Am I weird?

I'm an animal lover for sure, and feeding live was done out of necessity, but I find myself looking forward to feeding days because I'm fascinated by watching my snakes hunt. I feel bad for the mouse, but its so interesting to me. Is this normal or am I just twisted?

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No, you aint weird, unless I'm weird too.

If your twisted than I am too because im captivated by snakes eating lol.

Perfectly normal. Its nature. No different than getting exciting watching a lion take down a zebra on a the Discovery Channel. I enjoy watching our balls hunt, likewise I also enjoy watching our T's hunt and eat crickets and roaches. :gj:

I think most of us here are that way. maybe we are all weird... maybe not, I know a lot of non-reptile people who are fascinated by my snakes when they eat, but wouldn't be seen in the same room with them otherwise.

When i got my first male BP, Riggs, we used to set up a little environment in our living room and let him eat. We would put sticks and twigs and everything in there and it was like live discovery channel. Since then I have grown much wiser (i was a sophmore at UGA at the time, we just wanted to watch something cool). I know not to bring in branches and other stuff from outside b/c it could carry parasites and mites. But back then, man was it cool.

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Originally Posted by moonlightgdess

because I'm fascinated by watching my snakes hunt.

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A lot of people like to watch it...I feed live, but rarely ever see my snakes strike, as I'm interested in them eating, not watching them "hunt".

To me, a snake killing and eating a rodent in a small enclosure is "hunting" on the same level as putting a deer in a dog cage and shooting it. Once that rodent is in the enclosure, the "hunt" is off...it's already dead, just living on borrowed time.

Nope youre not weird lol. When i talk to non-reptile people feeding is usual their first question. How i do it? What i feed them? Do i offer vegetables too? Could they eat a bird? A squirrel? A chipmunk? lol etc. etc...

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Nope youre not weird lol. When i talk to non-reptile people feeding is usual their first question. How i do it? What i feed them? Do i offer vegetables too? Could they eat a bird? A squirrel? A chipmunk? lol etc. etc...

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LOL i was gonna stay out of this thread, because i do enjoy watching them eat, but since you brought up the questions you have been asked it reminded me of the time when i was asked if a snake would eat meatballs if they were warmed, LMAO

I don't know if this is normal behavior for a bp but I feed f/t and when Baloo strikes she constricts around it for several minutes then drags the mouse around the cage stopping occasionally to wrestle with it. It cracks me up because it appears like she thinks it's still alive and has to fight with it before eating it. How could you not enjoy watching that? lol

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Originally Posted by enchantress62

I don't know if this is normal behavior for a bp but I feed f/t and when Baloo strikes she constricts around it for several minutes then drags the mouse around the cage stopping occasionally to wrestle with it. It cracks me up because it appears like she thinks it's still alive and has to fight with it before eating it. How could you not enjoy watching that? lol

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this is funny...would love to see that :D

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Originally Posted by Bennydog

this is funny...would love to see that :D

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i would say it is an odd nature, and Heck yeah i wanna see it.

Nope you are not weird (unless I am too!) haha. It is a part of nature. The only people who are "weird" in my opinion are the fundamentalist who forget that humans are animals too and think that anything dealing with animals hunting and killing is cruel and unusual!

Guess I am joining in on the weirdness I like to watch them hunt as well :)

I'll go against the grain and say that I think feeding time is quite boring :D

In all seriousness, I just think it's funny when I see Quetzal recognize that it's a mouse I'm dangling at him, a nearly visible change as he realizes what that fluffy white thing is there for. "Oh? Wha- oooooooooooh. FOOD! >:]" And he does a little headbob dance around it, I assume trying to figure out where to bite the thing at, and whammo!

After that it's boring :P He constricts it for a good 5 minutes, then unravels, throws it back, and perches looking for another.

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Originally Posted by jcoylesr76

i would say it is an odd nature, and Heck yeah i wanna see it.

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I'll tape it next time i feed her. Sometimes she is less animated then other times but i will try and catch her in the act. Personly, i agree with the poster that dissed humans. I too think it's weird that some people won't open there minds long enough to see how incredible these animals are.

My wife isn't the biggest fan of my snakes. But even she can't look away during feeding time.
Also I would say I'm more relieved that they ate then get enjoyment of watching a "hunt".

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

I know a lot of non-reptile people who are fascinated by my snakes when they eat, but wouldn't be seen in the same room with them otherwise.

