kill and run?

[kid_mustango02]

Well twice now my bp has grabbed a f/t adult mouse, which is about the same girth as his body, constricted it then sniff around it for a minute and run back to his hide without swallowing it. Whats up with that?

[pythontricker]

you could have startled it and it let go. and some times you have to wiggle the mouse around after it bites (unless you are feeding live). otherwise it wont be very enticing for the snake to eat. One of my bps does it all the time. not a big deal. It just happens sometimes.

[FIEND_FO_LYFE]

yeah ive had that a few times, what i do is just pick it back up and try again, and eventually they start to eat it.

ive had to do it like 5 times for one of my snakes because he just wont eat it lol

[frankykeno]

It may be that the f/t prey is not warm enough to trigger the snake to want to eat it (remember they normally do not eat dead, cold prey). It may be that you are too close and hanging over the enclosure triggering your snake to see you as a possible predator. When a snake eats, swallowing that whole prey item, it's at a terribly vulnerable time. It can't easily take off or fight back with it's mouth stuffed full of half-swallowed prey. If it perceives it's not safe because you are too close, it may refuse to settle down and eat.

I've had an adult who normally eats very well, back the almost swallowed rat right out of her mouth because I accidentally bumped her tub while she was in the processing of eating. We have another adult female that will strike but refuse to swallow her prey because we are moving around the snake room so she always has to be fed last.

[Samuel]

I had a picky eater last night. FT Jumbo mouse, wiggled it around, she seem interested but then moved away. She came back .. then left. She did the like 4 times. I finally just layed it down and pushed the tub back in. 5 minutes later I was like "Well, I should give it another shot", opened her tub and she had it head in her mouth.

She gave me the best "WTF, GTFO MAH TUB!?!" look ever. I closed it back up and she ate it. So are just really finicky on how their food is delivered.

[Peter Williams]

I posted this on a thread a little while back:

I have a het albino male that used to do this alot. And he didnt just leave it for a while, I'd wake up to the smell of rotting rat sitting over top of his heat. My solution was to feed him very last, and right as soon as he hit it, I left the room and turned the lights off right away. All he needed was a little privacy. He quickly got over it once I did that a few times.

[Jenn]

I have a big girl who is like that sometimes with live prey!!! She strikes and kills right away, but then roams around looking for me, or for another prey item. As long as she sees me walking around feeding other snakes she won't eat. Just as soon as I leave the room... Gulp!

[JM_90]

well i have a new bp and i just cant get him to eat at all. he doesnt even show intrest in it. ive even tried live, any suggestions?

[dr del]

Hi JM_90,

It might be because you only got him 5 days or so ago.

There may also be a few issues that we need to work out in your setup to get the temps and hides etc set right.

Moving to a new environment is quite stressfull for some snakes and can easily put them off feeding even if everything is perfect - getting everything dialied in right then letting him settle in for a week with as little inteaction as possible can help them relax.

Anyone wanting to help JM_90 can give him tips and suggestions in this thread.

Security is really a big thing with these snakes and , as mentioned above, is probably the most likely reason for one to kill but not eat.


dr del

[kid_mustango02]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Yea I guess I need to just turn all the lights off and leave the room for this one....