chairman
07-21-15, 11:23 AM
Maybe I just haven't fed enough snakes but...
My experience is that snakes almost universally look their meals over to find the head and start swallowing from there. Every once in a while someone eats a mouse/rat tail first but I've found this to be the exception, not the rule.
But then there's my male jag. I'm feeding him mice which are only equal to his diameter so I know they're a little small. I'm making up the difference by feeding multiple mice, will buy appropriately sized rats the next time I order feeders. Unlike normal snakes, my jag does not reposition his prey if he misses the nose with his strike. He just uses his body to bend the mouse in half and eats it from wherever he's grabbed it. The first time he did it I shrugged it off but he's starting to make a regular habit of it. I'm not overly concerned as the mouthful is only between 1.5 and 2x girth, but is this a normal carpet thing? Maybe a jag thing? My female eats like any sensible snake, searching for that streamlined end.
My experience is that snakes almost universally look their meals over to find the head and start swallowing from there. Every once in a while someone eats a mouse/rat tail first but I've found this to be the exception, not the rule.
But then there's my male jag. I'm feeding him mice which are only equal to his diameter so I know they're a little small. I'm making up the difference by feeding multiple mice, will buy appropriately sized rats the next time I order feeders. Unlike normal snakes, my jag does not reposition his prey if he misses the nose with his strike. He just uses his body to bend the mouse in half and eats it from wherever he's grabbed it. The first time he did it I shrugged it off but he's starting to make a regular habit of it. I'm not overly concerned as the mouthful is only between 1.5 and 2x girth, but is this a normal carpet thing? Maybe a jag thing? My female eats like any sensible snake, searching for that streamlined end.