Switching from live to frozen/thawed. How?

[Manasha-Bogo]

OK, so now that things are looking up for both my bp's, I'm looking at the next step of snake-keeping nirvana at my house and that would be to switch them from eating live mice to frozen mice and then rats.

I have 3 live adult mice left in my feeder collection. I don't want to try to switch over my female just yet, but the male is ready, imo. How do I switch them from live to frozen?

If there is a doc somewhere please point me to it and I'll follow that.

But without having read anything ( I looked a little bit but didn't fine any), I'm thinking I have to try to feed these mice killed first. How do I kill them humanely? Because I'm thinking if they will eat something I just killed, then going from that to f/t would be easier.

And once they are on frozen (I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself), I want to switch them over to small rats. By then I think they'll be bigger and able to take fuzzy baby rats.

I'm looking ahead now because I looked at the prices for ordering frozen and getting only 50 or 100 just isn't cost effective. I won't buy any unless they are taking killed or frozen from ben's store, but I already have a shop cart going...

[Manasha-Bogo]

Actually, should I switch to rats FIRST? and then go frozen? which is easier?

[HCC MORPHS]

if you kill the mouse and feed it to the snakes it then becomes pre- killed closer to f/t but not there yet. humanely killing it would consist of a c02 chamber ect.. ect.. the quickets way to uthanise without further expences it is to stick it in a pouch( bag, sock ect.) and hit it over a table or the floor, make sure it is a solid enough hit to brake its neck or it will suffer, also make sure its a solid pouch or you might fling the mouse across the room if the bag brakes mid strike.

now the key to feeding f/t is to try.
as long as the rat/mouse is thawed out completely, dry and warm enough to pass as pray the snake should eat it, maybe not the 1st offering or the second but it will.. i would make sure the f/t ( frozen thawed) is thawed out properly, dry and warm enough to pass as pray, then i would sent it with what i was feeding the snake with before.
to sent , simply rub the f/t on the soiled mouse bedding or on the animal itself so the snake perceives it to be what it was eating before.
after a few successful f/t scented feedings i would try a unscented f/t.

hope that helps, good luck!!

[Slim]

The Search Function is your friend...

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[Manasha-Bogo]

LOL! I definitely was not using the right key words during my search. Thanks!!

[Manasha-Bogo]

This is odd... so I killed one of the adult mice exactly how a bp would. asphyxiation. Danced it around in front of the male and he showed interested for a few seconds but then wouldn't eat it. meanwhile the female (manasha) came out of her hide and started prowling around looking for whatever she was smelling (the dead mouse). I figured he wouldn't take it but maybe she would? I openned her tub a peak and dangled it in front of her. she struck once, but missed, tried again and got it. I didn't get to dance it around as if it were struggling because I lost my grip on the mouse with my tongs. she's gobbling it up now as I type. Or trying to anyway. She's never had an adult mouse before. She only ate 3 days ago so I hope this doesn't back fire on me.

Figured i'd share that tid bit.

[Slim]

so I killed one of the adult mice exactly how a bp would. asphyxiation.

How did you asphyxiate the mouse? Cervical Displacement is considered by most to be the humane way to dispatch a rodent.

[John1982]

I didn't get to dance it around as if it were struggling because I lost my grip on the mouse with my tongs. she's gobbling it up now as I type.
Figured i'd share that tid bit.

Sounds like the zombie dance wasn't necessary, this isn't always the case. As for losing your grip, once a snake has a mouth full of rodent they're typically disinclined to release until the swallowing process begins. If she didn't have a very enthusiastic wrap you could have reached in and grabbed the tail to give it a few "death throes" to get her more into the game of life.

[Manasha-Bogo]

Sounds like the zombie dance wasn't necessary, this isn't always the case. As for losing your grip, once a snake has a mouth full of rodent they're typically disinclined to release until the swallowing process begins. If she didn't have a very enthusiastic wrap you could have reached in and grabbed the tail to give it a few "death throes" to get her more into the game of life.

She ate it. It took her hours to finally start swallowing it. It seemed like she was cuddling with it for the longest time. I'd say about 2 hours to finally get to the point where she was swallowing its tail.

I gave the male a live mouse. He ate that thing right away. I think next time I'll let him get excited by letting him smell the mouse for a while before I dance it in front of him.

The female seemed to be starving and determined as hell to eat that adult mouse. She has a big old lump in the middle and hasn't gone back into her hide. Neither has he. They seem "spent" from having to swallow those mice. I dunno... do snakes get tired from eating? I think they know they can't fit back into that tiny hide. I shoulda gotten bigger ones.


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[Manasha-Bogo]

How did you asphyxiate the mouse? Cervical Displacement is considered by most to be the humane way to dispatch a rodent.

No idea what cervical displacement is... but what I did was I put the mouse into a zip lock bag. I waited thinking it would just suffocate, but it didn't. So I took my tongs and pressed the mouse down so it couldn't breath in. The tongs were wide enough to extend from rear legs to front legs. It was dead literally within 4 seconds.


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