Missing strikes?

[George1994]

Hi everyone,

My adult male has been missing strikes by quite a bit recently. For the last 4 meals he hasn't tagged the prey anywhere near the head, a few times on the body, and today, he completely flew past it and had to stike a second time. To the body.

I feed him with tongs, and position the FT rat so it is face first and therefor my BP should be able to get it head first easily.

Is this normal or is there something up with him. He has only been like this the past month and half, for the 7 months previous he was striking fine.

Thanks,
George.

[dr del]

Hi,

Have you changed how you heat the head of the prey up or anything?

[George1994]

Nope, stayed consistent the whole time I have owned him.

[George1994]

Sorry to bump, but I am a bit concerned about this topic and didn't get a response. Thanks.

[dr del]

To be honest if he still eats it I wouldn't be overly concerned.

[AlexisFitzy]

Does your snake have the spider gene? If so he has something called a head wobble. My bumblebee does and has terrible aim but if I heat the head of the rat a lot more than the body with a hair dryer it usually helps his aim a bit but sometimes that doesn't even work and I have to offer like 2-4 times lol before he can figure out where the head is.


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[Eric Alan]

Every once and awhile I've seen pretty much all of my animals do this. I use a hairdryer to heat my thawed rats up just prior to feeding. I chalk it up to "maybe there's a spot warmer than the head somewhere on the rat". Typically, they end up finding the head on their own and finish swallowing without a problem. If I see that they're having troubles finding the head after searching for a bit, I'll pull it out and pretty much blast only the head of the rat with the hairdryer again for a few minutes until I'm sure it won't confuse them. I wouldn't be concerned about anything beyond that as long as they're still eating fine.

[George1994]

To be honest if he still eats it I wouldn't be overly concerned.

Does your snake have the spider gene? If so he has something called a head wobble. My bumblebee does and has terrible aim but if I heat the head of the rat a lot more than the body with a hair dryer it usually helps his aim a bit but sometimes that doesn't even work and I have to offer like 2-4 times lol before he can figure out where the head is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Every once and awhile I've seen pretty much all of my animals do this. I use a hairdryer to heat my thawed rats up just prior to feeding. I chalk it up to "maybe there's a spot warmer than the head somewhere on the rat". Typically, they end up finding the head on their own and finish swallowing without a problem. If I see that they're having troubles finding the head after searching for a bit, I'll pull it out and pretty much blast only the head of the rat with the hairdryer again for a few minutes until I'm sure it won't confuse them. I wouldn't be concerned about anything beyond that as long as they're still eating fine.

Thanks for the help and the info. I have heard a lot of people talk about heating up the heads of the prey with a hairdryer prior to feeding, which is something I will try on the weekend when he is due a feed. Hopefully it has some success. When he does strike the body, he has always managed to work his way to the head and swallow it without help, [ SLIGHT GORE WARNING ] once he opened up the stomach of the rat... prompted me to pull him out, put him in the bath to let go of the rat with all the guts hanging out and that... Nightmare haha!