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Constricting food

Tyger9791

Tyger9791

Animal Care Specialist
Blaze, for the first time, decided to constrict his meal. I gave him a larger fuzzy. It was the largest fuzzy out of a batch I got a few weeks ago. I wasnt sure if the fuzzy was too big for him, so i kept putting off giving it to him until he grew some.
he started to swallow the head and then he started to wrap himself around it. i thought that maybe he was having difficulty, but after about 20 mins he had swallowed most of the fuzzy and unwrapped himself. it took him longer this time than usual to eat his food. usually he's pretty quick about it. and he just swallows it.
i'm not sure if next time i should offer him a smaller fuzzy. or is it perfectly normal for him to constrict his food? he's about 6 months old and i'd say around 20 inches long (hard to say for sure he wont sit still for me to measure him).
 
It's perfectly normal. As long as the prey size doesn't exceed 1.5 times the snake's girth, everything should be fine.
 
Thats really odd...my corn constricted for the first time today aswell with a large hopper that i had in the freezer and had been puttin off until now. Corn snakes are constrictors, it is in their nature to do so, so i wouldn't worry. If your corn ate the fuzzy and there is no regurgitation then all is fine. If he does "puke" it up over the next day or two wait 10 days before offering him a smaller-than-usual food item, but, as far as i can tell, there is nothing to worry about....i reckon constricting is pretty damn cool to watch!
 
oh yeah it was cool to watch. it just surprised me at first because it's not his usual routine. and i just wanted to make sure i didnt hurt him any. he did his usual after eating, he went right back into his warm hide. usually he'll stay there for the rest of the day. i'll leave him alone and check on him in the morning.
 
marky-b said:
He probably knows it's dead, but wants to go through the motions, like in the wild.
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Had the snake known the prey item was dead, it is doubtful that it would have constricted it. One must be careful when speculating on what a snake "knows" or "wants". It is more likely that a snake instinctively evaluates the potential threat level posed by a prey item, and reacts accordingly. Bigger item = bigger potential threat. :)
 
i just figured he was squeezing it to make it smaller...thats why i was wondering if next time i should offer him smaller food :sidestep:
 
Tyger9791 said:
i just figured he was squeezing it to make it smaller...thats why i was wondering if next time i should offer him smaller food :sidestep:
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No, they don't constrict to make the prey item more compact. They constrict to kill.
 
"It is more likely that a snake instinctively evaluates the potential threat level posed by a prey item, and reacts accordingly. Bigger item = bigger potential threat."

Yes, I think that what you offered as an explanation is more likely. I always make an attempt not to assume or speculate, but I let myself get away from that.
 
marky-b said:
"It is more likely that a snake instinctively evaluates the potential threat level posed by a prey item, and reacts accordingly. Bigger item = bigger potential threat."

Yes, I think that what you offered as an explanation is more likely. I always make an attempt not to assume or speculate, but I let myself get away from that.
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Some of my corns also seem to instinctively assess anything with fur at a higher threat level. Some of them seem to be sensitive even to fur length, swallowing their entire cycle of fuzzies without constriction, but constricting when hoppers are first offered. Crazy little buggers. :shrugs:
 
marky-b said:
Makes me wonder, Dean, if they're more visually-oriented, or olfactory?
..Fascinating creatures.
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I had a timid Miami female many years ago that was afraid of dark mice. I fed live prey then, and she would immediately strike and constrict a light-colored mouse, but she'd hide from a dark one. I've read other similar accounts for corns, and for other captive snakes too. So at least for some corns, there seems to be a visual factor.
 
Roy Munson said:
Had the snake known the prey item was dead, it is doubtful that it would have constricted it. One must be careful when speculating on what a snake "knows" or "wants". It is more likely that a snake instinctively evaluates the potential threat level posed by a prey item, and reacts accordingly. Bigger item = bigger potential threat. :)
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Ah Dean, you are always so rational :D We do tend to anthromorphisize our snakes don't we? I usually ask mine whats up lol like "Wha'cha up to sneaky? Wha'cha doing?"

ON TOPIC :D I think I read on a similar thread that most snakes only start to constrict when they see that they can't just swallow & be done with it. I think you are right on target with the bigger item bigger threat idea.

Instincts take over & they do what they are hard wired to do.
 
Very interesting points...
i noticed that everytime i offer Blaze a mouse, he will start from the tail and touch his nose to it all the way to the head. i cant tell if he's smelling it or if he's looking at it. maybe both.
one time when he was still a hatchling he did this and refused to eat it. so i tried a smaller pinkie and he did the same thing and then immediately ate it.
 
My personal observations seem to support what Dean has said. I've noticed that when I move my snakes up to a larger food size, they will attack and constrict. As they grow, they constrict less and less. When I bump them up again, they constrict again...and so on and so forth...
 
Tyger9791 said:
Very interesting points...
i noticed that everytime i offer Blaze a mouse, he will start from the tail and touch his nose to it all the way to the head. i cant tell if he's smelling it or if he's looking at it. maybe both.
one time when he was still a hatchling he did this and refused to eat it. so i tried a smaller pinkie and he did the same thing and then immediately ate it.
Click to expand...

This behavior may be a combination of olfactory and tactile examination. After a prey item is dead, or instinctively assessed as harmless, most corns seem to make an effort to find the nose of the prey item, so that it can be swallowed head first. From what I've read, they may use scent to figure this out, and/or they may try to determine fur direction. If they keep going in the direction that offers the most resistance to the fur (i.e. forward), they will eventually arrive at the nose. Of course, they don't always seem to care about this aspect, and even my adults will occasionally swallow adult mice butt first.
 
This is so wierd..... Last night, one of my corns constricted for the first time as well. I had to call my wife over to show her what a little bad-ass I had! I was so proud! It was his first fuzzy, and quite a bit bigger than the pinkies that he had been used to.
 
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