Yearling Darwin python only eats if she doesn't have to try

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Teja Mae

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No idea if this is any concern, but I have a yearling albino Darwin python who will only eat if she strikes the head of the rat/mouse and not the sides. It seems like if she strikes the side she thinks it's too big to eat and drops it, but if she get her mouth around it head-on she'll take it easily.

My 2 y/o Murray Darling in comparison will happily spend 5 minutes finding the head of her prey after striking to easily swallow it.

The Darwin is albino so I'm thinking maybe she's just a bit inbred and dumb. Does anyone else have this problem? Thanks!
 
I do not have this problem, because mine is not “inbred and dumb” she weighs 500g and eating 180g rats easily
 
I have a lot of pure bred albino Darwins and have bred and fed hundreds and never noticed this behaviour. Regardless of where they grab the mouse or rat they normally wrap coils around it and then proceed to eat it from the head end, I have had a few instances where they swallow rear first or even sideways but they do eat it. Some hatchling albinos are a bit timid but once they start feeding usually no problem and yearlings are normally ferocious feeders. How big is the yearling and what size mice/rat?
 
I have had a jungle that was notorious was doing exactly what you're describing. It was really agro and would some times tear the legs off rats if thats what it latched onto first. It would strike from to far away and grab anything .Just make sure you present the rat in a way that it cant miss the head
[doublepost=1550517565,1550517490][/doublepost]Got nothing to do with being "inbred" though
 
You'll find individuals of various pythons and other snakes which are like this. It's nothing to do with being inbred. Just like there are people with various quirks and types of stupidity, despite jokes aside very few of the people we meet in Australia being inbred. Heavily inbred pythons don't have an increased rate of being like this either.

Some snakes are really good at finding their prey's head wherever they grab it from, some are weirdos which generally eat it bum first even if they initially grab it from the head, some spend ages trying to find the head even if they initially grab it from the head (gee I hate those ones! Haha!), some are complete pigs and enthusiastically try to smallow even if they are starting from the side (and sometimes they manage to swallow in seemingly impossible fashion!), and some are absolute pains which need to initially grab it by the head perfectly and even then sometimes they'll let go and be unable to find the head and you need to try again. Fortunately they're rare but if you keep enough snakes you'll eventually come across one. Most snakes are pretty normal in this way but you do get individuals which consistently exhibit these quirks. Inbreeding has nothing to do with it.
 
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