Feeding Questions - F/T

[ride_gnu]

Got two questoions here regarding feeding. I am feeding him F/T Rats.

1) I cant find a way to defrost the rats that doesnt result in them being all wet and dripping.

2) My snake never strikes at the head, always in the middle or the rat, is this normal?

[JayBP]

Got two questoions here regarding feeding. I am feeding him F/T Rats.

1) I cant find a way to defrost the rats that doesnt result in them being all wet and dripping.

2) My snake never strikes at the head, always in the middle or the rat, is this normal?

1) You can try just letting the rat sit out and naturally thaw and then use a hair dryer to warm it up or you can try using a ziplock bag, but sometimes those have tiny holes and the prey ends up getting wet anyway.

2) I'd say it's pretty normal. After you thaw the rat, you can try warming up the head a little more with a hair dryer so it stands out from the rest of the rats body.

[xanaxez]

i dont know if it is normal im no ball python expert but my carpets do it alot also. i would assume they strike the thickest part of the body so they could coil it. also do liek i do take a ziplock bag and put your rats in it then set it in your sink in hot water. i do that and have no problems. once thawed i let them set a little longer in it to make the rats bodys warm and my snakes strike immediately on them. the extra warmth makes them thing they are live .

[ride_gnu]

Sounds about what I expected, But now i have another problem,

I was feeding right now, and my snake swallowed the rats tail, and cant get it down reverse way, its been a hour already, and I need to speed this up. Can I cut the tail and let it go down and then try to force him to find the head?

[ride_gnu]

Never mind, he rejected the tail. But he seems to take forever to eat, its now been a hour and a half, and he is about to split the rat open again, *sigh*. This si quite a frustrating event.

[Pandora]

I had the similar bottom end feeding yesterday. It's tormenting to watch, I know. I was talking to her and trying to cheer her on to do it the right way... as if she was listening

[dr del]

Hi,

Try making the head the hottest part of the prey - that can help them both with the targeting and the starting at the right end. The hairdryer works really well for doing this.

Also if your rats are splitting a lot try defrosting them either slower or at a lower temperature - "cooking" is one of the main reasons for splits - the other being prey that has defrosted and been refrozen. Mind you in both cases they stink to high heaven.


dr del