Change of Eating Habit for Diamond after Mites

[sharyn]

About 4 weeks ago we discovered our 6 month old Diamond had mites. Prior to this there were no problems in feeding - snatch, "kill", eat - once a week. He finally had a fuzzie today - 5 weeks since its last feed - however there was no snatching & eating - it was a lot of smelling and then eventually ate it. He has been mite free for about 3 weeks but we are concerned about his lack of interest in feeding - is this type of behaviour normal after mites?
(We also had to give it a hand in sloughing about 3 weeks ago.)

 

[pete12]

Kill?

 

[MrBredli]

Don't worry about it, it is a common response for captive bred pythons fed primarily on pre-killed food; i doubt it has anything to do with the recent mite problem. If you would like it to show more enthusiasm, simply give a bit of resistance once the snake takes the mouse i.e. shake the mouse gently, this will cause the snake to respond by throwing some coils around the mouse as if it were still alive. However, it is really not necessary, the snake is still eating fine, it has just learnt that it doesn't need to put too much effort into capturing its prey.

 

[sharyn]

Thanks Mr Bredli - I appreciate your advice!

 

[Vincey]

Kill?

i assume its the constricting action that it'd do if it were eating live prey