Wierd Feeding

[BALLPYTHON]

I was holding up a f/t small rat for one of my females as usual and she was interested and seemed like she was gonna strike any second but didnt. I was rat dancing for a few minutes, she kept interest but kind of came from the side. The rat touched her neck and she kind of weakly constricted it but then ate it.
Anybody seen anything like this before?

[ladywhipple02]

Sometimes when I offer f/t, my snakes don't constrict at all. They simply open their mouths and start swallowing. And, then, sometimes they hit the thing like it's still kicking and trying to bite them. Just depends on their mood I guess.

[PrincessErica]

Maybe they're just humouring us by "killing" it. "Silly human, thinking that rat is still alive..." Maybe yours just didn't feel like putting on the charade for you today!

[Adam_Wysocki]

The rat touched her neck and she kind of weakly constricted it but then ate it.
Anybody seen anything like this before?

Yes. It's real common with young ball pythons. Contact on the side of the neck sometimes causes them to slide or snap their head to the side and bite. It's probably rooted in an instinctual defensive response because many of the ball pythons natural predators would attack to kill at the neck (same way a dog goes for the throat ... easy kill), but once they realize that they've latched onto something edible, they go ahead and "take it down".

-adam

[Lobo_Reptiles]

My boa does this alot. He just slowly opens his mouth like a bird 'aaaah' feed me lol I just switched them to small rats tonight and Hades did the whole 'stare the food down' routine. He's tricky.