Quote Originally Posted by bhsurf4 View Post
I got a purple tiger retic a couple months ago and he’s been amazing. Today I went to feed him and everything was great. He struck the mouse, wrapped, and then pulled it into his hide. Looked like he had the situation under control so I went about my business. Came back a couple hours later and he hadn’t eaten yet. He was just chilling in his hide with a dead mouse. I gave him another hour just in case, but I decided it had probably been long enough and he just wasn’t gonna eat it. I grabbed my tongs to get it out and when I did he struck, and missed, again. So I presented the mouse one more time and he struck and wrapped it and ate it right away. Anyone else seen a retic do this?
I have zero experience with retics, but I've seen plenty of other snakes, ALL kinds, do this same thing. Some snakes like BPs target the warmth, but many other snakes
(like yours) are into the visual side of prey...they want to see it wiggling around. They seem to lose interest even though they can smell it ...but then when you try to
retrieve or re-offer it, it's obviously just what they were waiting for. Silly sneks... One of my corn snakes pounces vigorously on f/t mice from tongs, but if I move too
much (even backing away from her cage) she loses interest in the prey she caught & all she can think about is coming after "the motion" (which is me, but she doesn't
really know that, thru the glass). Don't get me wrong, I'm totally on board with feeding f/t or pre-killed fresh prey, but this is a downside of doing so: in the real world,
our snakes would not lose interest so fast because they'd be wrestling the rodent for at least a minute or so, & in the real world, a person wouldn't be moving around
nearby & being a distraction.