Constricts and then doesn't eat?

Our 2300g girl has started constricting her meal (ft lg rat) but then not eating it. She did this once about three weeks ago. I offered it to her again, and she constricted it again and then ate it. Tonight she has constricted it twice and abandoned it twice, and is currently constricting it again. Anyone know why this could be?

I don't know why, but a few of mine do that as well. Sometimes for weeks on end. Really annoys the heck out of me.

For what it's worth, they are healthy and everything, just slower growth. And a few that did that grew out of it.

Quite often the snake cannot locate the head of their prey and will lose interest in it. I have a few snakes like this myself.

She's probably just not hungry, I have a male that does this. He'll hit his feeder hard, wrap it, "kill" it (he's on f/t), and when I check everyone an hour later he's abandoned it and shows no interest in it any more.

If your girl is on large rats push her feedings out to every two to three weeks, or back her down to a medium every two weeks, if you don't want to waste feeders.

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Originally Posted by Galaxygirl

Our 2300g girl has started constricting her meal (ft lg rat) but then not eating it. She did this once about three weeks ago. I offered it to her again, and she constricted it again and then ate it. Tonight she has constricted it twice and abandoned it twice, and is currently constricting it again. Anyone know why this could be?

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When they start doing this, I start cutting back on size of prey, frequency of offerings, or both.

Thanks everyone for the advice! I did notice the first time she abandoned it she was struggling to find the right angle to eat it. Last night she did end up eating it after the third try. I'll cut back on her feedings.

It could be your husbandry, how clean is their tub?

She's on newspaper. She just pooped and shed so I cleaned it the day before I fed her. There was a one inch piece of shed stuck on the newspaper in the front of the cage that came off after I cleaned it, but that's all. Newspaper was fresh and the tubs we wash with antibacterial soap about once a month.

We had one do this many times. Over the course of many months we determined that the problem was that the prey item was too large. Since we started giving it smaller size prey, he has never done it again.

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Originally Posted by Cal State Reptiles

We had one do this many times. Over the course of many months we determined that the problem was that the prey item was too large. Since we started giving it smaller size prey, he has never done it again.

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Interesting.. Could definitely be the issue. We were given like 60 free FT lg rats from an awesome gentleman that was getting out of breeding. We've been trying to use them up even though we know our BPs should probably be eating Med rats, as I've read large are too big and do not get utilized completely by the snake anyway.

I agree with Cal State Reptiles. My Pied boy does this from time to time. I just get him a smaller feeder and he eats it.

I always feel a little sad when he kills but doesn't eat because it died for no reason and i don't have any BPs that like FK. 😕