Quote Originally Posted by ayobreezie
My BP is fed live.. I've tried PK and F/T's.. but he'll only take live.. I put him in a feeding tub I have for him(custom screen top) toss in a small rat every week.. and he goes to work.. as soon as the rat gets in there, he strikes right for the face, and clenches tight around the rest of the body.. that first strike is VERY important, but I've never had a problem because my boy always gets a good face strike.
Yea, the only times I've had biting is with bad strikes. IMO, A bad strike is one taken in haste or one that lands the back half of the prey. These tend to leave the prey's head fairly unconstrained- at least at first.

The only times I've had bad strikes in a seperate feeding tub was once when Snakey was all spread out and I dropped the mouse in and it ran by him. He crossed over his own body to strike.

I've had a couple of bad strikes feeding in-cage that were due to some furniture. My BP has this big log in front of his hide. He kind of had to either watch to the left or the right and the mouse came around the corner from the opposite direction. What happened was that he took a quick strike with the mouse right on top of him. He almost lost his eye that time. He's still got a mark on the top of his head only a 1/4" from his eye.

IMO, for the snake's best advantage you want a flat open killing zone with the snake either coiled in the corner or in a hide. That way the prey can't approach w/o being seen and it can't flank the snake and approach at and angle that forces them to turn alot. My BP, at least, doesn't move much when he's in strike position so if a mouse flanks him he just lets it crawl over him.