I can only think of one reason why a snake (BP or otherwise) might eat their shed, & that's if their old skin had the scent of their previous prey on it...which is very likely,
especially when you consider just how sensitive a snake's sense of smell is...they can sniff out just a few molecules left on their skin from that rat they constricted. I think
the reason that most snakes do NOT get confused & consume their sheds is because they can smell themselves in the skin FAR more than last week's rodent. That, and
some snakes even take a dump inside their old sheds, lol.
Sometimes snake just do weird things though: when it comes to sheds, the weirdest thing I've seen was when one of my adult king snakes decided that after she shed it
would be fun to be back inside her old skin? The only way in was thru the open mouth of the shed, & since the shed narrows quite a bit towards the tail, at some point
she got stuck and didn't seem able to get out. Might have been hard to breathe, too? Anyway, I helped her out of it...sheds tear easily but not if you're a snake with
no hands.Silly snek...
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