Sons new ball ate this morning!

[Seanjackmc]

My six year old brought home a 450-500 gram ghost ball on Wednesday. It's is our first reptile in the house. I have a another thread going on it so I won't repeat it all here. Anyway dropped a live mouse in the tank this morning around 7:30 turned all lights off left him alone for a half hour. Went back in expecting to remove mouse but Mario got him! He is back in his hide with a little lump. We will leave him alone until tomorrow at which point ill let me son handle him for a few minutes.
After reading so many feeding horror stories with feeding I was very excited to see Mario eat.
thanks for the help on here

[NormanSnake]

Being a new snake, I would wait 48 hours to handle him. I always give my snakes 2 days after eating to digest their food. wouldn't want to risk a regurge.

[Kensa]

Always a great feeling when they eat their first meal with you. It isn't recommended to walk away when feeding live. Most keepers supervise to ensure the live prey doesn't go looking for a meal itself.

[Hartman3216]

Yeah I hangout and watch to make sure the prey is no longer able to injure my snakes......

[CushtaMinge89]

I seen a picture online where a handler left their ball with a live rat alone.. Poor thing had most of its scales chewed off head to tail and had to be euthanized.. I still can't get that image out of my head.

[Griffith]

If you fed him at 7:30 in the morning, I would say by later tomorrow afternoon you are okay to handle him. That being said, as always, it depends on the snake.

[Seanjackmc]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. It was recommended to me to leave the room and make it dark. Obviously with a larger rat I would be more careful. It is a great feeling. I think I'll let my son handle him tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again for the advice.

[Kaorte]

I seen a picture online where a handler left their ball with a live rat alone.. Poor thing had most of its scales chewed off head to tail and had to be euthanized.. I still can't get that image out of my head.

That only happens when you leave a hungry rat in with a snake for longer than an hour. I leave my feeders in with my snakes for 10-15 minutes before I check on them to make sure they ate. There is no way a rat is going to do that kind of damage in a matter of minutes. Especially a well fed rat.

You don't need to sit there and watch them eat.

OP, congrats on the new snake eating for you!

[CushtaMinge89]

Oh definitely! I think who ever was the owner was very careless.. Either that or highly un-intelegent ha.

[Seanjackmc]

Yeah I agree, being a new snake I don't think he is too excited to have an audience while feeding. I would love to switch over to ft eventually and avoid any issues. Once I noticed the mouse was gone I did lift the snakes hide to make sure we want being attacked. Then settled it back down and will leave the snake alone until tomorrow afternoon. I feel confident he will be fine. My son handled him a bunch at the breeder and when we got him home to put him in his tank. That was Wednesday night he hasn't been handled since.