Corn Eating live pinkies while still alive

[albinomaster]

This is kinda weird. My snake was origonaly raised on live pinkies, switched when one store bought him, then switched again when he was pucused by another store. Then when I bought him I imeditely switched back over to frozen. Tonight ,however, I decided to feed him live ones because he was needing to be fed and thats all I had. I watched him to make sure he ate right and all that and to my shock he started eating the pinky whole, without suffucating it!!!!! Is this weird at all. Its been two months since i bought him. So will he die??? I'm new to this whole thing. Help Please!

 

[ultimuttone]

I have a couple that will only eat live at this point and a few new ones that haven't been switched over yet to f/t. Most of mine do not constrict first. I do not have any adults on live, however.
The larger the mouse the more likely the snake is to be injured while eating-but I don't think there would be a problem after eating.
That is just my opinion.

 

[Joejr14]

LoL.

Your snake is fine. Most hatchlings do not constrict pinkies---some do, most wont. Not a big deal at all.

They'll start constricting prey items when they get to be bigger and have some fur on them.

 

[Roy Munson]

I'm with Traci. Once it's eaten, the prey item usually ceases to be an immediate physical threat (unless it's one of those python-eats-alligator stories). My female blizzard is on fuzzies, she'll only accept live, and she doesn't always constrict the less lively ones. Sometimes I see the fuzzy staggering around, dragging the snake that's engulfing its entire head! I just ordered some hemostats to start teasing her with f/t, so maybe I won't have to witness some of her uglier eating habits for much longer.

 

[SnakeAround]

I had my hatchlings eat live pinies sometimes, even starting with their butts.... no pretty sight and awful screaming pinkies, but hey, that's how it works! I'm thinking of having some hognoses in the future, they only eat their prey alive...

 

[MegF.]

Who says? Why won't they eat f/t. I've fed every type of snake I've had, including a burmese who'd only fed on live for 2 years, f/t and they all took it. Cav, don't you have a hognose? Does it only eat live?

 

[PtDnsr]

I'm not CAV but I have two western hogs - a 2 year old male and a hatchling female. Both take f/t no problem. Hehe...they're really funny because if you're watching and so much as move they'll start hissing at you. Kind of like the tail rattle in corns I guess.
:-offtopic I currently have 2 babies that are on live - absolutely refuse everything else and at this point I'm just glad they're eating. Actually saw my snow stripe eat the other day and man did she constrict that thing. It was actually kind of amusing - non of my corns have ever constricted until her.

~Katie

 

[SnakeAround]

Well, I remember reading somewhere that if hognoses are fed live prey, they never constrict and just start eating it... but, thats not the same as not eating f/t .... Though I see why eating f/t seems a little odd then...

 

[Quidam]

Hey,
I'm just clarrifying something, in the UK I believe it's illegal to feed live food to snakes and you can't kill them yourself (for food anyway) unless you have a special licence. Can anyone confirm or clarify? I'm just interested in whether this is correct; my own snake is fed on frozen as I'd be too worried about him getting injured by live food!

Thanks
Quidam

 

[angle0343]

My snake eats live pinkies also, but he doesn't even strike at it. He just slithers up to it, opens his mouth, and grabs it butt first. I don't think my snake is very aggressive.