Can BP's recognize the size of prey ??

[stuka1166]

Hello all...

Can BP's recognize the size of the prey ?? In other words...Can they determine if they are able to swallow it whole, before attacking it ??

Thanks !!!

[Smitty33]

Can't answer 100% but I think they are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. Their sense of smell is also impressive. Mine last night was having a longer time than usual finding the rats head. All of a sudden he got visually agitated and started moving really fast. He then found the right end and ate but was funny seeing him kind of get mad.

[Gary P]

One of mine does the same thing Smitty33. He has trouble finding the head, and after a couple minutes he seems to get quite agitated at himself lol.

I'm sure they can determine if a prey item is too big or not, otherwise ball pythons would make themselves go extinct by constantly choking on their food.

It's still our responsibility as an owner to make sure our pets have appropriate sized food.

[Ax01]

i don't think so, but i'm not 100% sure. i've seen snakes attack and kill too large of a prey, only to spit the prey back out halfway through since it could not be swallowed completely.

just go by the girth of your snake.

[scalrtn]

I'm pretty sure the heat signature of a prey item is picked up by snakes...the larger the heat signature, the larger the prey...so I think they can tell.

[AKA Dave]

Could be worse, Smitty. I was watching Tucker eat a couple of weeks ago and he too was having trouble finding the head. He started visibly huffing and literally bit the mouse again and whipped his head and neck around throwing the mouse into the side of his enclosure. Almost changed his name to Judo right there.

Dave

[Paul's Pieds]

if you use the hair dryer method you can heat the head more than the body and it helps them attack it from the right direction

hope that helps

[Reinz]

if you use the hair dryer method you can heat the head more than the body and it helps them attack it from the right direction

hope that helps

^^^^^^^^^

I fairly recently converted a 13 yr old and a 4 + yr old and I believe this was a major key to my success.

[Tsanford]

My answer to the topic question is yes. I have some big adult females who will refuse to strike an adult male rat 🐀 , but will gladly snatch up a small.

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