*sigh* Last night was a bad feeding night.

[Indigo]

So we fed all four of the ball pythons last night, my two Levi and Temptation, and my roommate's two, Orochimaru and Jiriyah or however you spell that last one. Temptation, Orochi and Jiriyah all took mice, and Levi got a small rat. Levi hit nice and clean, had the rat's jaws locked where it couldn't bite him. It kicked a lot,. though, and I was worried about him getting scratched, but he seems fine. After his usual theatrics of dragging it through the water dish, he ate and is now fat and happy.

Temptation, poor baby, has eyecaps from a bad shed, and it skiddish because he can't see right, and it was obvious he can't see well when we fed him. He struck at the wall of his tub, first... and then caught his mouse by the tip of the tail. It took quite an effort to hold his head under a cloth and try and pry the mouse away. He ripped the tip of it off and sat there chewing it until we dropped the mouse back in, and he got a good clean hit and ate quickly.

Orochimaru and Jiriyah both hit badly, and we were afraid of bites, but they both seem fine. After they killed their mice, both of them just kinda sat there for a while, trying to figure out how exactly to approach eating. But it worked out in the end.

It was so weird, though. Last week all of the hits were clean and eating went well. Ah well... I suppose it's bound to happen sometimes. Tomorrow, after the 48 hour digestive period has lapsed, I'm going to check them all for injuries, but I'm pretty sure they're fine, as the only blood that was spilled seemed to be from Temptation's mouse's tail.

I hope it goes better next week.

[Inferno]

it goes like that sometimes. a popsicle stick is a good way of stopping the mouse/rat from biting the snake, just wedge it in its mouth untill the snake has finished constricting it then remove it quick when it is dead.

[Peter Williams]

If it makes you feel any better, I had a terrible feeding night last night as well. For starters 6 out of 11 of my bps did NOT eat. Hopefully once the weather warms up they'll come around. But one of the ones that didn't eat, my het albino female, didn't take the f/t I offered so I tried a live. She seemed really interested for a few minutes then ignored it. I decided it was time to take it out, and theres just something about taking a live rat away from a 1000g female who is sitting ontop of her hide, basically able to hit anything in the tub, in a prescented room that seems a little hard to accomplish. Needless to say I was very nervous sticking my hand in that tub...

[ajeff]

Naruto character snake names... interesting

Hope the animals are okay, they should be... scratches will eventualy shed out, bites and eye cap scratches would be cause for concern. As far as waiting 48 hours to look at the animal, I don't think it matters, JUST AS LONG as the animal is in optimal temps and is not stressed or eaten a rather large meal. The one with the eye cap I would leave alone for a couple days as he is sure to be stressed. In cases like this, just use your best judgement.

For the kicking and stuff, you could always thump the prey item on the head just hard enough to stun them... if you hit them too hard, it gets messy. Or just go one step further and just offer pre-killed and present the prey item with hemostats or tongs

[SatanicIntention]

How are you feeding them? In a separate tub?? Doesn't sound like you pre-scented long enough and they didn't know what was going on.

I fed all of mine last night, that's around 45 Balls, and they all eat live adult mice. I pre-scented for around 30 minutes or more(I was cooking dinner in between). I start to feed the big girls first, going down the racks, then I feed the sub-adults/adult males, then I feed the babies. Whoever gets multiples, I just repeat the process. All I do is pick the mouse up, open up the snake's tub, watch out for said snake to come rushing out of the tub at me, drop mouse in tub, and attempt to close the tub. None of the snakes were bit, or have been bit, in the few years I've been keeping them(since 04).

Oh, and about half of the snakes were in shed too, all in various stages. No one refused except for a LTC female I have and a teenager 950g female(little turd).

[Indigo]

ajeff: The roommate's little corn snake is Tsunade.

As for pre-scenting, we usually don't. I did the first feed for Temptation to make sure he had a strong feeding response, and tried it in his regular tub (I use only Scott Shop Towel for substrate) this time. Levi takes down his rats like a pro, as do the others which had never pre-scented. I'll do it again if they stop eating, but for now they do fine.

Thanks for the advice/stories! I appreciate it.

[.Patrick.]

i fed my ball python today. i pre scented the room for about 20 min, then dropped him in in front of the hide he was in. as soon as the mouse hit the ground he struck and wrapped him up, really fast. he grabbed him by the neck, so the mouses mouth was at the snakes neck. i pushed the head away so he wouldnt bite and held it till he stopped kicking. it was a good day.