First Rat

[kontron]

Last night was Roo's first chance at a rat. Getting the rat to her was a bit tricky. i purchased 2 males, one smaller one for food, and the larger for breeding, and 1 female rat. the smaller male crawled up into the fake wooden structure leaving me no choice but to break it open. i got the rat out of the wooden structure, but he jumped for freedom from 6 feet in the air, landing between the back of the cage and the top, which was pressed against the back of the cage.
it took me a minute to re-capture the flying rat, but i then gassed him.
i placed roo in the cardboard feeding box, and she was ready to go. at first she did'nt seem to notice the rat dance. then she struck, but missed and hit herself. she took another moment and slowly went face to face with the dead rat. she bumped it in the nose, fell back and lunged forward a second time taking the rat and coiling around it. after she was satisfied the rat was dead, she began sizing it up, comparing the rats body to hers, and even laying on top with her stomach to see if it would fit. this is the first time we fed her something so large, about 1.5x the thickest part of her belly. it took her a few minutes of sizing up before she attempted to eat it. after a few minutes she had the rat most of the way down, and i started to wonder if she could take it all. :?:
another minute passed and she got the whole thing down. i placed her back in her cage and she went straight to the warm side of the hide. she was too fat to get in between the hole in the hide and the log, so i had to move the log over a bit. she came out later and hung out on the cool side. all in all she took it without much trouble. it just took her a moment to realize the rat was food too. hopefuly roswell will take this easy too when i start him next feed on rats.
so far we have not had troubles with feeding either snake, and i hope this lasts. :mrgreen:

[elevatethis]

CongRATS!


(wow cheesy)

[led4urhead]

Good job man! Congrats

[Dana]

Yeah! Good job!

[elevatethis]

Hey I just noticed that you said that you "gassed him." Are you euthanizing with CO2? And if you are, do share your setup for doing so.

[Smulkin]

Good job ratifying your BP!!

[sophie42204]

Good job on the convert...I need to 'ratify' Sophie soon as well.

Brad, have you checked out this gas chamber set up yet:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/PNphpBB2...ic-t-3852.html

[kontron]

yeah i just use a 10 gal to hold the rats, then put in a water bottle with the top cut off, drop in dry ice from baskin robins, drop it into the water, and Instant gas chamber..

[sophie42204]

I have employed the dry ice method as well, but can only get it in 7-8lb. packages and it doesn't keep long enough for me to use enough of it to be cost effective. So, we're hoping that when Smitty decides to start eating for us he'll take a f/t. But we'll continue to try both until then..

[led4urhead]

Good plan Caren!