Snakes eating without striking frozen thawed prey

[dakski]

Was not sure if this is the correct forum (general herp), but it encompasses, in my experience, 3 different snake species.

In any event, I have 3 snakes. Male Hypo Lavender Corn Snake (adult), Female Albino Spider Ball Python (adult), and a Female Ivory Ghost BCI (1 1/2 years old).

My BP has always been shy when eating and often, if not mostly, will not strike at her F/T rats. She will either pick it off the tongs gently and eat happily, or will wait for me to put it down and walk away, and then will eat.

My corn snake usually strikes, but if I drop the F/T mouse in, will often just come and grab it and eat it. I hear they will eat anything, so that fact he doesn't constrict sometimes does not shock me.

My BCI has eaten 5 times for me now. She has, up until last night, struck at her F/T rat. Last night she seemed ready, but did not strike and after 2 minutes of shaking, I put it down and walked away. I came back ten minutes later and she was happily eating it.

Part observation and part curiosity.

I imagine some owners wonder if this is normal, or what to do if a snake does not strike at the F/T prey item. It appears, from my limited experience, that some snakes would rather not have the excitement of someone standing there and would happily eat the prey if left alone.

Has anyone else experienced this? Would you consider this "normal" or do I just have odd snakes?

I will also note that none of the my snakes are aggressive, and are actually very docile. None have struck at me (I also only feed at night with all lights off and handle with lights on). I also wonder if more aggressive snakes are also less shy and are more likely to strike at prey?

[Godzilla78]

I have one shy ball python that prefers me not being around when she eats. I've peeked in and seen her gulping down a thawed rat with no strike or wrap whatsoever. Just bite and swallow.

[Ba11er]

I've never had an experience with a snake eatting without striking but I know it happens. All my snakes will strike and wrap before eatting but a few times they have striked but then dropped the f/t without eatting.

Yours might all be shy or it could be something else causing them to react the way they do. Do some experimenting to see if you can figure this mystery out and let us know.

[Jhill001]

I've had the same snake randomly destroy his cage with death rolls coiling around the mouse and that same snake grab it off the tongs like a nice little boy. I've had this happen both when really tease feeding or just holding it in front of a hide entrance.

[cchardwick]

I've only had two snakes take a rodent gently from tongs, my reticulated python and my albino pied male. both are pretty random, sometimes they will strike, wrap and coil and other times they will be very gentle and just wrap their mouth around the rodent very slowly. All my other snakes grab and wrap. Now that I feed live to all my ball pythons it seems to have made them a bit more aggressive feeders, they all grab and wrap with gusto! I still feed fresh kill to my retic because I don't want to chance feeding a large jumbo rat live.

[Sunnieskys]

Boople usually just smells it then bites it gently and eats it. Last week though I put it in front of her hide and she struck and yanked it into her hide so fast I didn't even see it lol. The week before she took it off the tongs so fast she actually scared me lol.

[redshepherd]

It’s not exactly scientific, but people say defensive hatchlings tend to have stronger feeding response.

My snakes also sometimes eat it if I leave it, and sometimes they don’t. Some need the prey to look “alive” in order to strike and wrap and eat it. It’s all normal, and not totally dependent on species, just the individual. If they will eat an immobile f/t, I’d consider the keeper lucky!

[Zincubus]

Guess they're all different to an extent .. all my Royals will only take warmed up ( hairdryer) rodents when dangled with tongs . My Rhino-nosed Rat snake and the pair of LTRs are the same .

My Corn snake plus Kings , the Burm , Retic and Boas will all just slide up to the food and devour ( fed on pieces of card to avoid ingestion of substrate) . I put the rodent in and get my hand out pretty damn fast


My adult Corn will eat off my hand !! He just eats and slithers off - no feeding frenzy or extended feeding mode to worry about .


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[Sauzo]

My suriname and my salmon BCI will sometimes just open their mouth and grab the mouse by the head and start swallowing. My BP does it a lot too. Others like my BCL, sunglow and normal BCI, go gung ho and attack. Caesar the retic hits his food so hard, he literally shakes the glass doors on all the cages in the stack haha.

[dakski]

I've documented on the site about Shayna's (My BP) gentle and shy approach to eating, Figment's (my corn) "gimmmme" attitude towards his F/T prey, and Behira's (BCI) tendency to strike just thinking about food (and bending teeth!).

I recently covered Behira's tank with a drape (https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...irst-BCI/page9) (her entire thread here: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...host-First-BCI) and the striking at the front of the tank has stopped. I also began feeding her first.

Today, everyone ate without fanfare and without strikes! I am trying to keep Behira from missing the rat and bending teeth or going after the front of the tank, etc.

Tonight, I took the drape off, quickly showed her the rat, she didn't strike right away (unusual), so I put it down and let her be. A few minutes later she started eating it, no problem.

Figment had the mouse put down in front of him and he just grabbed it and started eating, without a strike.

Shayna did her usual, please put it down daaaaad! Then grabbed it and pulled it in her hide to eat it.

Usually either Behira or Figment try to take the head off the F/T prey, but tonight everyone was chill and ate happily.

I thought I would mention.