Ball Python eating mouse weird

okay well my BP is doing great! he's growing at a very fast rate and his colors are amazing! (Pastel) haha but the thing is when i feed him a small rat he strikes it on the head coils it till he thinks he killed it (i feed F/T) then he looks for the butt and swallows it backwards O_o is this something i should be concerned about? he never did it before but it now happened two weeks in a row!

Don't worry, as long as hes not trying to eat it sideways, then you should be fine. Some of them just need to figure out where the head is. But eaten rat is eaten rat, so all is good in the end.

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Originally Posted by steveboos

Don't worry, as long as hes not trying to eat it sideways, then you should be fine. Some of them just need to figure out where the head is. But eaten rat is eaten rat, so all is good in the end.

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Nice choice of words given the topic:laughing:

Mouse or rat?

Usually but not always when they eat backwards the prey item is too small.

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Mouse or rat?

Usually but not always when they eat backwards the prey item is too small.

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Rat a small Rat and a relief to hear that its okay :P thanks everyone!!!

I don't know that much yet about BPs. But butt munching is a common corn snake thing, and they will do it even with appropriately sized prey items. I've seen my own 2010 corns do it with their pink mice (which is the right prey size) and one of my adult corns does it with his large adult mice (ditto). And some corns seem to do it reliably even though the are being fed properly.

A proper meal in the snake is all that really matters, I think. It's not like it's indigestible if eaten from the "wrong" end. ;)

just think of it as the snake wanting to use the fur to wipe that nasty butt taste out lol.. It better than watching you snake try to start in the middle of the rodent and force it down. (dum black rat snake I has she start were ever she had hold of her prey and start sallowing some times not even bother ing to conctrict it.

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Originally Posted by mechnut450

just think of it as the snake wanting to use the fur to wipe that nasty butt taste out lol.. It better than watching you snake try to start in the middle of the rodent and force it down. (dum black rat snake I has she start were ever she had hold of her prey and start sallowing some times not even bother ing to conctrict it.

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I have corns that eat f/t that just slither up & start swallowing. They won't constrict. I have also seen the start-in-the-middle thing once with a friend's smallish albino burm who was eating rabbits at the time and tried to fold them in the middle & couldn't figure out WHY they couldn't get their mouth around the rabbit of the day. My friend had to REMOVE the burm from the rabbit & then offer the rabbit head first. Thankfully, the burm was on p/k but the snake looked so frustrated that this wasn't working. :laughing:

Gah one of mine has started to do the slither up to it and swallow it thing without constricting too. Is that something to worry about?

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Originally Posted by Radchimera

Gah one of mine has started to do the slither up to it and swallow it thing without constricting too. Is that something to worry about?

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Nothing to worry about. Sounds like it's just a spoiled snake that knows it's food isn't gonna fight back lol.


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Not weird at all, have you seen my pic? https://ball-pythons.net/forums/memb..._of_bananachip

My BP is still a 'baby' (5 months), and I simply account to the fact that its still learning to eat 'effectively'. I have another BP who is a year old and she just grabs and go. My 5 month BP would strike, grab and hold for awhile, and spends a bit of a time observing the prey, as if admiring it or deciding how the best way to engulf the thing; she would nibble it here, changes her mind and nibble at somewhere else. She would do this for awhile and would either just go from the head down or bottom up :-)

Its cute as heck... I should video tape it sometime!

A

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Originally Posted by mom_of_bananachip

Not weird at all, have you seen my pic? https://ball-pythons.net/forums/memb..._of_bananachip

My BP is still a 'baby' (5 months), and I simply account to the fact that its still learning to eat 'effectively'. I have another BP who is a year old and she just grabs and go. My 5 month BP would strike, grab and hold for awhile, and spends a bit of a time observing the prey, as if admiring it or deciding how the best way to engulf the thing; she would nibble it here, changes her mind and nibble at somewhere else. She would do this for awhile and would either just go from the head down or bottom up :-)

Its cute as heck... I should video tape it sometime!

A

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One of mine gets kind of lost on it's food sometimes too. Has a hard time finding the head. It's very cute to see. And it usually happens when he grabs it at an awkward angle. If he's head on w it, obviously he has no issue.


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Originally Posted by Radchimera

Gah one of mine has started to do the slither up to it and swallow it thing without constricting too. Is that something to worry about?

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You'll likely have more luck getting replies if you create a new thread of your own versus digging one up that's 6+ years old. ;)

Having said that, no - there's nothing to worry about. As long as they're still eating, there's no reason to worry about how they get there as long as it's not doing them any harm.