mouse bite

[tigerlily]

That is strange. I've never encountered/read anything about prey throwing snakes. Very strange. Maybe it was her way of sending it back to the chef, so you could prepare it the way she wanted it!?

[daniel1983]

That is strange. I've never encountered/read anything about prey throwing snakes. Very strange. Maybe it was her way of sending it back to the chef, so you could prepare it the way she wanted it!?

oh it threw the mouse... I thought Joanna was talking about a pre-kill tag

[Adam_Wysocki]

The "throw" was probably just a stress reaction.

Ball pythons are most vulnerable while they are constricting and swallowing prey ... feeding time (live, p/k, or f/t) is instinctually a very stressful time for them ... they want to eat, but at the same time they don't want to be vulnerable to predators .... my guess was that for some reason your snake was startled as the strike was occurring and "flinched" causing the "throw" ... spectators maybe???

-adam

[frankykeno]

Nailed it in one Adam. My son had a friend over and when I think back I believe they were walking by to get something from the kitchen as I remember telling them to hush up a bit (dang loud teenage boys) as we were feeding Baby. I bet that's exactly why she tossed that mouse and thanks for the info. We'll have a word with the kids about this and be more vigilant ourselves during feeding time about surrounding noise/movement.


~~Joanna~~