Fowl Frustration
How many of you fellow snake keepers feed your big animals chicken?
Last feeding day, I gave Margherita (my burm) an appropriately sized chicken, F/T. She locked onto it right away and grabbed the chicken's face. Over the next ~3.5 hours, she struggled to get it down. Not because it was too big, but because she kept trying to swallow it beginning everywhere but the head. She began by going butt first. After several failed attempts, she looked it over and bit the sides of the chicken several times. Then she focused on it's leg. Singular.
I watched for a good 45 minutes and I was getting frustrated as well. I left her to it and came back to a BIG mess of an enclosure (chicken juices and stains everywhere), a full belly and a snake too tired to even reseat its jaw.
This was her second chicken ever. The first went down head first, but she had a little difficulty getting around the obstacle that birds have called "wings". I decided to not feed her another until she grew a bit more so I culled the other one I had and kept it in the freezer.
Maybe she recalled how difficult it was to swallow head first from the previous time and thought to try something new? What do y'all think?
PS. She's all good now, jaw reseated and content with a belly full of chicken.
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