Burying prey

[DavethePython]

Tonight I fed my Burm Oscar . Usually he takes prey , constricts it and then I have to turn out his lights and he eats it. But tonight he took it as usual but them proceeded to try to bury it in the substrate . I have not seen him do this before . Is it normal for Burms or other species for that matter to bury prey for later ? Has anyone else noticed this behavior before with their snakes ?

[charlesc84]

Buried it? How did it even go about doing this?

[DavethePython]

He would burrow his head under it and push it until it was partially covered . He did finally eat it . I a just wondering if it is something others had seen before . He is a little shy when feeding and if he thinks someone is around he wont eat . I left him alone and went in and checked on him about an hour later and he was eating it .

[Wildside]

Are you feeding live?

[marvelfreak]

I have been keeping snakes for 20 years and have never seen or heard of a snake doing this. Very odd for sure.

[Tekpc007]

I have had my snake smove prey around before eating mostly to get it the just right position for swollowing , some times moving it around for 10 minute or so . i have seen odd behavior during feeding when there is another snake nearby that the eater can see , more of trying to find a hidden spot to eat or out of line of sight of the other snake. Maybe your burm sees you as food competition.

[DavethePython]

First question no I never feed live . I am absolutely opposed to it . My guy may have been fed live at some time and has minor scars to show for it.

Second I did have him out in the living room with our other snakes and have never seen him do this before . He is now in his own room and this is his first feed in solitary . So maybe he did see me as someone who could try to take it away . Not sure . It was just weird , never seen this before . Thanks for the input everyone .

[millertime89]

People say snakes don't have personalities, I disagree to an extent. All of my snakes have their own littler mannerisms and weird things that they do and seem to prefer. My male SD retic charges to the front of the enclosure when I come in to watch me, my BP will poke his head up from wherever he's coiled (he doesn't use his hide anymore) when I come in, my corn pokes her head out from her hide, and my BRBs and burm want nothing to do with me. They all feed differently too. My female SD can't be watched, my male swallows food faster than any snake I've ever seen, my corn will strike, drop, and come back to it later, my BP thrashes his food around, and my BRBs eat "normally".

Where I'm going with this, it could be just something he does, he might have done it before and you haven't seen it.

[Chu'Wuti]

I have one BP, a cinnamon, who "kills" his (F/T) prey, then drops it and inspects it from head to tip of tail for 15-20 minutes. After his thorough inspection, he'll finally eat it. None of my others do that. One time, the cinnamon even dragged his food over to his water bowl and "drowned" it, then inspected it, then ate it. Crazy snake!