Stories about Crazy/Unusual Feeding

well ill start off by sayin hi im a noob... kinda i own 2 bps a female normal and a male cinny i have only had 1 story for each snake but to me they will be pretty memorable i watched my female try to constrict a mouse one time with a hold on its tail instead of its body that was awkward but she figured it out and got a hold on its body. the story about my male just happened tonight i fed him a little hopper mouse and he either doesnt like to or has not learned to constrict the mouse or rat until it is dead he did this before with a rat pup but it was not as entertaining as this event as he tried to constrict this thing he also started eatin it and then stopped tryin to constrict it the best part is that he was eating the mouse backwards and it was biting him which caused him to whip around violently tryin to kill the mouse dont worry i checked him over he has no injuries he will be fine ill check again after a day or two but finally he got it down and i then realized i didnt have my camera or my phone out at all during all of that so im sorry but

my point is i wanted to hear some of ur stories from the more experienced owners and or breeders about some of the good feeding sessions u have had

I've had a few interesting stories, for sure! When I first got my JCP he tried to eat a (f/t) fuzzy sideways, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't going down... I ended up having to "scare" him into dropping it (tapped him on the head with the tongs), and he then proceeded to eat it butt-first instead. And just today when I was feeding the crew live mice, I opened the tub of my 1100g black pastel, and he grabbed the mouse straight from my hand! Guess he was hungry, LOL. :weirdface I've done more live feedings than I could count, and that has never happened to me... I must admit, it made my heart skip a beat.

Finally there's my little granite corn snake, Eddie, who is the FASTEST eater I've ever witnessed... I timed his feeding one time, and it was around 20 seconds from constriction to fully swallowed. I actually got a video of my little speed-eater:

YouTube - Eddie eating

P.S. That's crazy how a mouse was biting your snake while being eaten! Think I'd probably do the same, though, if a snake was trying to eat me alive. :oops: One of my baby corns will only eat live pinkies, and she usually forgets to constrict them - the sound they make while being swallowed is horrible.

The last few times I've fed Bones, it was pretty eventful. When I first got him, he would not eat if I was watching. I'd have to lay the mouse outside of whichever hide he was in, and then leave the room. A few minutes later, I'd come back, and it would be gone.

Now that I've had him for a while, he seems to have gotten comfortable with eating in front of me. A few weeks ago, I had him out of the tank for a few minutes. I put a F/T mouse on the table next to his tank. He was partially wrapped around my wrist, with the rest of his body hanging off. As I moved my arm over towards the tank to put him back in, he struck the mouse while he was still wrapped around my arm. He also tried to eat it... while still on my arm.

When I fed him this past Saturday, I dangled the mouse in front of him and it didn't even take 5 seconds for him to grab it. He had it sideways in his mouth, but eventually ended up swallowing it head first. When he had it almost all the way down, part of the tail was sticking out of his mouth and he looked up at me like he was saying "what are you looking at"?

I'm sure I'll have many more stories as time goes on. He's a great eater.

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Originally Posted by Lolo76

I've had a few interesting stories, for sure! When I first got my JCP he tried to eat a (f/t) fuzzy sideways, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't going down... I ended up having to "scare" him into dropping it (tapped him on the head with the tongs), and he then proceeded to eat it butt-first instead.

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Oh, my black pastel used to do that when he was younger! Slow learner, too, because he kept it up for the better part of a year. And when he got frustrated, he'd try to drag the mouse into his hide sideways, and couldn't figure out why it didn't fit. GENIUS.

My boa ate a rat sideways, that's about as strange as it gets at my place.

Just last night, one of the big normals wouldn't strike the rat. It was a little smaller than usual. So, after our spider girl ate, I tried this rat on her as a second. She struck instantly and missed, hitting the water dish. Ouch!

After recomposing herself, about 10 seconds later, she nailed it, but grabbed around the lower half. This was a small hopper rat. It turned and was about to bite my snake. So I flipped it in the head and knocked it out. That was different than normal.

BTW, we just picked these snakes up, and they've only ever been fed live. Next time, they'll be pre-killed.