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:number1: This!


Also, right now I have a live only eater (working on switching) and a F/T eater. My F/T eater turns feeding into a pretty dramatic event, considering the rat's already dead. Meanwhile, my live eater is currently on rat pups, and dispatches them with little fan fare.

My question is, do you think it's weird that I refer to my little clear plastic rat pup carrier as the "Green Mile"? :rofl:

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Originally Posted by Slim

I refer to my little clear plastic rat pup carrier as the "Green Mile"? :rofl:

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hahaha that's great!

I've had a lot of pets in my life but my bp is by far the most interesting. I named her Baloo because of her quirky personality. Watching her makes me want to break out in song, "It's a bear necessity a simple bear necessity. Forget about your worries and your strife... la la la" lmao So, when I hear the proverbial "Eeeewwww" I feel confused. Guess that makes me a member of the weird gang. but... I can't think of a nicer group of weirdos to hang with.:8:

Whoever said weird was a bad thing was just plain wrong. If everyone was "normal" the world would be a boring place to live :)

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Originally Posted by evan385

Whoever said weird was a bad thing was just plain wrong. If everyone was "normal" the world would be a boring place to live :)

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Amen! Thank you! :rolleye2:

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Originally Posted by enchantress62

I don't know if this is normal behavior for a bp but I feed f/t and when Baloo strikes she constricts around it for several minutes then drags the mouse around the cage stopping occasionally to wrestle with it. It cracks me up because it appears like she thinks it's still alive and has to fight with it before eating it. How could you not enjoy watching that? lol

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And here I thought my girl was the only one who did that! She actually got into a wrestling match with herself over her second mouse. She still had her coil around it and started to lift it by the head when she suddenly tightened around it again. I thought it was a coincidence until she did it about 3 more times before actually eating the mouse. Apparently she couldn't figure out that she was the one causing it to move.

I love watching the entire eating process. Super cool watching Koga's little head turn into a gigantic rat-sucking tube. Everything from the "hunt" to the strike, coiling, constricting, swallowing, to re-adjusting the jaw is interesting to me.

Man you people are weird........ha ha just kidding. There is something satisfying about watching animals eat weather its watching hippos at the zoo eating pumpkins or watching bp's eat. For me I love watching the speed an power of a aggressive eater. I know it's like a canned hunt but still cool to see.

I have some snakes with some very interesting feeding responses...

My tiger would NEVER constrict rat pups... she would just sniff around them... sniff around them... then take the head into her mouth and start shoving it down alive... thank goodness she doesn't do that with small rats now, she actually constricts them! However she will not stalk the things herself, gah!! I have to hold the rat by the tail with foreceps and then she will strike and coil. She is so lazy.

My lemonblast is a WEIRD snake... she spends a good fifteen minutes with her face in the rat pup's fur, sniffing it, until finally she actually strikes and constricts. She doesn't even go into S-position, she just has her face buried in it until she finally decides its time to bite down on it, then she wraps it.

My little bumblebee is a lightning fast eater and will grab a rat before it even hits the substrate. Freaks me out sometimes!!

My special LOVES to hunt from the "trees" ... she will climb onto the ledges of her tub (since it has handles, it gives her a ledge to sit on) and when a rat is beneath her, she will strike from the air!

My snow is a dummy... when I open the tub, she immediately gets into S-position and stares at me... then I drop a rat pup in there, and she'll strike at the air where it was about 30 seconds later... then the rat pup will usually run over to her, and she will start flipping out and wriggling around, one time she even struck at the side of the tub, then she finally seems to realize where it is and nails it.

My piebald female loves ambush striking. If I take her hide out, she won't eat. She will only strike if her head is just inside the opening of the hide. Then when the small rat comes by she nails it. When she's done constricting, she pulls it into the hide and eats it there!

My lemon pastel enchi gets so excited when he smells food that when you open his tub, he starts crawling out of it, looking up for his food. I always just dangle his food there and he strikes at it in mid air, then when he has it coiled I put him back in his tub to finish the job.


Snakes are interesting, aren't they?

My normal loves to stalk her prey...unfortunately most of them are dumb and go wandering up to her. She used to hide under her waterbowl (plastic dog bowl with a rim underneath just big enough for her) and jump out at the prey, even knocked her bowl sideways once.

