wow.

[Wizill]

i just witnessed the coolest killing of a rat i've ever seen... peanut was sniffing around the rat, looking interested but not quite ready to strike... he moved over top of the rat and then sort of sniffed its butt, then slowly wrapped around the rats neck with his body, and began to choke the rat. he didnt even have his mouth on the rat at all. he choked it until it died, then ate it like usual... but wow, i'm amazed. sneak attack, bp style...

Were you feeding live or f/t?

[Wizill]

live. peanut eats live, bubba eats dead... well, bubba doesnt eat, but when he does he eats pre-killed.

i like feeding peanut live, he's a very good predator. never had a problem at all, and the only meal he ever skipped was when i switched his cage to a 10 gallon for a couple weeks when i got bubba. if i offer him something dead, he doesnt even acknowledge the fact that it's food. he just slithers on about his merry way.

So you see no problem in feeding live? Have you tried to switch your snakes to pre-killed or f/t at all? If not, I HIGHLY recommend you do so.

[Wizill]

ive tried a few times actually. and like i said, peanuts the only one that eats live. and i dont see a problem in it if it's closely supervised. although i totally see why you recommend it, i've seen some pretty nasty rat bites.

[Wizill]

back to the point of the post, which was the WAY he killed it. totally awesome.

[emroul]

....if i offer him something dead, he doesnt even acknowledge the fact that it's food. he just slithers on about his merry way.

I think that about answers your question about switching to dead prey, David.

[emroul]

And that sounds awesome how he ate it. Too bad you couldn't catch it on camera somehow.

Jennifer

[Wizill]

and ya know jenn, i had the camera ready too... i was going to take another one of those "striking videos", but he seemed so uninterested i put the camera away. about as soon as i got back from putting the camera back in the bag, i noticed him smelling the rat. and the rat just sat there and let him. next thing i knew, the rats face was the only thing i could see, and peanut's head was facing an entirely different direction, nowhere near the rat. i'm still amazed.

How hard/long have you tried? It may take some effort, but is well worth it in the long run for you and the snake. I have seen snakes KILLED from a mouse......not a rat, but a MOUSE. One of my snakes was bitten on the head by a mouse when I was ignorantly feedng live and I have since been feeding f/t. One of my '03 BPs gave me a hard time switching over to f/t, but is now eating f/t like a champ. You just gotta be willing to put in the extra effort.