Feeding Live prey

[chadcite]

Hi , I recently acquired my first BP and my second snake, . I fed her for the first time last saturday live prey, but I'm a bit scared in the future live prey can cause some damage to her, especially medium sized rats. I was wondering what technique I can use to weekend or kill the rat quickly (trying to avoid blood, or atleast alot of blood), so that it can be safe for my BP.

[jason221]

Ball pythons don't need anything larger than a small rat (30-40 grams), once a week, all year round. To answer your question, a CO2 chamber would work.

[snakedude56]

If they are available to you, you could try and switch him onto frozen thawed mice. Most of the pet stores around me carry them and as long as you unthaw it correctly it can not harm your snake. As for feeding live if you are carefull and keep a good watch while its going on it is just as safe as any other method of feeding. BP's will never need to eat anything larger than a small rat in their lives so feeding a medium rat isn't necesary. If you want to go with pre-killed, a nice non bloody way to humanely euthanize them would be to get one of those critter keepers, one with the ventilation holes in the top of course. Fill the critter keeper with dry ice(be very carefull with this stuff) and replace the top. Next get a cooler,one big enough for the critter keeper to sit in and with room to spare. Now place the dry ice container in the cooler along with the mice or rats you wish to euthanize. Close the lid to the cooler and the CO2 from the dry ice will put the mice/rats to sleep without you having to hit them on the head. It should only take a few minutes for the mice or rats to drift off to sleep. It may take a little longer for bigger or multiple mice. I got the cooler idea from someone on this forum but I don't remember who so I can't take any credit for that idea.

[snakedude56]

yep thats the thread I was talking about.

[chadcite]

so my BP wouldn't need a rat the size of the one I just saw in the gas chamber thread ?

[rmune0750]

so my BP wouldn't need a rat the size of the one I just saw in the gas chamber thread ?

how big is ur snake?

[chadcite]

I'm not able to get a acqurate length on him , because hes allways balled up or something, but hes 2 years old and around 3.5 -4ft . Ohh and btw at what age are ball pythons considered adaults (is it 3yrs ) ?