Very first feeding issue....

My girl drove me crazy tonight. She is usually a GREAT feeder, no incident. Tonight, not so much.

I watched her constrict her dinner FOUR times. Yes, FOUR. She would strike, coil, and then crawl away for a minute, only to come back and do it again FOUR times. Each time, I was about to remove the prey and try again next week, but then she would go right back to it, so I decided to just watch and see what happened. After the 4th time, the prey was a bloody mess and she swallowed it.... I was perplexed and over it by that point, but at least she finally ate it.

Nothing was different, same prey, same temperature, same time of day. Anyone else ever experience anything like that? A snake "killing" its meal FOUR times?!?! I feed only f/t, and she has always taken them like a champ and has previously only felt the need to "kill" them once. Any thoughts?

Maybe she was just in an aggressive/pissy mood and she decided to take it out on the rat lol

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Maybe she was just in an aggressive/pissy mood and she decided to take it out on the rat lol

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LOL could be? :P

snakes are weird. At least she ate it? lol

Haha. Yeah, I was so relieved she ate it because she has a perfect eating record. She also tried to drag it into her hide one time but got it stuck in the same way a dog with a big stick in its mouth can't go through a doorway. She punished it for this offense with her third constriction.

But yeah, I have never seen prey quite so decimated before, and I had no idea a f/t rodent could still bleed so much. haha. It went from white to solid pink by the time she actually ate it. :O

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Originally Posted by Emily Hubbard

Haha. Yeah, I was so relieved she ate it because she has a perfect eating record. She also tried to drag it into her hide one time but got it stuck in the same way a dog with a big stick in its mouth can't go through a doorway. She punished it for this offense with her third constriction.

But yeah, I have never seen prey quite so decimated before, and I had no idea a f/t rodent could still bleed so much. haha. It went from white to solid pink by the time she actually ate it. :O

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One of my girls is a live only feeder and she will instantly constrict her prey and sometimes after unwrapping she will zoom around her tub for up to a half hour before she consumes it. I have never seen her reconstrict it but she will bump it around with her nose and drag it around drop and zoom some more. Maybe just a female quirk! ;)

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Originally Posted by chaoticstone

One of my girls is a live only feeder and she will instantly constrict her prey and sometimes after unwrapping she will zoom around her tub for up to a half hour before she consumes it. I have never seen her reconstrict it but she will bump it around with her nose and drag it around drop and zoom some more. Maybe just a female quirk! ;)

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That is so funny, and very good to know if she does it again that playing with it for half an hour isn't unheard of. haha. It was just like she had short term memory loss and forgot that she had already annihilated it moments before. I think my snake is broken. ;)Doesn't matter, I love her just the same. :D

Maybe she just needed a good fight? Some of mine turn over and writhe with theirs after they've constricted. I always say, "oh? That dead rat putting up a fight tonight?" haha

At least she did finally eat

Eh, she was just in the mood to play with her food ;)

Your lucky yours eats it though. I have to feed live now because my girl would do the same thing and constrict f/t over and over and squeeze the guts out and once the blood came she wouldn't constrict again. She destroyed like 12 mice constricting all of them and destroying them before I just went to live and never had a problem again. I just wish she would eat f/t. Luckily she has never ben bit only scratched or bit but not through the skin but I still always worry about it and every now and then I have to pull on the mouses tail to stop the hind lages from scratching her until it stops and I always have to see where the mouth is. Well glad your girl finally ate.

I actually had the same problem last week... took her 2 hours for her to eat.
She was also a lot more playful with it. she tossed it around and moved it around the tank a lot before finding something else to do lol

Thanks for all of your helpful and hilarious replies. I love hearing about the quirks all of your snakes have!

I have been thinking about it and I am wondering if maybe she is getting confused because the prey is too small for her. She is still on mice, and I feed her every 4 days because she really needs bigger prey, but I cannot find ANY pet store that sells rat fuzzes, and she is still just a little too small for small rats. Until I KNOW that she will take rats, I don't want to order a whole box of them online. I think within another month or two, she will be ready for small rats, and I have a small pack of them ready in the freezer for when she is. She tried to eat the mouse butt first a couple times and seemed to have trouble finding the head. It's not like it is DRASTICALLY too small, just a little too small. But on a 4 day schedule, she is maintaining bulk just fine, and actually growing fairly quickly. I am nervous, because I know the longer she is on mice, the harder it can be to switch. But last night's episode aside, she is a GREAT feeder, so I hope it goes well when the time comes.

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Originally Posted by chaoticstone

One of my girls is a live only feeder and she will instantly constrict her prey and sometimes after unwrapping she will zoom around her tub for up to a half hour before she consumes it. I have never seen her reconstrict it but she will bump it around with her nose and drag it around drop and zoom some more. Maybe just a female quirk! ;)

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This has happened to me a lot recently with my normal girl. One time, she striked and constricted on the far left side of the tank. I left thinking she would eat it no problem. After 15 minutes, I come back and the rat is sitting fully submerged in her water dish (she must have dragged it in there, the water dish is in the middle). I contemplated taking it out, but decided to leave it for 45 more minutes. Sure enough, she had already eaten it when I went to check after. Weird !