Tail wagging???

[Jenn]

So I have this crazy Bumblebee who seldom acts like a BP. He is regularly out and about, and he just loves to be held. The other day he did something I have never seen a BP do. And, I was just wondering if anyone else has ever seen this before.

He has a great feeding response. I don't even need to pre-scent for him. I have always fed him live and he's a really great hunter. He will take rats or mice. The other day I offered a mouse and he just kind of wandered over and took a lazy strike. It was pretty obvious he was not trying. The mouse got away (never happened before) and then he wandered over to the mouse again and half struck again, and again the mouse escaped certain death. But then he positioned his tail in front of the mouse and wagged the tip of his tail slowly back and forth, almost as if he was "fishing" for the mouse. After playing with the mouse for a while he struck hard and fast and the game was over.

[MarkS]

What you're describing sounds like caudal luring, though I've never observed this in ball pythons myself. Caudal luring is where the snake will wave the end of it's tail around to mimic a worm or something that will attract prey so they're within striking range. You can see this often in other species, copperheads are particularly noted for it, though I've never seen and don't remember hearing about it in ball pythons. Most tail wagging behavior I've observed in balls is when females will evert their musk/scent glands and wag their tails around spreading their scent when they're ready to breed.

[Jenn]

Thanks Mark. That's exactly what it looked like. I have a corn snake that will rattle his tail if I walk by when he's eating, but I have never seen a BP use it's tail to hunt before. Oh well, this guy is a little weird.

[Ladydragon]

I dont think thats weird, I think is rather neat to actually witness your bp doing something that he might have done in the wild. thanx for sharing.

[Melicious]

I think that's great. I wish you'd gotten the chance to video tape that. That would've been great.

[MDB]

Most tail wagging behavior I've observed in balls is when females will evert their musk/scent glands and wag their tails around spreading their scent when they're ready to breed.

I love watching them do that

[anendeloflorien]

Huh, that's kind of an interesting behavior! Never seen that in my snakes either! Sounds like he was just playing with the mouse lol. I wonder if anyone else has ever observed that type of "caudal luring" in a BP. I know most tree pythons will use some form of caudal luring. With GTPs most of their tails are a different color from the rest of their body so that they can use it expressly for that purpose.