Assist Feeding?

My grandparents are letting me keep my snake (:w00t:), but he hasn't eaten since last November.

We are picking up a frozen medium sized rat today, but I have two questions that need to be answered.

1. How do you safely assist feed?
2. What is the best way to thaw?

They temperature are all correct (90* in the warm side of the tank, and about 80-85* in the cool side). He stopped wandering, he shed a few weeks ago, and pooped last week.

Assist feeding is done best with prekilled rodent.

Also you want to use smaller prey items not a medium rat. Try a small pre killed rat.


But if the snake is large enough to take a small or medium then i would not assist feed at all right now. Try a live small rat and see how that goes.

usually assist feed is for hatchlings who dont want to eat on their own.

Also if he didnt eat since November how did he poop just recently. thats a 6-7 month gap and dont sound right.

First if that snake is eating Med. rat's there is no need to assist feed that animal..I've got a male spider that has been off food since last OCT.. He ate before he started breeding he'll eat again..you might try a live prey item.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

Assist feeding is done best with prekilled rodent.

Also you want to use smaller prey items not a medium rat. Try a small pre killed rat.


But if the snake is large enough to take a small or medium then i would not assist feed at all right now. Try a live small rat and see how that goes.

usually assist feed is for hatchlings who dont want to eat on their own.

Also if he didnt eat since November how did he poop just recently. thats a 6-7 month gap and dont sound right.

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Usually every few weeks there is a white/yellow clump in his cage. Isn't that poop?

Also, we have tried live large mice, he wasn't interested.

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Originally Posted by Sadistic Serpent

Usually every few weeks there is a white/yellow clump in his cage. Isn't that poop?

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No thats pee/Urates which is normal if the snake is drinking water regularly

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

No thats pee/Urates which is normal if the snake is drinking water regularly

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Yeah, he drinks water regularly. What does the actual "poo" look like then?

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Originally Posted by Sadistic Serpent

Yeah, he drinks water regularly. What does the actual "poo" look like then?

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Cat poop.. trust me a turd looks like a turd no matter what animal it comes out of..

That is great news! I am so glad you get to keep him!!

In my opinion, if a snake has shown that it can eat on its own it doesn't need to be assist fed. Especially an adult snake. They can go well over a year without eating. Don't sweat it.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Cat poop.. trust me a turd looks like a turd no matter what animal it comes out of..

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From a ball python big enough to eat a medium rat, it looks more like St Bernard poop. ^_^