ever had a bp just kinda, grab, the rat?

[kiiarah]

My guy has done this a few times too, and he does take F/T so I think that has a lot to do with it. Now that he is older he almost always strikes, though there was one time that he very gently took the rat out of my hand. He had been having trouble with positioning and dragged the rat through the water bowl and then through the ecoearth substrate. Needless to say the rat was caked with dirt and he was freaking out over a mouthful of stubstrate. I had taken him out and checked his mouth and rinsed off the rat but was reluctant to put him back in and have him drag this soaking wet rat through more bedding, so I just held it around the middle for him. My hand was literally about an inch and a half behind its head and he just ever so carefully came up to it and slowly opened his mouth and grabbed it by the head and took it from me. It almost seemed like he was being careful because he knew I was there (he nailed it on the first attempt before the bedding fiasco) but realistically he was probably just worn out from all the activity prior to that.

In response to the previous post that mentioned the snake getting excited when the yellow gloves come out, I have noticed this same ability to learn feeding night cues. I always put down a paper plate in the tank to try to minimize him ingesting substrate. He didn't seem to pay any attention to it at first, but these days as soon as that plate goes down he comes out and starts sniffing around it looking for food. I usually take about 15-20 minutes to warm and prep the rat after putting his plate in and he will just sit with his head right in the middle of the plate waiting. I have been pretty amazed by his ability to make those connections. After all, a plate is not something that he would encounter in the wild in search of a meal lol.