WOW - That was scary, did I do the right thing?

[HIGHMAINTENANCE]

OK SO I'm new to this - had my BP for a week now and he has been absolutely AWESOME!

So I took the advice from everyone here and moved up in the feeding size (from pinkie) for my BP (which was WAY too small). I measured his widest part of his body - 1 3/4. So I figured now that I have learned what I have on here I would go to the pet store and get a fuzzy or frozen small adult mouse. Well no luck they were sold out. So we went and looked at the live and got a very small adult mouse (1 - 1 1/2" wide).

Came home held it above the cage by its tail (I assume that was the way since thats they way you do the frozen/thawed??) So Mr Bo Jangles moved down his branch and started sniffing at the mouse, he was very interested, then BAM he reached up, took the mouses head in and as he wrapped his body around the mouse and let go of his branch (only about 3 inches down) he fell smack into his water bowl, he was completely submerged with the mouse!!! He had the mouse under control (that part wasn't scary) but I was so afraid that he was going to drown - I assumed he would never let go of the mouse to get out of the water and he would drown!!!! So I panicked was afraid he would drown and I reached in and carefully grabbed the ball of snake and mouse entanglement and carefully set him down out of the water. So he did not seem bothered by this at all, the feeding went well, he ate the mouse and looks fat and happy!!!

But could he have drowned or should I have left him alone??? Don't worry next time I am taking the water bowl out!!!!

Here's a pic of the successful feeding - after water accident

[Freakie_frog]

yea he would have gotten out of the water. But you did fine. He ate didn't bother him all's well in the land of NOD

[_BoidFinatic_]

I have seen various snakes constrict and swallow rats/mice while they are still in the water bowl. Ball pythons may not be green anacondas, but they know what they are doing .

[joepythons]

I had a ball that did that once and i reached in and removed it from the bowl just like you did.Try the next time on the other end away from the water bowl.If you remove the bowl place it back in while he is wrapped up on the rodent so you dont stress him while he eats.

[_BoidFinatic_]

Oh, and you don't have to hold the live mouse in your hand when feeding your BP. Just drop it in a far corner of the cage and let the snake do the hunting . Always supervise though .

[HIGHMAINTENANCE]

AWESOME THANKS EVERYONE! Glad to hear he would have been ok in the water, but that I did not screw up too bad or harm his eating or stress him out! next time I will move the water bowl away.


I did try putting the mouse in at first to just roam and he seemed completely uninterested - tried that for 15 minutes, then when I picked it up to take it out he perked right up and thats when I assumed I must need to hold it up like a would a F/T.