Serket at some point figured out that the rat is dead and there is no rush to eat it. When she was a hatchling she struck and coiled like a normal snake until she had this realization, and ever since, for over a year, her manner of eating has been to wait for me to lay the rat down in front of her, then casually saunter over and slurp. As little dramatics and effort as is feasibly possible. Recently- with in this last month- she's suddenly cranked her feeding response up, and is back to striking the rat off the tongs and constricting it. I'm hoping that this means good things for potential pairing in fall; specifically that she is feeling an increased food drive in preparation of putting on some growth and extra reserves for baby makin'. I do have one male that has recently gotten up to a size I would consider for breeding (though he isn't the one I plan to pair with her this year, but my be a viable back up if the other guy isn't ready by fall) so maybe she is smelling him and responding to that?
The other thing I could think of is she's responding to smelling the other 5 new additions, and feels she has to step her game up to compete for resource access, but she hasn't reacted this way to bringing any other snakes into the home before this.
Experienced breeder thoughts would be interesting/enlightening for me.
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