Stories about Crazy/Unusual Feeding

[ahunt037]

well ill start off by sayin hi im a noob... kinda i own 2 bps a female normal and a male cinny i have only had 1 story for each snake but to me they will be pretty memorable i watched my female try to constrict a mouse one time with a hold on its tail instead of its body that was awkward but she figured it out and got a hold on its body. the story about my male just happened tonight i fed him a little hopper mouse and he either doesnt like to or has not learned to constrict the mouse or rat until it is dead he did this before with a rat pup but it was not as entertaining as this event as he tried to constrict this thing he also started eatin it and then stopped tryin to constrict it the best part is that he was eating the mouse backwards and it was biting him which caused him to whip around violently tryin to kill the mouse dont worry i checked him over he has no injuries he will be fine ill check again after a day or two but finally he got it down and i then realized i didnt have my camera or my phone out at all during all of that so im sorry but

my point is i wanted to hear some of ur stories from the more experienced owners and or breeders about some of the good feeding sessions u have had

[Lolo76]

I've had a few interesting stories, for sure! When I first got my JCP he tried to eat a (f/t) fuzzy sideways, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't going down... I ended up having to "scare" him into dropping it (tapped him on the head with the tongs), and he then proceeded to eat it butt-first instead. And just today when I was feeding the crew live mice, I opened the tub of my 1100g black pastel, and he grabbed the mouse straight from my hand! Guess he was hungry, LOL. I've done more live feedings than I could count, and that has never happened to me... I must admit, it made my heart skip a beat.

Finally there's my little granite corn snake, Eddie, who is the FASTEST eater I've ever witnessed... I timed his feeding one time, and it was around 20 seconds from constriction to fully swallowed. I actually got a video of my little speed-eater:

YouTube - Eddie eating

[Lolo76]

P.S. That's crazy how a mouse was biting your snake while being eaten! Think I'd probably do the same, though, if a snake was trying to eat me alive. One of my baby corns will only eat live pinkies, and she usually forgets to constrict them - the sound they make while being swallowed is horrible.

[Bones]

The last few times I've fed Bones, it was pretty eventful. When I first got him, he would not eat if I was watching. I'd have to lay the mouse outside of whichever hide he was in, and then leave the room. A few minutes later, I'd come back, and it would be gone.

Now that I've had him for a while, he seems to have gotten comfortable with eating in front of me. A few weeks ago, I had him out of the tank for a few minutes. I put a F/T mouse on the table next to his tank. He was partially wrapped around my wrist, with the rest of his body hanging off. As I moved my arm over towards the tank to put him back in, he struck the mouse while he was still wrapped around my arm. He also tried to eat it... while still on my arm.

When I fed him this past Saturday, I dangled the mouse in front of him and it didn't even take 5 seconds for him to grab it. He had it sideways in his mouth, but eventually ended up swallowing it head first. When he had it almost all the way down, part of the tail was sticking out of his mouth and he looked up at me like he was saying "what are you looking at"?

I'm sure I'll have many more stories as time goes on. He's a great eater.

[loonunit]

I've had a few interesting stories, for sure! When I first got my JCP he tried to eat a (f/t) fuzzy sideways, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't going down... I ended up having to "scare" him into dropping it (tapped him on the head with the tongs), and he then proceeded to eat it butt-first instead.

Oh, my black pastel used to do that when he was younger! Slow learner, too, because he kept it up for the better part of a year. And when he got frustrated, he'd try to drag the mouse into his hide sideways, and couldn't figure out why it didn't fit. GENIUS.

[jfreels]

My boa ate a rat sideways, that's about as strange as it gets at my place.

[ClarkT]

Just last night, one of the big normals wouldn't strike the rat. It was a little smaller than usual. So, after our spider girl ate, I tried this rat on her as a second. She struck instantly and missed, hitting the water dish. Ouch!

After recomposing herself, about 10 seconds later, she nailed it, but grabbed around the lower half. This was a small hopper rat. It turned and was about to bite my snake. So I flipped it in the head and knocked it out. That was different than normal.

BTW, we just picked these snakes up, and they've only ever been fed live. Next time, they'll be pre-killed.

[anatess]

I got a few stories:

1.) I have a western hognose - not a constrictor - they have venom that comes out of their rear fangs, so they "subdue" the prey by biting it and chewing it so that their rear fangs engage and get the venom out. But, I don't think the venom is strong enough to kill the rat, it paralyzes it though. Anyway, the first time we fed this guy, we put a live hopper in there (I feed live to my bp's) and he did his hissing and rattling and cobra neck-spread thing then dropped his neck on top of the rat (now this rat is fast but that snake is faster somehow!) to pin the rat, sat there for a few seconds then bit the rat on the rump. The rat was screaming horribly while being chewed. I was crying so hard (the breeder rats are my pets). After that, we never fed that boy live rats again. We prekill his food. We switched him to frogs a while back because he stopped eating dead rats. Now those are interesting. We don't prekill the frogs and he would bite the frogs on the rump. I don't feel bad for the frogs for some reason.

2.) I have lots of stories about my spider who is not too bright - he doesn't have a head wobble but man, I guess he's got some imbalance going on because he's just not an accurate striker. Sometimes he would strike and hit glass intead. Sometimes he'd hit in an awkward part of the rat, so after constricting, he would let go of the rat completely and try to find its head!

3.) We have a pastel bp that was just staring at the rat at first. We weren't sure if she was going to eat or not - she was alert but she didn't have her neck lifted up like she always does when she's getting ready to strike. We were getting ready to take the rat out when the rat went psycho and bit the snake on the nose! Man, it was fast... snake retracted her head, coiled the rest of her neck up and wham! Rat was a goner. There was a little blood on the snake's nose. We put ointment on it and it healed up ok. That's one of the reasons most people don't feed live.

4.) Have you ever seen a mama snake who is maternally incubating getting fed? It's a sight to watch. For the first 2 feedings, we would uncoil the snake out of the eggs and feed her in a separate container. But the snake is really really aggressive while incubating. It's a big pain to have to uncoil her (have to put towel on her head, etc. etc.) because she would strike at the smallest provocation. So, the next feedings, we would just put a rat next to the egg box while we hold its tail with tongs. The mother snake would peek her head out of the egg box, then strike and coil at the rat while half of her body is still coiled around the eggs. Then when the rat is dead, she'd drag it all the way back into the egg box and eat it there. Really wierd.

That's my contribution.

[The Hedgehog]

Lolo - That corn is the definition of "pounding down a meal". That was awesome!

I don't really have any weird or crazy stories yet. How are you guys holding the F/T in the tongs? I always grab by the butt/back so that Eva can strike at it head first, and she doesn't have to reposition herself to eat it. The only thing I'm pleased with is as soon as she sees the food, she's on it like white on rice.

[Bones]

I don't really have any weird or crazy stories yet. How are you guys holding the F/T in the tongs? I always grab by the butt/back so that Eva can strike at it head first, and she doesn't have to reposition herself to eat it. The only thing I'm pleased with is as soon as she sees the food, she's on it like white on rice.

"Like white on rice and a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snow storm!" That's what my best friend always says, haha!

I grab the mouse by the hind legs and base of the tail. My snake always seems to grab it sideways, though.