Why does he do this?

Jackson is about 7 months old and 24" long. He is a great eater!!! Today is feeding day and I offered him a F/T rat pup which he struck at immediately. He stayed coiled around it for a good 5 minutes like he always does. Then he spit him out. He did this 5 times before he decided to eat his rat pup. Does anyone know why he may of acted this way? He has always eaten it right away before. Is it something I should be concerned about? There is a very good reptile vet about a hours drive from me. Think I need to take him in for a check up? His stool has been checked and he is parasite free. Please let me know what you think. Connie

If he's healthy, it may just be that he instinctively struck and coiled the rat pup even though he wasn't interested in actually eating it. Ball pythons often stop eating regularly during the winter months.

Remember, a dead prey item is not something that ball pythons will naturally eat ... It's my opinion that sometimes after they are trained to eat dead prey, they may get "confused" when fed ... they are hungry and they recognize the smell of the F/T rat as something to eat from their training, but their brain isn't wired to process why exactly they are eating something that isn't alive ... in the end, if your husbandry is good and the snake is well conditioned to eat F/T ... hunger almost always wins out over the "confusion" ... ;)

-adam

Adam, Thanks....that makes perfect sense to me. He did eat the rat pup...Never thought he may be confused because it is already dead!! I think my temps etc are good. He has had one shed so far in one piece. He is in a AP plastics cage 36x24x12 with flexwatt as belly heat and a floursent light that is on during the day. His warm side is staying about 92-cool side 84 with air temp in the middle of the tank at 82. Does this sound okay? Humidity is running 67% right now. connie

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Originally Posted by snakelovingrannie

Adam, Thanks....that makes perfect sense to me. He did eat the rat pup...Never thought he may be confused because it is already dead!! I think my temps etc are good. He has had one shed so far in one piece. He is in a AP plastics cage 36x24x12 with flexwatt as belly heat and a floursent light that is on during the day. His warm side is staying about 92-cool side 84 with air temp in the middle of the tank at 82. Does this sound okay? Humidity is running 67% right now. connie

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Sounds perfect.

Remember ... in his brain when he strike and coils that F/T rat he's thinking ... "how come it's not twitching and trying to get loose" ... ;) ...

Some people that feed F/T with tongs will actually grab the rodent after the snake coils it and shake it slightly to simulate the rodent trying to escape from the coils. :D

-adam

Well that explains a little mystery we always wondered about Adam! We thought it might be how you are describing it but were never sure.

After we switched all the snakes over to live feeding Mike and I noticed how much faster and more efficient they were all acting. They showed a distinctly longer time in holding the prey in their coils when eating f/t compared to live. With live it was bam! hit the prey, coil it good then eat it up! On f/t they seemed to hold their prey much longer as if waiting for it to show some sign of life or more importantly no life, before they felt they could settle in to eat.


~~Jo~~

I think some of it has to do with the fact that many rodents will feign death as a defense mechanism, so snakes tend to treat rodents that don't struggle when coiled with a lot more caution so that they don't get caught off guard.

-adam

Makes perfect sense really. Ain't Mother Nature grand! :D


~~Jo~~