HELP: My female BP sunny starts to eat her rat while it's still alive!!!

[Nemo's First Mate]

My female Pastel BP, Sunny, has always eaten live. She ate F/T once the first week I had her and then refused from there out so that's when we did the switch. I've never had a problem with her. She eats like a champ. Such a big champ that in the past 2 months she has attempted to eat her rat without fully killing it! Both times she struck it, and after a good length of time she released and started to grab the rat for eating. The first time, I went to check on my other snakes (I normally feed 2 at a time so it's faster), and when she got the shoulders I realized it as still breathing! It did wriggle a little bit and then when she realized it wasn't dead she curled it again and then killed it. Today however, this rat put up a fight, and she shook it a bit and then continued to swallow! It did die, i shook it's feet and when there was no movement or any resistance that's when I agreed it had died but has anyone else EVER encountered this? She's my first female ball python, and my 6th snake, and I would be devastated if something ever happened. She's always been a vicious eater but a sweetheart to handle so I'm a little amazed by this. I mean when she was just a hatchling she always drew blood and never hesitated. Anyone have any recommendations?

[KingPythons]

The bp that ate alive how old is he/she? They die once in the stomach. Very little do this at an early age like hatchlings. To me, I take it as them getting use to killing. Eventually they become pro lol. It's good that you watch.

[Royal Hijinx]

My Black Pastel het Hypo did this a couple of times when she was at 900g or so, so she knows how to kill. Maybe she was just in a hurry. I make sure now, that when she coils I pull on the tail after 30 sec or so and she coils tighter and longer. Has not been an issue lately though. It is unnerving to see a rat half way down and it starts to kick.

[DooLittle]

My old mojo did that once with a rat pup. Thankfully it wasn't any bigger of a rat.

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[Chris.]

My onyx does that sometimes but the mice are baaarely clinging onto health so I never worried too much and plus I feel the snake knows what it's doing you can't really question nature because if you weren't around your snake world probably be doing that in the wild somewhere

[STjepkes]

When I first got my female pastel she did this with her first live meals. She would strike, coil for a while, but then start taking off with it in her mouth or proceed to unhinge her jaw while the poor little thing was still alive! What I ended up doing was after she'd strike, I'd carefull take my feeding tongs and grab its tail. I'd wiggle the mouse around as if to simulate it fighting back harder, I think the problem was it just wasn't fighting her hard enough to stimulate her insticts.

This was with very young rats btw, she wasn't a fan of larger meals to begin with... hah

[Nemo's First Mate]

Thank you everyone!! It really is unnerving. I mean I've seen enough google images to be so paranoid about my scaley babies. I'll try the jiggle after she strikes to get her to try harder. She's 500g roughly right now (I forgot to weigh her before feeding this week) so I mean she's been around the block. I got her from a guy at a show that said he thought she was going to die because she just refused to eat so I took her in and she's been my favorite lady and she eats like a pig. But a happy snake is the best kind of snake.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I'll check back next week with a report. Feeding day at the zoo is Tuesday.

[coldbloodaddict]

Are you feeding the appropriate size meal? This usually happens if they prey is too small...They just can't constrict it properly.

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[Nemo's First Mate]

Are you feeding the appropriate size meal? This usually happens if they prey is too small...They just can't constrict it properly.

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I think you might be right.... The mediums I got her were kinda smaller than normal....