Nose Rubbing After Feeding

[Southpaw91]

So I've seen this from my bp a couple of times now, and I'm wondering if anyone else has observed this behavior.

Sometimes after she has swallowed her rat and done her little jaw realignment yawn, she will rub her nose and face on items in her enclosure. She isn't in shed (at least not visibly) and when she yawned i didn't see any substrate or debris in her mouth.

My working theory: she takes her feeders wet, so maybe she's trying to remove water from her heat pits?

I dunno. Curious what others think of this. I only noticed this behavior in the last 6 months.

She is 1 year, 4 months old. Approximately 1100g. Enclosure is 75°F ambient, 88° hotspot, heated by rhp. Humidity is 55% warm side, 65% cool side. Substrate is coconut chips.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[Spicey]

Maybe she wants a napkin!

[jmcrook]

I’ve seen this from I think every snake I’ve ever owned. Normal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bogertophis]

I've seen this for years & my take is that they're wiping off the scent* of prey (as much as possible) from their faces, so they aren't mistakenly killed by other snakes looking for prey & relying as they mostly do on scent. Yes, like a dinner napkin. Think about how natural selection works & this totally makes sense. *And keep in mind that when they swallow prey animals, those prey animals may leak some urine or feces on the snake's face...so it's not purely "scent" molecules they're removing. I think it's instinctive behavior among those best surviving s.