I fed my snake last night for the second time. The first time he was a little reluctant to hit it, but took it, dragged it around, and then ate it. Last night, he came right out of his hide and hit it within a couple minutes. I was pleased as punch, but then things got weird.

As he was wrapped around it, I put the top back on his enclosure and replaced the black light and ceramic light. After a couple minutes, he uncoiled and began sniffing around the rat. Soon, it looked like he was losing interest and started to sniff around the cage. He started to move toward the ceramic light and then he struck at the air! He struck twice, then smelled all around the area of the rat, and returned to the area by the ceramic light and struck at the air again. After the second time, we turned off the ceramic light.

After the third time, he returned to the rat, ate it completely, yawned once, and returned to his hot hide.

I'm still very new to snakes, as I've only had this guy about a week and a half, but I've never come across anything like this before. Is this normal, is he ok? I'm guessing because we turned the ceramic on he was striking at the heat signature.