*** Strange feeding!!

[Paulie]

hey all i have a 5 year old female childrens. she has been a real clumsy feeder most of her life eg, taking her time (sometime hours) missing strikes, bit herself twice.. i always have fed f/t mice and and getting to my main question is does any need to jump start their snake to start them actually eating the meal.
she strikes
she coils
she goes over and over her coils to find the head
she find smells the head many times and moves on so after like 1/2 hour or so i start to blow on her sofly and she seem to be intices to eat but still nothing. i just fed her then and again she took a very long time and she eats on my bed so i didnt want to leave her there for too long so i put her back in her tank very carefully. and as i did this she struck the head and started eating. just seeing what your opinions are on my snake and did i just seem to get a clumsy one. lol cheers in advance paul..

 

[Helikaon]

one of my coastals, trys to eat it from every angle other then the head, usually takes him a couple of hrs and usually eats it backwards, i jsut leave him be and check on him in a few hrs and hes done

 

[GeckoJosh]

She might be stressed by your presence maybe?

 

[naledge]

It eats on your bed? what if the mouse bursts?

 

[Paulie]

with towel under her of course what are signs of stress?. i dont usually get in her way.

 

[Renagade]

feed her in her encosure.

 

[Sock Puppet]

My female Bredli is kind of the same. My male Bredli has no issues, head first every time & he knows exactly where the head is & doesn't muck around. My female sniffs all over it for ages sometimes, but always get there eventually (even if she eats then bum first occasionally). They are both fed in their enclosures & once they've struck & coiled, that's the end of my involvement, I leave them to do their own thing. They've never missed a feed, so I don't mind how long she takes, or which direction it goes, so long as it gets eaten, I'm happy.

 

[Contagion]

My atherton male, who happens to be my first snake has to hit it on the head and eat straight away. If he stuffs up and bites it on the side or something he won't eat it.

Sounds like she's just a weirdo... You get them every now and then.

 

[reptileKev81]

The first time I fed my python, I was a bit worried as it looked as if he was trying to swallow the rat from the shoulders, lol
After about 5 mins of this he eventually let go, and started again from the head.
Being our first feed my brother was worried he would choke if he kept going and wanted me to stop him, lol.
I just let him be and he corrected it himself. Some snakes may just be quirky or clumsy but i wouldnt worry too much about it. It obviously gets fed in the end, I'm sure they know what their doing better than we do, when it comes to eating

 

[Paulie]

rep;y

thanks guys just checking if shes is ok she had a problem feeding last night as she fell frorm a 1 foot platform. (i didn't think she would fall) but she did. she stopped feeding for about 30 min and then started again..(i thought she was dead she looked like she landed on her head with mouse already half in her mouth).."i cant describe the feeling i went through". i will change her substrate to ???? an ideas for feeding substrate but also looks good at the same time.... (thinkin marine carpet).so once she has hold of the mouse i will not touch or antagonise her to eat from now on no matter what she does. is this appropriate for my situation?? i believe i can care for reptiles as i am not stupid and have had her for a few years.... but this girl has cause a few probs for me and just seeing if anyone elso goes thorough this and has an opinion... thanks guys. paulie

 

[pythonmum]

Is the platform in her enclosure? If you are worried about another fall, you can make sure she's on the floor before feeding. My Darwin girl took a big fall a couple of nights ago from a perch to the bottom of her cage. She overbalanced when striking and coiling. It didn't slow her down a bit. As for your fussy eater, as long as she eventually gets around to it, I'd put a towel over her cage so I don't stress and let her get on with it. Just have a peek after an hour or so.

 

[Paulie]

RE

yeah it is in her tank but she doesnt usually feed on the platform, usually out of enclosure recently but i changed to repti bark and i dont want her eating any of that. she seemed a bit weird after eating (poking her head out of her hide and retracting it.) she also was rubbing her neck on everything (not the usually clean of the mouth rub on tree. seemed a bit more force in these rubs) sorry if this is a bit confusing but shes making me question my husbandary skills but i take extreme care with her, but i just need more room in my room to have a proper feeding/cleaning setup.
any tips are appreciated..