Snake Life Lessons 1: Where not to strike a mouse (Slighty graphic)

[PythonChick]

So... I have one snake that is a little bit... special.... in terms of how she takes mice/rats. She has the best feeding response of all of my snakes, but she strikes at the mouse/rat rather indiscriminately. Today, it was almost comical. I put the mouse in the tub, she was already terribly excited, and then BAM she hit the mouse!

Sort of....



She just sort of gingerly grabbed the tail, the mouse looked around like 'what the...' and bam she constricted it. This just goes to show why it is important to make sure nothing goes wrong when feeding live. You may notice a bit of blood in the picture, it is coming from the mouse's tail. It made her breathing sound really funny while she was constricting, so of course I was worried then, but I think it was just the tail and the blood in he mouth. She just likes to worry me.

[Ginevive]

Funny My boa does this once in awhile.

[ViciousBliss]

thanks for sharin those pictures... first time i ever fed my snake, he was pretty excited, hadn't eaten in 2 months, and was pretty neglected prior to my owning him, he grabbed the mouse by the back foot... needless to say i was freakin out... the way he constricted it, there was blood coming from the mouth, and i thought, because of how he had coiled around it, that it had bit him. yey it hadn't the second mouse he downed he struck face first... and then happily ate it without any issues.

[Drew87]

I have one of my BP that will only stike at the rats butt its very weird nice to know that im not the only one haha

[Drew87]

STRIKE haha need to read what i type

[Seneschal]

What a funny little snake!! Glad it worked out...for her...although I'm sure the expression on the mouse's face when it's tail was grabbed must've been funny.

[Indigo]

My little guy caught a mouse by the very tip of the tail once. The silly thing dragged him all over his tub while we were looking for something to cover his head and remove the mouse so he could get a better strike. It was really kind of funny.

[redpython]

he is flossing...

[stormbourne]

I have one of my BP that will only stike at the rats butt its very weird nice to know that im not the only one haha

You strike at the butts too?

[FIREball]

I had a hatchling grab a rat pup by the tail and drag it in the hide, it was a tug of war battle for a few seconds.