not constricting before swallowing (f/t)

hi guys

I'm a new bp owner and my girl is a great eater but, as the title says, she doesn't constrict her food before gobbling it up. Should I be worried about this? Does this cause a problem with digestion (because of all the bones not being crushed)?

thanks

Nope. It's just fine. Sometimes it seems like they're smarter than we give them credit for and realize that it's dead. Why expend the energy of constricting?

I don't think constricting is so much about crushing bones as it is about suffocation.

Constriction is to suffocate, NOT crush. If she realizes her prey is already dead, then there is no reason for her to expend the energy to constrict it.

Perfectly fine assuming that you feed dead rats. :gj:

one of my bloods do this...... i just think of him as lazy;)
spooky

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mr.spooky

one of my bloods do this...... i just think of him as lazy;)
spooky

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Lol. :P

To the OP. You shouldn't have a problem. I have a juvenile that will only constrict live prey, F/T. He will just swallow.

Should be no problem. I have had a few snakes in the past that did this with f/t left in their cages. I even had a kingsnake that ate live pinkies without constricting them when he was a baby. He continued to do this after switched him to f/t as well.

Just to throw in my 2c....when feeding an extra sometimes they don't wanna curl up with something already in there. Mine did this...when my roommates wouldn't eat we brought him in here, and initially mine wanted nothing to do with it live, so we killed it and put it in there and he chowed it right down.

No problem at all. Constricting doesn't crush bones OR suffocate, it stops blood flow. If you watch a snake kill live prey, it is dead long before it would suffocate, which takes a surprisingly long time. The squeeze stops the flow of blood to the heart and the prey basally has a heart attack. Much quicker. Nature can be terrifyingly efficient. :)

So to answer you question, nope, nothing to worry about. Your snake is just probably a little smarter than the rest. :)

thanks guys

One time I was feeding my female lesser and I had the rat on the tongs and opened her enclosure to offer it to her and she just lazily slithered up, opened her mouth and gently bit the rats head, drug it to where she wanted to eat it and then turned and gave me a look that said "thanks, you can go away now while I eat" and then swallowed the rat. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen any of my bp's do lol.

I have watched several live feedings, lol, as in the snake doesn't constrict and the rat goes in live, usually after some loud protesting...

It really is amazing to me how quickly they can judge a situation. I had a FT eater who would do this all the time. She would just start swallowing the minute it hit her mouth no wrap up at all. She stopped eating for me one week so I put a live rat in and within a second she was wrapped on it. The next feeding I tried FT and she went back to swallowing without a wrap. I figured it was because she thought if she didn't eat it i'd make her work for it again. :)

So, last night was feeding time, and I had a het pied female (~300g) grab her F/T rat with her coils only and not bite until she had it positioned to swallow! :rolleye2:

I often offer second helpings, and I've noticed most of mine will constrict the first f/t, but can't be bothered with the 2nd. I think they've figured out by then that it's dead.