Hungry or injured woma? :(

[Black.Rabbit]

I just fed my woma, dropped the rat in, she was sitting up the top of her enclosure and I dropped the rat down the bottom. She lunged at it and her tail end hit the wall of her enclosure and then her tail started 'shaking'. I know some woma's wag their tails when they're being fed... but she never has so I am unsure of what that actually looks like. I am hoping it's just that. I got a video of it...

Lailah.3gp - YouTube

After taking the video and leaving her alone, she gulped down the rat and now she is outstretched at the back of her enclosure, I can't see her tail shaking like that any more, but I only watched her for a few minutes.

Do I need to take her to the vet tomorrow arvo?? :cry:

 

[Carnelian]

Congratulations...You have now seen the Woma tail wag . She must have been really keen for her tucker.

 

[thomasssss]

if you watch her head as well shes kinda head bobbing a bit my woma started to do the tail wiggle a bit the other night when i fed him i am yet to see the head bob though

 

[Black.Rabbit]

Really??? I never thought it would be that intense! When I looked at the video it looked like it was in fast forward.

Omg I am so relieved, I thought she had really injured herself.

 

[thomasssss]

my boy doesn't wiggle his tail as quick as that she must be excited about her food

 

[Venomous1111]

Woma's wiggle there tail to lure there prey in close enough for the snake to strike..

 

[JAS101]

one of my females wiggles her tail that much , that she stalks it then grabs a hold of it . thrashes around [ because somthing has her - herself lol]

 

[Black.Rabbit]

Woma's wiggle there tail to lure there prey in close enough for the snake to strike..

lol... I think her eyes were bigger than her stomach if she was thinking I was her prey hehe



Still.... so.... relieved!!!

 

[maddog-1979]

one of my males grabbed his own tail the other day, and tried to throw a coil too......funniest part was , he was draped over a branch with head on one side, tail on the other, so as he was trying to coil himself up he was spinning around the branch like a hula hoop.

no pics tho, so obviously it didnt happen :-(

 

[Venomous1111]

lol... I think her eyes were bigger than her stomach if she was thinking I was her prey hehe



Still.... so.... relieved!!!

lol I'm guessing that's her in your picture?

Yeah it's nothing to worry about it's called caudal luring, I get it with my death adders when it's feeding time.

 

[leamos]

Thats cool, its official next snake's gonna be a woma!

 

[GeckoJosh]

one of my males grabbed his own tail the other day, and tried to throw a coil too......funniest part was , he was draped over a branch with head on one side, tail on the other, so as he was trying to coil himself up he was spinning around the branch like a hula hoop.

no pics tho, so obviously it didnt happen :-(

Whether it happened or not I still LMAO imagining it

 

[Black.Rabbit]

lol I'm guessing that's her in your picture?

Yeah it's nothing to worry about it's called caudal luring, I get it with my death adders when it's feeding time.

Yeah, it's her as a hatchie, love that pic... she looks like a punk woma haha

I bought my second woma last Sunday so I hope to see more caudal luring from this one

 

[Venomous1111]

Attracting Prey - YouTube

Viper caudal luring.

Northern Death Adder - Caudal Luring - YouTube

Death adder caudal luring.

 

[Ramsayi]

Most pythons wiggle their tails when it comes to food,womas more so than others.It's more to do with excitement than luring.

 

[Venomous1111]

Most pythons wiggle their tails when it comes to food,womas more so than others.It's more to do with excitement than luring.

Personally I've never seen any of my carpets wiggle there tails in excitement, I'll have to keep an eye out next feed.. It is known that woma's do use there tail for caudal luring..

Southern Cross Reptiles - Uluru Woma Photo Gallery

 

[Ramsayi]

Woma tails going 100 to the dozen is them just getting excited.I have seen the same thing with BHP,Bredli and even macs.Watch a green lure,it's much slower and a more deliberate movement.

 

[rvcasa]

...Do I need to take her to the vet tomorrow arvo?? :cry:

No, unless you want to pay a huge vet bill for nothing? - Almost every Woma does that! (And head bobbing too!)

Check out these thread (w/ video):
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/...wagging-considered-caudal-158273/#post2151183

Woma's wiggle there tail to lure there prey in close enough for the snake to strike..

Womas are perhaps the only python thought not to be caudal luring...
(Caudal luring is usually near their mouth (so they can strike their prey at close range) and tail is almost always up right , like GTPs, rattles, death adders etc. etc. – But on a Woma, tail wiggling is almost always far from their head and flat/horizontally on floor, hence excitement rather than luring.

Another thought is; they don't have labial pits, so they cannot sense the heat of the mammal, specially when their tail is wiggling far from their mouth. (as video of above thread shows)

 

[rvcasa]

Yeah it's nothing to worry about it's called caudal luring, I get it with my death adders when it's feeding time.

Dr. Simon Stone (aka, Doc Rock) breeder (for last 20 years) and keeper of 500+ Womas and 1500 other pythons and also author of several articles for Reptiles Australia magazine, has said:

"Womas (like BHPs) are active hunters rather than just ambush predators (so unlike death adders etc.). They often hunt down burrows and are very good at killing in confined spaces. When a prey rubs against their body they crush them against the side of the hole and grab it.


In my experience, the behaviour of captive womas is unique amongst pythons. Their antics can be quite amusing and so they are great fun to watch. When a woma is hungry and it thinks it is going to be fed, they get excited and wriggle their tails madly. Most would call this caudal luring – which is the habit of some snakes to wriggle their tails so it looks like food and then as their prey approaches they grab it and the stalker becomes the stalked. But in womas, I think it is just pure excitement that drives the behaviour. I’ve watched GTPs caudal lure and their tail looks just like a worm as they hold it in front of their head to facilitate their ambush. Womas, however, will wriggle their tails so that it is nowhere near their head and then when really excited by food, they will bob their heads up and down like a male lizard on heat.
This vigorous tail-wriggling trait can be quite loud too so that when I walk into our snake room I can hear the hungry womas all vibrating their tails like an orchestra of musical rattles. Female womas also do this when excited about a male being placed in their cage."

 

[JUNGLE-JAK]

black heads do it to