smalls into the hide with him and is abandoning them because he can't find a "safe" place to swallow them? The heat thing is definitely something I've considered too. Sometimes they're hard to figure out - I could just let him eat weaned since that's what he likes, unless it's worth figuring out a setup that he's comfortable eating smalls in. But if the nutrition is the same I guess it doesn't really matter?

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Originally Posted by plateOfFlan

I probably should've mentioned, he's currently taking weaned fine, the ones he's rejected have all been smalls. The weaneds he drags entirely into the hide with him to eat - I wonder if maybe he can't fit the smalls into the hide with him and is abandoning them because he can't find a "safe" place to swallow them? ...

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That's entirely possible. But you made it sound as if they appeared to be buried, & that's a little different than just being abandoned.

Anyway, nobody ever said snakes were easy to figure out...:D

He puts a lot of effort into it! I feel like there's some things I'll just never figure out lol

I think we'll just have to live with the mystery. :snake: