Daenerys's first rat

Since petsmart didn't have small rats I had to get Daenerys a live one from another store, I knew I didn't want to risk it hurting her so I planned to hit it's head on a door frame. Apparently I am unable to hit a live animal hard and instead just injured it, I felt so incredibly horrible that I wanted to cry and never want to do live again unless it's absolutely necessary :(

Other then the sad experience I'm glad she accepted the rat, and next time I will use frozen since that's what she's used to.

A photo of her and her small rat, you can also see her pretty eyes :)
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7229/7...03359770_z.jpg

Ack, yes, that's the one part of owning a snake that can be pretty heartbreaking (love rodents, so it's hard to compartmentalize emotions and keep from sympathizing with the ones you get as food @_@;;). I can't imagine the kind of emotional turmoil that moment of "oh crap...it didn't die" brought on.
(boyfriend actually had a....very, very loosely similar situation where he was sort of forced to play "exterminator" at his work because his employer uses glue traps and just lets what it catches starve to death...inhumane...)


So far ours has been on live feed, but I'm curious about the frozen approach for multiple reasons. Did you ever have any problems getting her to eat a pre-kill? How would you say is the best approach in thawing and then presenting the PKfood?

I'm also considering it for when our little guy needs bigger portions and I'd feel more secure knowing what we're feeding him can't scratch or bite back.

Quote:

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"I can't imagine the kind of emotional turmoil that moment of "oh crap...it didn't die" brought on. "

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That was a horrible moment, when I realized it was still alive and in pain I had a moment of panic before hitting the poor animal harder. All I could do was stun the rat and had to let my snake do the rest, I just don't have it in me to kill it myself :(

I just got her, but she's eaten frozen food her entire life to my knowledge. She actually seemed a little freaked out when the rat moved and it took her two minutes to finally strike.

Large rats can pose a very real danger to a ball python, I'd suggest going to frozen thawed as soon as possible. I don't know too much about how to transfer them except to use tongs to make the rat look alive, there's a few threads about it :)