Quote Originally Posted by NightLad View Post
I have a question about that, and before I ask it I want to mention that I'm not trying to be argumentative or confrontational - I'm just honestly curious.

I've read that if the snake grabs the prey poorly (for example, in the hindquarters instead of the head/neck) that they prey will have the freedom necessary to bite and claw the snake, doing damage of varying degrees in the process.
Assuming that this is accurate insofar as I've related the scenario, would this not always be a possibility when feeding live, even when supervised?

On a related note; what exactly can one do when supervising a live feeding 'gone bad'? Can anybody offer stories that may educate us novice BP owners?
Whenever any of mine have not grabbed the prey ideally, and it's struggling more than normal, they throw another coil around them. The toenails on rats and mice don't damage the scales on your snake (at least not in my experience) and prey is gasping for air. I've never once interfered with a kill, and I've been feeding live for over 2.5 years, and I've calculated over 3000 live prey items that I've fed off (I used to feed 2 mice a week to each of my snakes, now they're on one rat a week).

I've observed that when it looks like the prey is going to bite, as soon as the snakes feel it, they squeeze even tighter, which causes the prey to gasp for a breath, rather than bite.

I've not sustained even a scratch on my snakes - and I check them thoroughly.

it is very sad, but why won't the sanke just kill it? they will bite us if we hurt them, but not something it can actually kill?
They are called ball pythons for a reason - when they are stressed or being attacked, they ball up (most likely to protect their bellies and often times their heads as well when they tuck it into the ball). If a snake isn't interested in eating, it retreats. The rat had no food offered, it started nibbling on the snake, the snake balled up and the owners weren't there to protect their snake. Shame on them.