Does your BP ever play with his food first?

[JeffJ]

Before last night every time i offered my BP white Fuzzies all he would do is play with them. For example, the one evening i observed the Fuzzie running around the brim of his old water dish, my BP came up from the side and used his nose to push the Fuzzie in the water. i thought ok maybe it was a poke of curiosity. but as soon as the fuzzy climbed out, my Snake did it again. and he made a game of it this continued for about 15 minutes until the fuzzie abandoned running around the water and cowered in a corner behind a fake vine.

Im kind of wondering if he befriended the feeder. as i witnessed my BP sleeping in his fav corner with the feeder sleeping right beside and on him. this continued for 2 days, the BP messed with the Fuzzie and they hung out together until i took it back to my supplier and switched it up for a brow/white one which was promptly eaten almost as soon as it touched the substrate.

whats the deal any one els ever experienced this.

PS: my BP ate 2 white feeders last night with out a second thought i presented though for about 2 hours until he was going a little bit rangy trying to find them.

[Bruce Whitehead]

At the risk of offending you... your snake is not befriending or playing with his food.

Even if you were using *playing* in the right context when referring to animals, which would be toying with, etc. Still I would say no. No. No.

Not sure what further elaboration to give you.

Bruce

PS: fuzzy or not... there is NO reason for that feeder to be in with your snake for two days.

If you are going to feed live, then do so responsibly.

[Bruce Whitehead]

To elaborate...

If your snake is uninterested, not hungry, or does not recognize the prey item as food, then that disinterest does not constitute friendship or translate into affection of any kind.

If it was I would be best friends with every commuter on the Metro in the AM.

Bruce

[JeffJ]

At the risk of offending you... your snake is not befriending or playing with his food.

Even if you were using *playing* in the right context when referring to animals, which would be toying with, etc. Still I would say no. No. No.

Not sure what further elaboration to give you.

Bruce

PS: fuzzy or not... there is NO reason for that feeder to be in with your snake for two days.

If you are going to feed live, then do so responsibly.

it was not in there for two days i give him an hour with it if he is uninterested i remove it to its own enclosure. im not that stupid i don't leave offers overnight too his feeding is always monitored as it is live.

i just found it odd because he did this with EVERY white feeder up until last night when i figured id have to play games again and just take them back. I offered white even though he rejects them usually due to the fact that im trying to break him from a picky eating as its difficult to get colored fuzzies some times. and liek i said if it has some color to it he will eat it before it has time to look around. if its white. it pokes ate it seems to antagonize it. and generally just lets it tag along with him. he is hungry i know it but he just does not associate it with food half the time.

[blackcrystal22]

What Bruce said.

It's also entirely possible that your snake prefers or recognizes color prey more than that white prey.

It wasn't playing with it's food, it was trying to figure out if it was food.

Edit: It is common for that to happen with picky feeders because their instinct does not necessarily recognize white prey as easily. I've heard of other people who can not feed anything but color prey because the snake just won't eat it.

[JeffJ]

To elaborate...

If your snake is uninterested, not hungry, or does not recognize the prey item as food, then that disinterest does not constitute friendship or translate into affection of any kind.

If it was I would be best friends with every commuter on the Metro in the AM.

Bruce

well im not saying its written in stone that they are pals lol, im say it appears the snake is well aware of what he is doing and likes to mess with the white feeders. he takes interest in them. just will not strike. for all we know the BP could have just been thinking im going to poke this thing. no ideas. but it has happened more then once for me where it appears that the Snake is just screwing with the white feeder, and doesn't eat it

[JeffJ]

What Bruce said.

It's also entirely possible that your snake prefers or recognizes color prey more than that white prey.

It wasn't playing with it's food, it was trying to figure out if it was food.

i agree, however this would be on the fence opinion about playing with it. when a child tries to figure out if whats in front of him is food, the parents response is usually "don't play with your food" which is why i used the term. now befriending was just a thought not an actual explanation that i my self believe to be the answer.

[Lolo76]

Before we figured out that Delilah only eats mice, she would "hang out" with the rat pups we offered... looks like they're buddies in these pictures, but I'm sure that's not how either of them saw it.

(sorry about the stuck shed - it was rough before moving her into the tub!)

[Jenn]

This is actually not uncommon with snakes. There was an elderly woman in Maine known as the "Snake Lady" who did all sorts of experiments with snakes. Saddly she was bitten by a cobra while doing a cover shot for People Magazine and died.

She discovered that uneaten prey left in with a snake would remain uneaten while the snake would strike and eat any other prey item introduced. And that reintroducing the original prey item only worked if a week or so had passed first.