Snake ate food backwards

Kmef07 · 04-26-09, 02:40 PM

I wanted to post this a couple days ago when it happened but my snake is officially not a real snake anymore. lol. I decided to take a couple really young rats off my friend who started with a male and two female rats and after a month or so has 37 new babies and 4 full grown females. so they were free and considerably smaller than what my brb eats now so i got 3 of them and each one was eaten really oddly.

first one started off well with a good strike but a bad coil and eventually the rat stopped moving. when my snake uncoiled the rat started to breath again and its mouth was moving a lot and it was squeaking. but my snake decided to eat it anyways and it ate it while still alive without any hesitation.

second one it struck bad but had a better coil and held until the rat stopped moving but then it let go and the mouse's mouth started to open and close and was clearly alive and my snake decided to eat it from the butt end to the head end. I got my camera and started to take a vid of it and i will post it on here after i get it up on youtube. but it also ate this one backwards and alive.

the third one it ate was the best coil but was not dead when it decided to eat it and was squeeking until my snake got the head in it's mouth all the way and it obviously died then but still weird.

and lastly my snake doesn't seem to do a traditional coil it just seems to squeeze it between it's body almost like scissors. you will be able to see on the video but i guess the reason im posting is to figure out if this is somewhat normal or what. my snake is not used to eating live but it coils the dead prey better.

**Aaron_S** · 04-27-09, 03:52 PM

It's usually not common for boas and pythons to eat their prey while it's still alive. I have seen plenty of milksnakes and kingsnakes do it though.I wouldn't stress about it since the prey item could not harm your snake.

Kmef07 · 04-28-09, 08:21 AM

well ya it is just weird and kinda messed up. if snakes eat f/t for a long time will they "become sloppy" at killing their prey if it is alive?

Will0W783 · 04-28-09, 10:17 AM

As far as I know, yes, they can get sloppy. My fiance and I have 26 snakes and it is easy to see who has been on f/t all their lives. Our adult male carpet will sit with his mouth open when he sees food, waiting for you to drop it in front of him. Most of the time he won't even coil it, he just gulps it down, although he lately has been giving half-hearted attempts to coil it. On the other hand, my male ball python who'd been on live until recently will violently attack f/t and coil them very well. I think it depends on the snake, how long it has been on f/t and how aggressive an eater it is. Some will be sloppy, some will never lose the attack and kill instinct. Some of mine try to eat prey backwards sometimes, but they usually get stuck and go for the head in the end.

gonesnakee · 04-28-09, 01:44 PM

Tease feeding when using FT prey will help "fix" this lazy about eating attitude. Make them chase after it & once they grab it "fight" with them over it to make them constrict it etc. Its good exercise for your animals & makes feeding mor interesting as well.
A heads up of the live feeding videos online anywhere. Get ready for a steadt stream of hatemail for doing so & POTENTIAL investigation as well. I was part of a Humane Society Investigation at a guys place whom they had recvd several complaints about over live feeding videos on the web. It was all good & othing was wrong etc. but they had to investigate the complaints they recvd as they do with all complaints. What I'm saying is you will be painting a target on yourself for the Haters to come after you. Something many folks do not consider prior as if its all done proper its OK but guess what PETA geeks have the internet too

Mark

Kmef07 · 04-29-09, 05:50 PM

I do tease all the time and it usually works. the last time i fed FT was like two weeks ago and the snake ripped the tail off almost it was pulling so hard against the tongs i use. which are tongs you use for grilling so they are very hardy tongs.

and the live feeding on the web that is a good point and i've seen the haters on people that post things but oh well they can't say anything to hurt me or make me mad. and there are people that don't do it respectfully to the prey and that is wrong. I remember on youtube snake keepers that were feeding live that were complaining about another guy in europe or something that was also feeding live but he was feeding baby kittens and when the snake was almost done with the kittens he would put a live kitten in the mouth backwards so the snake would eat the kitten alive and it would make the kitten suffer and he was laughing in the background. it was sick and he got in big trouble for it i believe.

Will0W783 · 04-29-09, 06:24 PM

Kmef07, you might want to try using hemostats to hold the f/t. They are easier to grip the tails with than tongs, but you have to be quick to release them. I've found them much easier- my grip fatigues when using tongs- but a voracious snake will rip feet and tails off...lol.

Will0W783 · 04-29-09, 06:24 PM

Only use hemostats for f/t prey as they would cause a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering for a live prey item.

auburn_09 · 05-14-09, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

It's usually not common for boas and pythons to eat their prey while it's still alive. I have seen plenty of milksnakes and kingsnakes do it though.I wouldn't stress about it since the prey item could not harm your snake.

I wouldn't be too sure. I've seen and heard of prey hurting snakes.

Chu'Wuti · 05-15-09, 07:33 AM

Auburn, Aaron_S meant that the prey couldn't hurt the snake going down. Once the snake is actually swallowing it, the prey is going to die fairly quickly and thus is not a threat to the snake. (I certainly hope Aaron is correct!)

Kmef07 · 05-15-09, 09:26 AM

not to mention that the prey items i was feeding were all really helpless they weren't even weaned yet.

coastalNY · 05-24-09, 08:18 PM

i have a jungle carpet who was bitten by a rat during a feeding about 3 years ago, ever since then she has refused to eat rats, being 6ft long shes a hungry girl therefore i spend about 10 bux a week on 5 or 6 mice rather then getting 1 rat for 3 bux, as for my coastal carpet i fed him 3 pinkeys cuz the pet shop was out of mice nd he did the same thing that your snake did (eating them while still alive), the pinkeys are to small for the snake to throw a good coil around it so once they stop moving for a second the snake gets to work, dead or alive. all in all always try nd feed your snake approprit sized prey

**Aaron_S** · 05-25-09, 08:30 PM

It's generally a bad idea to feed snakes live animals that can defend themselves. (Anything above a fuzzy size). That is what I meant by the fact that his brb couldn't be harmed by pinky rats. They have no claws or teeth.