Why is my snake such a moron?

Seriously, I have not ONCE seen him eat a mouse correctly. Sideways, backwards, ANYTHING but the right direction. He eventually figures it out, but after two years of eating, wouldn't you think he would learn? Sheesh, is this just typical ball behavior? My other snake does not have these issues.

LOL...sorry but its kinda funny. as long as they get it down it doesnt matter. what are you feeding? if your feeding frozen thawed i would try heating up the head more than the rest and hopefully he will get it right

Mine do it randomly. Doesn't bother me as long as they eat em:)

Yeah they eat f/t. Good idea with the head, maybe I'll try that. He always eats them like a champ, it just takes awhile for him to figure out how to get it in his mouth.

Naturally, the head of a rodent is the warmest part of their body and the snake is attracted to that heat signature! Heat the head with a hair dyer for a couple seconds and then he will start eating them right!

Thanks for the laugh. I love the special ones:P

What kind of snake is it? I have a Spider and because of the wobble mine does the same thing. As long as he is eating i think he is fine. My Spider eats upside down all the time.

I have to try and hold the mouse just right so Java will get ahold of it the right way. Even still, he sometimes grabs it sideways or backwards. It makes me laugh to see him trying to chew it around to a decent position. :giggle:

I had one that took a long time to learn how to eat right....i assisted fed a bunch of times...probably shouldn't have but hated to waste the rats.

I changed a couple of things - fed at night or early evening when they are more active...use tongs to do the zombie dance face foward to induce a well aimed strike......

Then - i don't watch ;) somehow the rat is gone. The more snakes i have the quicker i have to go through feeding and you just don't sweat it....

hahahahaha sideways what the fugazi?! fugazi is a weird band. ive seen mine eat a mouse backwards,it was horrorible to watch i felt so bad.it looked like a mouse was wearing a snake costume when Marley had it down to the head in her partially open mouth.since then i dip the head in the warm water an right before i offer.i dont think shes had anymore problems since then but then again most of the time she doesnt let me watch.:bye:

He's just a normal BP. I have done the mouse dance with the tongs and everything. No matter where he grabs it, he always takes his first bite the wrong way after he is done "killing" it.

My het pied started to eat a rat backwards, spit it out, then tried again from the other end and succeeded.

Yeah, the world needs ditchdiggers too.

I have had snakes eat them backwards while they are still alive, rat squealing all the way down, talk about awkward :P

LOL thanks for the laugh! I always dip the head of my f/t rats in hot water for a minute or so to warm it up more and make the scent more obvious...it helps my "special" one see where to strike (aka my spider girl :D )

We've got a corn that 9/10 times feels the need to eat them backwards. As long as it gets it down, I wouldn't worry too much. Like the others have said, you can try heating up the head.

He always gets it down, it just takes him extra time. I guess someone has to make up the bottom of the bell curve ;)

Both of my males eat theirs perfectly fine, but my girls never fails to be the odd one. She always strikes and constricts it sideways, to the point where she folds the rat in half while constricting it. Then she spends the next ten minutes (not exaggerating) working her way around the rat to find the head. It's not a heat signature problem because I always warm the heads with a dryer, she's just a bit strange. Even if I dangle the head directly in front of her, she strikes around the head to grab the side. :rolleyes: As long as she eats, I'm happy. She has never refused a meal for me. In fact, none of mine have.

I just Laughed Out Loud! LOL! Just tonight my normal male (who is my "garbage disposal" ....he would eat a piece of broccoli if I dangled it just right lemme tell ya) just couldn't get it right. I feed f/t and tonight's the first night I tried the hair dryer trick to thaw (read a thread this morning about how people prefer to thaw their rodents and I decided a hair dryer might work well but perhaps i didn't heat the head enough) Anyway, he was trying to eat it like a hamburger. Right smack in the middle. I'm thinking...taco...pizza....eat it from the END...ANY end...but no. He tried (as Kymberli said, I am NOT exaggerating) for 10 minutes and FINALLY figured it out. I got a little worried after the first 5 minutes....so I tried to take the tongs and move the rat's head toward his and of course he just wrapped around the thing tighter cause apparently I made it "come to life" (oops! :rolleyes:)

I must say, I am learning quickly that I have great eaters (that will eat anything that remotely looks "alive") horrible eaters (probably wouldn't eat a gerbil if I tried), and special eaters....but hey, the special ones have heart, they never give up! :D

I have a backwards eater I have tried everything extar heat actually careful not to heat the body nope he very systematically strikes the head and then works his way down to the butt and eats from there. He is big (1600 gm give or take) but I have to feed him smaller rats than typical as he will not (never has) take them head first if it is bigger than 130gm he can't manage to get it down, He eats about 75-100 gms every week because he is a idiot.