Yesterday I went to feed my bp Dante. I dropped the rat into the other side of the bin from him, then began the countdown. To this point no rat or mouse has lasted more then 15 seconds.

Anyway, Dante immediatly struck upwards into the air about six inches from the actual rat. Once it pulled back down it flicked it's tongue and slithered around the enclosure for a minute before it finally found the rat. After that it was business as usual.

I'm questioning why it struck into the air. I've haven't done a lot of research on the ball python's front heat sensors or their eyesight capabilities. Does anyone out there have any detailed information on how bp's see and move?

On a sidenote he did just shed, but there's no skin on the eye caps that I've seen that would explain the weird behavior.