Grr! Eating rat tail-first

[Ginevive]

So this morning, I got the perfect-sized baby rat for little Octavia to eat. She was a really shy feeder when I got her a few months back, but has really com out of her shell recently. So I whack the rat and kill it instantly, and offer it to her. She strikes out perfectly and constricts it for a minute or two. Then she drops it onto the cage floor and proceeds to try swallowing it..ass-end first! I had a towel over the cage to give her some security, but could not resist peeking in and seeing her eat. So anyways, she tries this for about ten minutes, and finally somehow gets a good grip and swallows it in this oddball fashion

[The_Godfather]

Nice, it's always a pleasure to see a ball python switch over to rats flawlessly.

[WhiteTiger9188]

my snake tried eating a mouse tail first

it tryed to eat it for like 10 minutes then i decided to try to move the mouse to make its head me near the snakes mouth but when i started to move it my snake started constricting it really tight... i thought the mouse was going to pop... then it loosened up and i took the mouse away quick and gave it back so they were face to face and my snake ate it quick.

it was a stupid thing on my part because the snake could have thought my hand was a mouse but ive never seen my snake strike hes way to shy. but when i take him out hes very interested in his surroundings

i have to start feeding rats.

[Marla]

Yeah, I've seen lots of attempts to eat tail first that usually end up with them turning it around and starting at the head. I always do a little coaching, "Hey, no, grab the other end, the one that doesn't smell like @$$."

[gen]

The one time I saw Monty eat (at the pet store) he ended up with the wrong end. He sat there struggling with the tail for a few minutes. The guy feeding him said, as long as he can find the end of the tail, he'll be okay. So Monty was working on the tail, trying to get to the end of it, when he finally dropped the tail altogether. So the guy picked up the mouse again, Monty struck at it and constricted it again, and ended up with the right end that time. It was interesting to watch.

[freakoverdose1]

but when they do swallow a rodent ass end first you must realize the legs don't fold back the way they are supposed to . They don't fold back that way down and they end up tearing the esophagus all the way down. Hydra tried that and regurgitated it the next morning and there looked to be some blood so I took her in to the vet and he told me all about it. It can seriously hurt your snake if they do it the wrong way.

[gen]

Yikes! Thanks for the info.

[Ginevive]

Danm, that is scary. From now on, if she tries eating assfirst, I'll discreetly move the mouse around the right way. Think I'll use tongs, though, so she notices less.

[JLC]

Yeah...I'd definitely use tongs. When the prey moves, the snake is very likely to strike again, and could easily get your hand by mistake.

The rare occassions when I get to peek at my gopher eating (he can't realize he's being watched) I've seen him try to eat the mouse side-on. It's pretty amusing. Eventually he works his way around to the nose, though.