Weird eating habits....

[CptJack]

I don't know how to even describe this correctly:

The only way we have gotten Atlas to reliably eat is to to put her on top of her tank lid and poke the nose of the FT rat against hers. There is no holding her down or putting the thing in her mouth. It's literally nudging it's nose into hers, then she bites (I can't call it a strike, there is no speed or particular force behind it), coils and eats.

We tried zombie dancing, we tried warmer water, we tried braining, we tried in the tank overnight and nothing worked. This does, and that's all I really care about.

But after seeing Herc eat, it strikes me as particularly weird. It's almost lazy looking.

Am I missing something/doing something wrong with this?

(Also, she seems...lankier than most BP I've seen. No triangle shape, no clear idea how old she is, but it seems almost like she's got a longer neck than average. She's definitely not as heavy bodied and thick. There's no question associated with that one, just random observation, but I wouldn't mind someone patting me on the head and telling me she's okay.)

[TurkeyPython]

I don't really get what you're describing here...could you get some pics or a video?

[CptJack]

I can do pics or video but not for another week - well, maybe 5 days.

I'm probably over complicating the description.



Pretend the kitten on a left is a dead rat, and the one on the right is a snake. That's literally it. I put its nose against hers, and she eats - but it has to be straight on, not from above or sideways. Anything else? NOPE.

The lack of real striking's a lot of what's confusing me, I think.

[TurkeyPython]

I can do pics or video but not for another week - well, maybe 5 days.

I'm probably over complicating the description.



Pretend the kitten on a left is a dead rat, and the one on the right is a snake. That's literally it. I put its nose against hers, and she eats - but it has to be straight on, not from above or sideways. Anything else? NOPE.

The lack of real striking's a lot of what's confusing me, I think.

That's...a bit disturbing. Some snakes stop striking when they realize their food is always already dead when they get it and ball pythons just tend to be weird about food anyway. I wouldn't worry as long as she will eat. And as for her looking slender, as long as she's not actually skinny/underweight, she's fine. Some are just built leaner than others.

[carbn8]

When I first got my girl there was a little mis communication between the guy I bought her from and myself. I picked up small mice instead of small rats. I knew right away they were to small so I was feeding her 2 in row. She wouldnt strike them off the tongs. She would how ever eat them if i left them in the tank over night. I recieved my order of small rats last week on feeding day. i always use tongs to handle the feeders, and as I was putting the rat down next to her she struck with gusto coiled it up and downed it. Im not sure if the size of the feeder had anything to do with it, but maybe try moving up a size.

[CptJack]

She definitely could use slightly bigger food. I'll see what I can find tonight on my way home from agility. I don't want to place another rodent pro order and end up with a freezer full of snake food that's not right.

But yeah, not overly worried about it as long as she's eating - and she DOES coil it once she takes it, but I think that's just because it's the easiest way for her to get it down her gullet.

[carbn8]

I was curious if you had tried feeding again with a larger pry item. It would be interesting to see if it affected feeding response.

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[CptJack]

I'm going to hold off offering her food again for a week and then offer her bigger food and see what happens. Yesterday I double checked all of her temps and humidity and made some adjustments in there to get both a little more 'dead on', just in case something was wrong, husbandry wise. I'll definitely update with what happens when I try.

[CptJack]

So, as an update to this:

Bigger prey was a no go when we tried that.

However, tonight she struck and coiled like a real, live, normal snake. I think the issue was that I wasn't getting her food hot enough for her. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't hot enough to burn or steaming or anything, but it was warmer than the 'slightly warm to the touch according to the human' temp I'd been raising it to. So, apparently that was my issue.