Aggressive Feeder, Won't Swallow Rat

[200xth]

He'll eat the rats either way, but it takes him a while to finally eat the rat in the feeding enclosure. In the feeding enclosure, he usually lets the rat get cold then drops it, so I have to get him interested in it a couple more times before he finally finds the head and eats it. When I tried feeding him in his tank, he took the rat and ate it the first time around, but proceeded to be very aggressive after the fact. I found this pretty surprising, because once he finally downs the rat in his feeding enclosure, he's satisfied and doesn't continue searching for food, making it easy to move him back over to his main tank once I've given him some time to sit in the feeding enclosure after finishing the rat. He eats the rats fine once he finds the head, but he tends to grab the rats at odd angles, and then gives up when he doesn't see its face. His aggressive feed response wouldn't be a problem at all, and would probably even make it easier to feed him in some scenarios, if he'd just grab the rat from the front rather than any which way!


The rats are about as big around as the largest section of his body. I don't currently have the weight of my snake in comparison to the rats he's been eating, as my mother's scale has gone missing, but once I find it I'll be sure to measure him. I'll see if I can get a picture of the rat and a comparison picture of him, though. He's over two feet long, but as the size of the prey that pythons are usually fed is determined by the girth and/or weight of the snake in comparison to the prey item, I'm not sure that'll help any.

In my cases, if they're dropping the food it's usually either too big or he's not really hungry.

If I think it's too big, I try the following week with something smaller.

If I know the food is the right size (they've eaten that size before), they will usually eat the following week without problem.

They don't all need to eat weekly, and they don't all prefer the same size food. You may have to experiment a little to dial in your snake's preferences.

As far as grabbing it wrong, they'll figure out where the head is if they are hungry. Once they grab the food, I close up the enclosure and leave them be overnight.