Odd eating habbit?

Being relatively new to keeping snakes we have witnessed what we think is quite odd feeding behaviour by one of our royal pythons. He was given quite a large weaner rat and deliberately took it into his water bowl which is quite large. He actually dropped it into the water, at this point I took it out and dried it before offering it back to him (at the other end of a 4' viv). Again he took it back into the water and then proceeded to eat it often with his head and all of the rat under water. Is this normal behaviour or something odd with this royal? As I said the rat was quite large and we wonder if eating it in the water helped to lubricate it thus making it easier to swallow. Any comments folks?

Unfortunately by the time I got the camera he had almost swallowed the rat but you can see him in the water bowl with it.
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I've noticed a few snakes of mine that feed on large rats do this too on occasion. I've put it down to the way I thaw out the food - adult rats I let sit in the open until they thaw naturally, whereas smaller sized rats are defrosted slowly in warm water. My guess is that because the adult rats thaw in the air they will be drier than the smaller sized rats, hence why I occasionally see my larger snakes taking them into the water tub while eating - perhaps this method of defrosting dries the rat out a little? May be a coincidence though as its something I've noticed in passing rather than actually documented correctly.

Another explanation could be that the snake takes food there to eat because, just like a hide, being in the water bowl makes it feel secure.....often when a snake has no ideal hide it will curl up tightly in the water bowl because its the equivalent of a hide.

ive had snakes do this too, weather thawed naturally or in water. i think its just one of them things, you know- they do it cos they just do. ive never actually thought about it................

Another explanation could be that the snake takes food there to eat because, just like a hide, being in the water bowl makes it feel secure.....often when a snake has no ideal hide it will curl up tightly in the water bowl because its the equivalent of a hide.[/quote]

I agree that snakes seem to like to hide when eating their prey, our royals like to strike from their hide and take the prey back into the hide to eat it, what made this strange is that he took it back to the water bowl past three hides which they normally live in. Also this snake only had the rat plus about the first 9" of his body in the water bowl, it did not look as though he was trying to hide (as you can see from the pics)
We appreciate your comments! Thanks guys :)

Never had that before John!
If Karl & trunx has had this happen with no problems then it's nothing to worry about.
Have you tried taking the water bowl out when feeding or giving it a smaller weaner......just to see what happens!