Eating wrong

[Jessi3825]

So I just fed my BP. First he tried to eat him from the arm first, then went for the rear and has been trying to eat the mouse from it's rear for the past 15 minutes. He can't get passed on of the legs. I assume he'll figure it out eventually, so I hope? Anyone else have the problem before?

Erm.. Well actually I just checked on him, and he ate it backwards.. Um, should I expect that the mouse will be coming back up?

[boboso]

So I just fed my BP. First he tried to eat him from the arm first, then went for the rear and has been trying to eat the mouse from it's rear for the past 15 minutes. He can't get passed on of the legs. I assume he'll figure it out eventually, so I hope? Anyone else have the problem before?

Erm.. Well actually I just checked on him, and he ate it backwards.. Um, should I expect that the mouse will be coming back up?

Nope, mine has eaten starting on the rear, then eventually found the head and gets it all the time. No worries, it happens.

[instinct27]

Are you feeding live or F/T?

[mainbutter]

It happened the first time I fed my BP. She has become smarter about how to eat her food since then.

[Jessi3825]

I feed my BP frozen mice(i obviously thaw them out). She was having a hard time eating the mouse from the rear at first, then I went and checked on her and she simply just ate the mouse. I just found it rather odd since she has always ate from the nose of the mouse to the backend.

[instinct27]

Like the others mentioned, it isn't a big deal.

It might help for you to warm the head end of the mouse slightly more than the bottom end.

I typically let the mouse thaw to room temperature then place them in a sealed plastic bag and soak them in the hottest water my tap can produce head first. This way the tail end typically is not fully submerged and the top half becomes the warmest region on the mouse.

Don't know if this will help but I guess it's worth a shot

[Jessi3825]

I'll try that out when I feed her next, but I don't think there was much of a difference? But who knows

[patm1313]

Don't worry about it. Eating the mouse from the rear just makes the feeding take longer. Normally, once it's in, it's in.

[wax32]

I once had a BCI attempt to eat a mouse butt-first. I thought, "hey, he'll get it down..." and left to go to a movie. Boy was I wrong. I came back three hours later and the mouse was still sticking out of his mouth (the elbows were caught on either side of his jaws.) The snake was lying half in his water bowl, on his back!

I flipped out thinking I had killed the snake. I picked him up and he threw up the (very slippery with saliva) mouse. It took 4 hours for his jaws to go back to normal.

I guess my point is, if they try to take the mouse butt-first, stick around to make sure they get it down.

[Slim]

If your BP is young, watch how much smarter he gets with successive feedings. After a few times, he'll search for the head almost every time.