I usually tong feed Elmo but I like to switch things up sometimes so I decided to drop feed him today using two mice so he can “hunt” for them. But I don’t really think he understands what he is supposed to do 
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I moved one of the mice right in front of him and he spent way too long just pushing his face into it not opening his mouth. I am pretty sure he forgot how to eat for a solid 10 minutes.
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I have only done this with Leaky…I had extra day-old pinky mice left (like 8). So I tong feed her one and showed her the entirety place of the “mice nest” that I made for this. She went in and ate all of them. It was interesting to see that kind of natural behavior in her. Still, I am going to continue to tong feed everyone lol 
. I like knowing that they hit it and coiled.
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I sometimes switch off between tong feeding and drop feeding with my blood python and BI (my sand boa typically won’t take from tongs, so I pretty much always drop feed with her). My BI usually grabs her mouse pretty quickly when I drop feed her, but my blood python will often tongue flick and rub her nose/face on the rat for a few minutes before sort of rearing back and striking it. Sometimes she’ll coil it, and other times she just gets right to swallowing it.
Sometimes with my blood python, I’ll put her rat on a dish in her cage, then use my tongs to wiggle it a bit on the dish. She usually strikes and coils when I do that.
It’s definitely interesting to see their different reactions to presenting their prey to them in various ways. Kinda fun.
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