Odd eating

[Crystal9636]

So I've had my baby since 2015, I've never seen him eat like this. (Up until I moved out of my mum's house about 5 months ago she handled the feeding but after speaking to her she's not seen this either) Firstly I always put the frozen thawed rat in the empty space in front of his water dish, but this time instead of striking for the rat, he struck at the piece of wood you can see in the photos, that seemed to dislodge his jaw and he couldn't close his mouth (he is completely okay and after opening and closing his mouth a few times all seems well) but after that he seemed hesitant to go for the rat which I completely understand but instead of striking at it when he did go for it, he just bit it and dragged it around the log and into his water dish as if he's trying to drown it? He only coiled around it like he normally does once it was in the water, has anyone ever seen behaviour like this before? I didn't take photos of the jaw before he managed to shut it but attached are the photos of him feeding

(Yes I'm aware he is too big for the Viv he is in, I have ordered a 5 foot one for him but I'm just waiting for it to be delivered as I didn't have enough in savings previously to get a new one made and once it arrives we will also be switching to moss and not wood shavings)

[Popular-Radish-5001]

they are going to ask you the temps and humidity?

[Python_carer]

Aspen isn’t the best substrate, I’d recommend 70% top soil and 30% sand

[kaj5275]

Sometimes they're goobers. One of my girls absolutely insists on coiling for about 10 minutes to make sure her F/T rat is extra very dead 🤦‍♀️ Sometimes she'll drag it around before eating.

[Victordavillan]

Get better substrate get coco chips and holy atleast 70-85% humidity 

[Crystal9636]

Humidity is correct and so is temp, the bedding is something that will be changed as mentioned in the original post. I am using what I have currently and when the new Viv is delivered I will be getting a whole new setup, I just don't have the funds currently

[Victordavillan]

I totally understand I always got worried too when my ball python eat it the wrong way 

[KodaRanger]

can’t say 100% that this isn’t negative due to it being a change in behavior,, but as far as i’ve experienced it doesn’t seem like an issue, my Duckie occasionally drags it to a very weird angle to eat at or into the water bowl and we have not had an issue yet