boa feeding question

[crusher]

well i was worried when my boa wouldnt take f/t mice. so i go out and buy live last week. she strikes (kills so much faster than i would have expected for such a small snake right now) and drops it... at this point im pretty much at a loss because all she did was start poking it. smelling it. pushing it. ect.

since she had more interest in it than the f/t i decided to leave it in the cage when i went to work seeing as i tried to feed her for like 10 mins before i had to go. when i came back from work.. mouse gone and snake is lookin mighty fat. kickass.

so i get her a mouse today (a few days past her feeding date due to a shed) and she does the same thing except i get to watch this time.

... she sat there playing with her food for about 30 mins before eating. i was just wondering if anybody elses boa does this as i have NEVER heard of a snake doing this before.

[JimiSnakes]

How about-- All the above? lol

[ncbloods]

I've never had a boa do it, but I have a blood python that has been playing with her food for a long time. She eats F/T, but after striking it off of tongs, plays with it for a while.

Don't worry about it though, as long as your boa eats that's all that matters.

[Schlyne]

Usually when I see one of my snakes pushing the rodent around after the strike, it tells me I didn't get it quite warm enough for a quick swallow.

Only once have I seen a very confused young ball refuse after playing....and he kept trying to eat the mouse from the middle. There was no way he was going to get it down that way...

[crystal]

... she sat there playing with her food for about 30 mins before eating. i was just wondering if anybody elses boa does this as i have NEVER heard of a snake doing this before.

my red tail takes for ever to eat and hes really messy with it. he kills the mouse right away (we feed him live) and then he spends 45 minutes or so squeezing it and chewing it til eventually he finds the head and eats it. it takes forever. however if i throw another mouse in right after he swallows the first its gone in less than ten minutes. im glad your snake does it too i just thought my snake was dumb. (hes cute though so its ok)

[frankykeno]

Seems like every boa we've ever had in this house does this, whether they are taking live or f/t. They are fast as lightning on the strike and the constriction but really like to take their time about the actual eating.

Some of our boa's seem to guard their dead prey, looking around intently to make sure nothing is nearby and a possible threat to them once they settle in to eat. Some of them will not eat if you watch them too closely so we've found it's best once they have their prey dealt with to simply walk away and leave them to eat in peace or for some of them we put a dark cloth over their glass enclosure (seems to help them feel secure).

I don't know but maybe it's just a safety thing that they've evolved. Make absolutely sure your prey is really dead = prey cannot suddenly bite/claw/kick you back. Make absolutely sure nothing else is nearby = you won't get attacked by another animal while you are busy swallowing a large prey item and very vulnerable yourself. Make sure you are at the head of the prey = easier and faster to swallow which if you consider the size of some of the prey boas can eat, is a smart thing and keeps them from being vulnerable to attack any longer than it has to be.

When you think about how a boa lives in the wild, hunting on the ground and up in trees compared to how a ball python hunts, hidden away deep in burrow - it makes sense. A BP hits it's prey, pretty much it's safe to eat. The chances of some other predator in that same burrow aren't probably all that high. But a boa up in a tree or down on the ground, well the chances could be much higher than another predator is nearby or could wander by when it's eating. Since it can't slither off fast, or strike back easily, when it's mouth it's full of a large prey item - well it just makes sense to me that a boa needs the instincts to eat in a careful manner so it doesn't end up being something else's dinner.

[crusher]

k well that puts my mind at ease on the subject. i was just sitting there going

[slither9192]

snip....
Some of our boa's seem to guard their dead prey, looking around intently to make sure nothing is nearby and a possible threat to them once they settle in to eat. Some of them will not eat if you watch them too closely so we've found it's best once they have their prey dealt with to simply walk away and leave them to eat in peace or for some of them we put a dark cloth over their glass enclosure (seems to help them feel secure)...... snip.....

I second this.

[cassandra]

My boa plays with her food...if you consider "death squeeze for 10 minutes" a game. =D

My cornsnake, however, will drop his food and "guard" for a while before nomming down sometimes...

My BP will sometimes use unwanted dead prey as a pillow...