My baby pinstripe is a chicken. She'll sit in the open and wait forever. If the mouse comes up to her she jumps back and balls up. She strikes on her time, lol.

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hahahahaha great stories. It's nice to talk about something other then husbandry and health issues sometimes. I think it's hilarious when Baloo finally gets the mouse down and it's tale is sticking out of her mouth she stays real still and looks around as if thinking, "What? I didn't do that." then a couple of yawns and all the evidence disappears. Aside from that I guess it's a little weird that I think she's cute as a button and have this overwhelming desire to dress her up in pink and take her out for a stroll.

Nope, not wierd. Just a bp owner! :D Unless we all are a bit strange...........

My pastel has to stick his nose on it and smell, I think he is making sure it is still breathing.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Unless we all are a bit strange...........

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I can live with that ;)

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Originally Posted by enchantress62

hahahahaha great stories. It's nice to talk about something other then husbandry and health issues sometimes. I think it's hilarious when Baloo finally gets the mouse down and it's tale is sticking out of her mouth she stays real still and looks around as if thinking, "What? I didn't do that." then a couple of yawns and all the evidence disappears. Aside from that I guess it's a little weird that I think she's cute as a button and have this overwhelming desire to dress her up in pink and take her out for a stroll.

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I keep looking at my girls and trying to figure out how to put them on leashes... And I want like, purple glitter hides with skulls on them rofl.

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Originally Posted by jcoylesr76

it reminded me of the time when i was asked if a snake would eat meatballs if they were warmed, LMAO

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LOL - someone asked Grant the other day if our male would eat a Big Mac...

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Originally Posted by Slim

My question is, do you think it's weird that I refer to my little clear plastic rat pup carrier as the "Green Mile"? :rofl:

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Way to go and make me spit out my cereal xD Hahahaha too funny! :8:

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Originally Posted by evan385

Whoever said weird was a bad thing was just plain wrong. If everyone was "normal" the world would be a boring place to live :)

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You speaketh wise words.


As for being weird, so what? :P Rather be weird than boring and "normal"! :D What's to say it's not the rest of the world that are the weird ones anyway :sweeet:

We are all "weird" we own snakes! Lol

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Originally Posted by Rob

We are all "weird" we own snakes! Lol

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Nah, it's everyone else 'cause they don't own snakes :P

[QUOTE]I keep looking at my girls and trying to figure out how to put them on leashes... And I want like, purple glitter hides with skulls on them rofl. [QUOTE]

I feel ya sister. I know Baloo is a snake but when I watch her all I can think of is how cute she would be dressed in pink satin and white foe fur. The thing that stops me from making such a costume is that I don't want her to hate me. lmao Love the sparkle hide idea though. hhhmmm

i think thats part of the attraction in keeping snakes "The Hunt is ON"

Guess I'm the oddball here...if the feeder isn't large enough to hurt the snake I WILL NOT watch the snake kill it if it's live. I don't want to watch things die....if I had to feed live to one of mine and it was a mouse/rat that could do damage I would make sure to observe the feeding to make sure my snake didn't get injured. But anything else...I won't watch.

Thank goodness for F/T feeders! Those I do love to watch my snakes eat!

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Originally Posted by Daybreaker

Guess I'm the oddball here...if the feeder isn't large enough to hurt the snake I WILL NOT watch the snake kill it if it's live. I don't want to watch things die....if I had to feed live to one of mine and it was a mouse/rat that could do damage I would make sure to observe the feeding to make sure my snake didn't get injured. But anything else...I won't watch.

Thank goodness for F/T feeders! Those I do love to watch my snakes eat!

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I can see that, I like to watch my snake stalk around than actually watch them kill and eat.... They're just so fast and you can practically see the thought process when they stalk their prey.

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I love all animals, and always liked snakes and rodents equally, but it made me sad to see them eat rodents on tv. I accepted it as part of the food chain, but I didn't like to think about it.
That's why they say "it's different when it's your own". :D When my BP first ate I was sooo happy! It made me feel good as a snake owner and proud of her for eating. Now I like to watch her eat because the mouse is already dead anyway(f/t) and it's going to help her grow big and strong.

Ask yourself this, what is normal?

I am with you guys I love watching my bp eat. I like the way that there mood switches from awesome kind laid back snake to super predator. To me it is one of the best parts of owning a snake. But thats just me.