Not Constricting? Trying to get out? And other questions...

[Somed00d]

I have a few that don't constrict when i feed them frozen. They just come over smell it for a minute then down it goes..

From your picture i would recommend adult mice or maybe rat pups..

[JayBP]

I have. But the size of the food is not my concern here... lol

You two were talking about food. He says she might still be hungry. I suggested ways to prevent that by feeding a certain size food. He recommended feeding pray the same size as the thickest part of your snakes body and I recommended feeding prey about the size 10-15% of you snakes weight. So, its not like I randomly came in talking about prey size out of nowhere. . .

[JayBP]

To answer your questions about BPs constricting f/t prey, mine do. After they strike and latch on, I tug on it a little to simulate the prey fighting back. They usually constrict tighter then. I do this so if I ever have to feed them live, they will know they have to constrict.

[Pandora]

To answer your questions about BPs constricting f/t prey, mine do. After they strike and latch on, I tug on it a little to simulate the prey fighting back. They usually constrict tighter then. I do this so if I ever have to feed them live, they will know they have to constrict.

Okay, thank you.
I guess the first response didn't really cover the concerns I mentioned in the original post, so I can see where we both got confused. I apologize.

[uafgrad]

You said you couldnt do f/t because of your mom
What if you buy each feeding mouse/rat on the day you are going to feed. That way nothing in the freezer to upset mom.

[Smith285]

Mine seems to do the same thing (trying to get out) the day before I feed him, so I'm thinking it's a hunger issue too because the next day I'll feed him and he'll calm down for another 5-6 days. Then he's usually active again for a night until I feed him.

I also feed frozen and sometimes he will simply sniff it and eat it like someone above said. Other times he'll strike and constrict it. I'm guessing Pandora thought it was dead and didn't realize she had to kill it before eating.

I have jungle vines that I bought from a local pet store that have suction cups on the end. I suction them the back of the cage and it looks really nice, plus he loves to play in them. I think that would give the same look/effect you are going for with twist tying them to the cover, but without the hassle

[PigsnPythons]

I've had snakes not constrict smaller prey items. The first time I saw it happen it was very disturbing because the baby rat cried the whole time that she ate it alive.....I was told that if the prey item is small then the snake will sometimes decide not to waste the energy constricting it. I've seen it happen three or four times and there was never any negative consequences for the snake.

[snakecharmer3638]

Okay, to answer your first question. I would say she probably didn't constrict because the prey was way to small. From the picture and your description she sounds about the same size as my girls and they are all eating small to med mice.
As for your second question. Thats just what some BP's do to pass time. As long as she is not constantly trying to get out, I wouldn't worry.
As for number three I would think that yes they would be more active at night. I would probably be more worried if I took mine out and they didn't move.
And sorry can't help with number four.

[Pandora]

You said you couldnt do f/t because of your mom
What if you buy each feeding mouse/rat on the day you are going to feed. That way nothing in the freezer to upset mom.

That's actually what my boyfriend suggested doing; but in that case, I can just continue to feed her live because that's what I'm currently doing (buying the day of feeding)

[Egapal]

I have. But the size of the food is not my concern here... lol

I would guess your snake is hungry from all that I have read and the little I have seen. If that is the case then you should be very concerned with the size of the food. Also they bite with their mouth and constrict with there body. If the prey is too small it would have to constrict with its neck. Ball Pythons will eat dead prey in the wild so maybe she thought it was dead already.

I find that the "thickest part of the body" and "10%-15%" rule are not mutually exclusive. My Ball Python is a little over 20 inches long. She weighed 101 grams before her last feeding and I fed her a medium mouse that weight 14 grams. The mouse was 13.8% of her body weight and about the same circumference as her. My snake usually explores her tank after being held and has fallen more than a few times. I recently went into my back yard cut down a maple branch, trimmed it to fit her tank then baked it for an hour at 300 degrees. Then I put it in my freezer over night, let it warm back up and then introduced it to her cage. With more stuff in her tank she hasn't fallen yet.

As for keeping mice in the freezer. I have a live in girlfriend that was very very against having a dead mouse in the freezer. I picked up my mice from Petco, they come in individual sealed zip lock baggies and those baggies are in a Tupperware like container. Try buying a pint of ice cream and labeling it PANDORA's. Throw the ice cream away and wrap the mice container in paper towels and then put that in the ice cream container. Put Pandora's "Ice cream" in the back of the freezer. Now if anyone tries to eat her ice cream they are in for a surprise.

People should no better than to open Pandora's box...I mean ice cream tub filled with paper towels wrapped around a container filled with individually packaged dead mice.