Off feed... kind of?

[Manda]

Hi all,

Feeding question- When my 2 year old bp was younger, she was a great eater. At the start of this fall/winter, that changed. When I offer her a rat, she'll look at it with varying degrees of interest and then starts ignoring it. After a couple months of this she hadn't lost much (if any) weight and I assumed it was normal bp winter mode, but I was still a little concerned. I decided to leave her in a large box with the rat and shut the lid. Sure enough, I checked back in an hour and found her in the process of trying to eat the rat (butt first... she tends to do that a lot). I tried again a month later, with the same result. After that, I resumed feeding her every couple weeks. She continues to refuse to strike at the rat during feedings, but always eventually eats it when left alone (still always tries to swallow it butt first and takes over an hour to figure it out).

I certainly don't want to overfeed her, but I also don't want to deprive her of food if she's hungry. She looks perfectly normal, not too thick or too skinny. Any thoughts as to why she isn't striking at the rats, and whether I should do anything differently?

Thanks!

[BCS]

You know what? Some snakes just know the rat is already dead and striking is a waste of valuable energy. I have a few who don't strike. Snakes are a lot smarter then they look. The eating butt first, it isn't a problem as long as they can get it down.

[greco]

Yeah, most of mine take their food from the tongs, but I do have one 6 year old male pinstripe who is a "slow eater." I just leave a rat in his tub and he'll usually eat it about 20-30 minutes later.

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