I got a few stories:

1.) I have a western hognose - not a constrictor - they have venom that comes out of their rear fangs, so they "subdue" the prey by biting it and chewing it so that their rear fangs engage and get the venom out. But, I don't think the venom is strong enough to kill the rat, it paralyzes it though. Anyway, the first time we fed this guy, we put a live hopper in there (I feed live to my bp's) and he did his hissing and rattling and cobra neck-spread thing then dropped his neck on top of the rat (now this rat is fast but that snake is faster somehow!) to pin the rat, sat there for a few seconds then bit the rat on the rump. The rat was screaming horribly while being chewed. I was crying so hard (the breeder rats are my pets). After that, we never fed that boy live rats again. We prekill his food. We switched him to frogs a while back because he stopped eating dead rats. Now those are interesting. We don't prekill the frogs and he would bite the frogs on the rump. I don't feel bad for the frogs for some reason.

2.) I have lots of stories about my spider who is not too bright - he doesn't have a head wobble but man, I guess he's got some imbalance going on because he's just not an accurate striker. Sometimes he would strike and hit glass intead. Sometimes he'd hit in an awkward part of the rat, so after constricting, he would let go of the rat completely and try to find its head!

3.) We have a pastel bp that was just staring at the rat at first. We weren't sure if she was going to eat or not - she was alert but she didn't have her neck lifted up like she always does when she's getting ready to strike. We were getting ready to take the rat out when the rat went psycho and bit the snake on the nose! Man, it was fast... snake retracted her head, coiled the rest of her neck up and wham! Rat was a goner. There was a little blood on the snake's nose. We put ointment on it and it healed up ok. That's one of the reasons most people don't feed live.

4.) Have you ever seen a mama snake who is maternally incubating getting fed? It's a sight to watch. For the first 2 feedings, we would uncoil the snake out of the eggs and feed her in a separate container. But the snake is really really aggressive while incubating. It's a big pain to have to uncoil her (have to put towel on her head, etc. etc.) because she would strike at the smallest provocation. So, the next feedings, we would just put a rat next to the egg box while we hold its tail with tongs. The mother snake would peek her head out of the egg box, then strike and coil at the rat while half of her body is still coiled around the eggs. Then when the rat is dead, she'd drag it all the way back into the egg box and eat it there. Really wierd.

That's my contribution. :)

Lolo - That corn is the definition of "pounding down a meal". That was awesome!

I don't really have any weird or crazy stories yet. How are you guys holding the F/T in the tongs? I always grab by the butt/back so that Eva can strike at it head first, and she doesn't have to reposition herself to eat it. The only thing I'm pleased with is as soon as she sees the food, she's on it like white on rice.

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Originally Posted by The Hedgehog

I don't really have any weird or crazy stories yet. How are you guys holding the F/T in the tongs? I always grab by the butt/back so that Eva can strike at it head first, and she doesn't have to reposition herself to eat it. The only thing I'm pleased with is as soon as she sees the food, she's on it like white on rice.

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"Like white on rice and a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snow storm!" That's what my best friend always says, haha! :P

I grab the mouse by the hind legs and base of the tail. My snake always seems to grab it sideways, though. :confused:

I feed the bigger two with the forceps and the little BRB with tongs. Usually I just hold it with enough pressure by the tail that it doesn't drop, but when it strikes and curls up, it takes the rat with it.

Reading the live feeding mishaps, I'm glad I feed f/t.

A couple weeks ago when my snake ate his face....T_T

His bottom jaw tooth hooked on a male mouse's manly parts...and he literally swallowed his own face as he swallowed the mouse. He only had a top jaw..now bottom half of his face...His bottom jaws were in his throat and poking out the bottom of his throat and they were twisted on top of eachother. I had to push them out of his throat and untwist them....it was pretty scary.

wow these stories are awesome. hope i have something interesting to add to this when i get my baby home...she's apparently a really good feeder so i'm sure i'll see her hammer her food.

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Originally Posted by Bones

"Like white on rice and a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snow storm!" That's what my best friend always says, haha! :P

I grab the mouse by the hind legs and base of the tail. My snake always seems to grab it sideways, though. :confused:

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same technique as yours and my snakes does grab it sideways too..

We fed our ball python live for about 8 months (until just last week) and regularly I'd have mice that would TRY and bite back. I would cram the end of my tongs in the mouse's mouth so it could only bite down on metal, until it was dead.

Now I've gained enough confidence in my ball's appetite that I switched to f/t small rats! I was super excited when she finally took a wiggling rat off the tongs... that was last week. Today we just fed her her second rat, and she swallowed it backwards. both the back legs were hooked on her jaw and it wasn't going anywhere. I tried to intervene once it looked like she was trying to unlatch on it, and I tried to pull it out with the tongs, which sucked and failed. so I grabbed its front leg with my hand and tried to yank, but that just made her constrict all over again. it was kinda funny and kinda scary. for a while I tried to hold one of the legs forward so she could cram it in her mouth and that didn't work much either, but by this point, that little rat was so manhandled, she had it quite folded, and managed to get it down.

I got most of it on camera with my blackberry and I'm debating putting it on youtube, but I don't want a bunch of strangers telling me how much of an idiot I am, lol.

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Originally Posted by AkHerps

A couple weeks ago when my snake ate his face....T_T

His bottom jaw tooth hooked on a male mouse's manly parts...and he literally swallowed his own face as he swallowed the mouse. He only had a top jaw..now bottom half of his face...His bottom jaws were in his throat and poking out the bottom of his throat and they were twisted on top of eachother. I had to push them out of his throat and untwist them....it was pretty scary.

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:O Good Lord!!!!!

We have had one take 5 hours to eat once. I have my bee that likes to "make a little love" to it prior to eating. Rubs all over it and then cuddles with it for a while. Of course this is AFTER he kills it..:cool: We had our spider....which is a garbage can just start sucking it down while it was still alive. Then once our new little black pastel decided it was too exhausted to strike it. I knocked it out and put it in his coil and THEN he decided to squeeze. OYE...

My husband was also bit...(his own fault) when one of ours got a little over zealous and went for his hand while he was taking out the hide. As soon as she did it I think she realized....OH NO...I bit my Pops....:oops:

Usually feedings go normally over here but last feeding day something strange happened.

For some reason my big Normal girl was starving and I only thawed out one rat for her. I had a leftover live rat so I decided to give it to her instead of putting it in the CO2 chamber and then the freezer. As far as I know she's always been on F/T so I made sure to watch her.

She went crazy and went around her water bowl to strike. She was constricting and everything was fine until she started jerking around. I wasn't sure what was going on. The rat was biting her pretty hard on the neck and by the time I noticed what was happening it was too late to get in there. Sharon (the snakes name:)) had the snake by the bum and was dragging it around her tub.. She just did not want to let go. She was hanging half out of her tub but I knew better then to get in there.. I let her do her thing.

She was still holding it by the bum when I told her she has to let go of it LOL. Well she did let go and ithe rat jumped out of the tub.. In mid air she caught it again and she constricted it. 3/4ths of her body was hanging out of the tub so I carefully picked her up and put her back in. Tongs in hand I held the rats mouth this time .. just in case. She won the fight and she was very fat and happy afterwards.

I put some antibiotic cream on her boo boo and all's well. The crazy part? I got it all on video. Never expected to catch all that on vid. However, I don't know if I want to post it as the video may seem to some like I was irresonsible for letting her go through that even though there was nothing I could've really done..

Anyway.. Fun thread. :)

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Originally Posted by Sarin

Usually feedings go normally over here but last feeding day something strange happened.

For some reason my big Normal girl was starving and I only thawed out one rat for her. I had a leftover live rat so I decided to give it to her instead of putting it in the CO2 chamber and then the freezer. As far as I know she's always been on F/T so I made sure to watch her.

She went crazy and went around her water bowl to strike. She was constricting and everything was fine until she started jerking around. I wasn't sure what was going on. The rat was biting her pretty hard on the neck and by the time I noticed what was happening it was too late to get in there. Sharon (the snakes name:)) had the snake by the bum and was dragging it around her tub.. She just did not want to let go. She was hanging half out of her tub but I knew better then to get in there.. I let her do her thing.

She was still holding it by the bum when I told her she has to let go of it LOL. Well she did let go and ithe rat jumped out of the tub.. In mid air she caught it again and she constricted it. 3/4ths of her body was hanging out of the tub so I carefully picked her up and put her back in. Tongs in hand I held the rats mouth this time .. just in case. She won the fight and she was very fat and happy afterwards.

I put some antibiotic cream on her boo boo and all's well. The crazy part? I got it all on video. Never expected to catch all that on vid. However, I don't know if I want to post it as the video may seem to some like I was irresonsible for letting her go through that even though there was nothing I could've really done..

Anyway.. Fun thread. :)

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WOW that seems like some crazy stuff she dropped it it jumped and she grabbed it again i have to see that if u dont post it on the thread please send it to me that has to be awesome to see and u were right about not doing anything about the rat its either u deal with 1 wound or 2 because u know that rat would bite u too so i would have done the same just let it play out and be standing by ready to catch a run away rat good story

well once my BP striked at a small rat and as he pulled it the thing ripped in half! it was so disgusting!!!

We have a carpet python who always knows when its feeding time. She'll go up in her tree, and wait at the top of her tank for us to get close. Then she starts striking and going nuts before we even have the screen off. She'll lunge up to 2 feet out of her tank to grab the food. My husband is REALLY lucky she's never gotten him instead of the mouse. She doesn't care if its live, f/t, she just WANTS TO EAT THE MOUSE. She also constricts, and eats hanging upside down.

We also have a blood who strikes so hard, almost every time she rips the mouse in two. Gross.

The first time I went to feed my BP, she tried to eat the thing sideways. took a few hours before I was finally able to make her drop it and try again head first. She's done this a few times here and there, but since that first time she's pretty much been good, and now when she does go sideways, she'll eventually realize she's wrong and will adjust...

Which is why her feeding a few weeks ago was so weird. She grabbed the mouse(F/T weanling) in the middle of its body. I figured she's eventually give up as usual, except instead, she proceeds to bend the mouse in half so it's head is between its legs, and eats the mouse-ball from the back to the head/feet.

That was when i decided to just throw away the remaining weanlings instead of finishing them up.

i was feeding my 2200 gram normal ball one day. i threw in a male rat(cant remember if it was live or f/t)
i was watching her constrict when all of a sudden the rats scrotum became a balloon ....lol. the rats guts pretty much got squeezed into the scrotum and it ballooned out. crazy.

another time i was feeding a small childrens python. this snake liked to sit in its tree right next to the screen and eat from tongs through a plugged hole in the top. i took the plug off then realized my tongs were out of reach. i had the tank half balanced on my leg and the stand the mouse in the other hand. the childrens came out the hole and grabbed my thumb and pulled my thumb into the hole on the lid. then constricted my thumb locking it into the lid as i couldnt pull the snake off or through the hole. i ended up unlocking the hood one handed then placing the tank back on the shelf and having my wife help pull the snake off. this whole time blood is going everywhere. i couldnt believe how bad the blood was. once the snake was off i found 1 tiny tooth hole. the constriction was just forcing it out.lol
i may even have pics still somewhere ill have to look
adam jeffery

Just this past Thursday I fed Koga two pinkies (only because pinkies are way too small for him) and the first one he took a few minutes to get down, but the second one was gone in a matter of seconds. It was CRAZY to see, and I got it on video. I'm going to try to upload it as soon as I have access to the camera that it is on.

well there's only 3 more days til i can feed my new girl. i think she's hungry now though cuz it seems like she's coming out of her hide box lookin' for something,lol. if anything interesting happens i'll definitely be posting that little story here.

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Originally Posted by SpencerShanks

Just this past Thursday I fed Koga two pinkies (only because pinkies are way too small for him) and the first one he took a few minutes to get down, but the second one was gone in a matter of seconds. It was CRAZY to see, and I got it on video. I'm going to try to upload it as soon as I have access to the camera that it is on.

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Pinkies?! :confused:

Why?