Messy feeding stories?

Just had my first "Furred rat feeding."

My two eldest(Ball Pythons) finally have gotten large enough for me to feed weanlings too, well actually they have been there for a week or two but I had to finish off the other prey first.

So I fed my normal first she's the sweetheart of the bunch and will pretty much eat under any circumstance, given husbandry is correct.

She took like a charm with a little fur coming off(Reminded me of a chicken in a cartoon getting a scare LOL)

Regi Managed to tear the lower abdominal skin right off as he went to coil around the rat effectively showing me all of the rat's "Hidden Glory."

and then proceeded to be scared of it for a few minutes before proceeding to strike and consume it...(Its a rather interesting mess...)

Now for those concerned about the quality of the prey it is okay I think this happened due to

1. I left it to scent a bit too long under a heat lamp.
2. I had too firm a grip on the feeding tongs as the rat was still in my tongs when he ripped the skin off...

So what are your rather messy feedings? If you have any?

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Originally Posted by VereMyth

So what are your rather messy feedings? If you have any?

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During feeding: my female blood python lunged out of her cage-bit my hand (holding the tongs), and I dropped a 3rd time refrozen jumbo rat (which exploded on contact with the floor). I reflexively used my damaged hand against the wall to steady myself as I was wrestling to get her back into her enclosure and I didn't notice how much I was bleeding. It looked like a crime scene when I was done...skin glue and paint ftw...

I assume your feeding Frozen?
It took me a couple different tries over the last few years to get this down.. i fed Live or Fresh Kill for about 30 years.... then when i was trying to switch no matter what I did the Rats were nasty, wet and messy after I thawed them out. My mistakes were, floating the plastic bag in to warm of water (thawed to quick) and having them facing face down in a large coffee can to thaw (blood ran out their noses). Now after a couple years I tried again taking the Rats out the morning of feeding. By 8pm they are completely room temp and dry, I then hit them with a Blow Dryer for about 3 min each.... by that time my Boy and Girls have their Noses Pushed against the glass doors waiting [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
I had several disgusting, messy attempts before the last few months... it was a PITA. They were tearing the wet rats apart, and one of my girls who still constricts 50% of the time was squeezing the Guts out of them. This was making me clean enclosures 48hrs after feed day.... haven’t had a mess in months with my newest technique.


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Ouch! Probably a bit more excitement then you wanted. xD

OK, now let's all eat breakfast!

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

I assume your feeding Frozen?
It took me a couple different tries over the last few years to get this down.. i fed Live or Fresh Kill for about 30 years.... then when i was trying to switch no matter what I did the Rats were nasty, wet and messy after I thawed them out. My mistakes were, floating the plastic bag in to warm of water (thawed to quick) and having them facing face down in a large coffee can to thaw (blood ran out their noses). Now after a couple years I tried again taking the Rats out the morning of feeding. By 8pm they are completely room temp and dry, I then hit them with a Blow Dryer for about 3 min each.... by that time my Boy and Girls have their Noses Pushed against the glass doors waiting [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
I had several disgusting, messy attempts before the last few months... it was a PITA. They were tearing the wet rats apart, and one of my girls who still constricts 50% of the time was squeezing the Guts out of them. This was making me clean enclosures 48hrs after feed day.... haven’t had a mess in months with my newest technique.


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Aww gross! xD Sounds quite similar! Minus the missing and striking the skin right off. Still messy.

Typically my technique is alright but I held too tightly with the tongs
Lucky regi is not an adult quite yet. Might rip an adult rat in half with how fragile it was lol(Bit of an exaggeration.)

Guess I should be glad I held off on putting new substrate in until tomorrow.

Yes I feed frozen though one of my snakes is still being slightly picky he took his first frozen the other week then decided not too this week and everything is right husbandry wise. So He is just going to wait until he gets hungry enough to eat again I guess. Makes me worry but he is not losing weight, in fact, he is gaining lol.

Other than when the mouse/rat/rabbit gets ripped open, the messiest feedings I've encountered come from stillborn chicks that still have a bit of yolk attached. I can remove most of it, and the snakes will eat it, but whatever is left will sometimes get smeared on the substrate, or on a hide, etc. and the next day I'm greeted with a serious rotten egg smell from that enclosure or tub.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VereMyth

Aww gross! xD Sounds quite similar! Minus the missing and striking the skin right off. Still messy.

Typically my technique is alright but I held too tightly with the tongs
Lucky regi is not an adult quite yet. Might rip an adult rat in half with how fragile it was lol(Bit of an exaggeration.)

Guess I should be glad I held off on putting new substrate in until tomorrow.

Yes I feed frozen though one of my snakes is still being slightly picky he took his first frozen the other week then decided not too this week and everything is right husbandry wise. So He is just going to wait until he gets hungry enough to eat again I guess. Makes me worry but he is not losing weight, in fact, he is gaining lol.

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Ive had mine off for 7 months after they were 1.5 years old.. never loosing more than a few grams.. then back to eating like nothing happened hahaha.. drives me nuts but i have to tell myself thats all part of their nature.


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I’ve never had an incident until last week. My snake struck the rat and coiled it up and I thought I’d give the rats tail a few tugs to let him “kill it”. When I pulled the tail, all the skin came off and left a raw nub of cartridge and the torn skin in my fingers.

I’m not squeamish (or so I thought) but I had to walk outside for a few minutes and get my composure.

Aside from exploding rodents, back when I used to order F/T nothing special and I am sure you get the picture (gut everywhere in the tub on the snake etc)

Never had that issue feeding my own F/T