Tail luring in Darwin Python?

[instar]

Hi folks, ive just started feeding a very stubborn python live for the first time.
Shes been refusing frozen thawed for close to 6 months so I decided to give it a go.
As i was watching the encounter I noticed her tail flicking back n forth. Ive never seen her do this before, so I asumed she was excited by live prey.
But she did it again, and again (4 mice) only stopping after nailing them.
Im convinced its caudal luring im seeing.
Untill now I assumed this was only done by gtp's and adders etc.
Has anyone else seen tail luring in their pythons?

 

[Dicco]

What size was the rodent?
Caudal luring has been noted in Carpet Pythons, although is uncommon.

 

[instar]

Adult mouse Dicco. She only did it once she visually spotted it, and stopped when she nailed it. I couldnt work out why her tail was goin flick flick all over, never seen it before!
Either way it was very cool, and new behaviour from her!

 

[instar]

Ill try to get a short video of it next feed!

 

[olivehydra]

I have seen it with one of my olives who gets very excited at dinner time.

 

[Sdaji]

Carpet pythons caudal lure, I've seen mine do it about three times, only when very hungry. If it appeared as a 'flick flick' however, it probably wasn't luring, more likely it was either scared or just excited. Luring is very distinctive, I wouldn't describe it at all as 'flick flick', it's more like 'writhe writhe' or even 'undulate undulate'.

Chondros are well known for their caudal luring, as you say, death adders are probably Australia's best caudal lurers (have you seen these species lure? It's very distinctive. If you see genuine luring, you'll know). Many others are prone to luring. Womas are very prone to it, many caudal lure at every feed, often so frantically that they'll seem a bit like 'flick flick'. I've seen quite a few water pythons caudal lure, always in the typical manner, as in carpets and chondros, they're a lot more prone to luring than carpets, but nothing like chondros or adders. I imagine that if I fed my water pythons a lot less, they'd lure more, but I love them to much not to spoil them!

My adders grew extremely quickly, I see them luring and just can't resist giving them what they want! Luring is one of my favourite things about adders.

 

[junglemad]

My female Bredli hatchie was moving her tail when i fed her a live fuzzy and i thought i was seeing things.

 

[chameleon]

none of my waterpythons do any genuine luring although a couple of them shake in the face
of live rodents. all of them seem to ambush them.
(most of them sit on their hide boxes and hang over the opening...
the rodents seem to go in them first and
when they poke their head out.......BANG!)

instar i look foward to your video...
luring or not,i would love to see the behaviour.
cheers.

 

[chameleon]

hey sdaji, after you saying that about your waterpythons...well......
the more grog i drink, the more interested ive become.
im gonna pull the hide out of one of my enclosures and pit the rat and beast
at opposite ends of the cage and see what happens.

ps... why is your avatar a turnip?

 

[Dicco]

hey sdaji, after you saying that about your waterpythons...well......
the more grog i drink, the more interested ive become.
im gonna pull the hide out of one of my enclosures and pit the rat and beast
at opposite ends of the cage and see what happens.

ps... why is your avatar a turnip?

Your kidding...right?

 

[chameleon]

with what,.....
the luring,.....
or the turnip?

 

[yommy]

My large brisbane coastal has done it in the past as well and it was amazing to watch though it's not done on a regular basis and the prey item was a large rat as he is fully grown but in the tens years i've had him it's only been a handful of times i've seen it. Interesting though.

 

[Greebo]

I have also witnessed my female Darwin python luring. It was not excited flicking but definite luring, the same as I have seen in Death Adders. Unfortunately for my python, it is rather difficult to lure a dead rat.

 

[snakehunter]

My coastal did it once, got it on video but the file size is about 40MB so I wont be posting it!

 

[reptililian]

I knew almost nothing about caudal luring until I read this thread. And then I had an amazing thing happen to me. I took two of my females, Whimsy and Freya - who are temporarily residing together - out of their enclosure to feed. I put Whimsy away first, then as I was putting Freya away she must have been able to smell a bit of rabbit on Whimsy and started to do the tail thing... except her tail was lying in my hand! She was caudal luring in my hand! :shock:

And yes, I was careful that she didn't follow through and strike at her flatmate after that.

 

[Retic]

Womas do it regularly and I suspect quite a few python species do it. The 'problem' is that we mostly feed dead food items so it is pretty well redundant.

 

[reptililian]

It was ultra-cute! And so timely seeing as I'd just been reading about it here!