bad strike

it was feeding night tonight. im feeding her small rats at this point. anyway, she had a nice fast strike-but it was strait for the rats backside. the rat stayed alive for about five minutes. due to the bad strike, she got some alpine shavings in her mouth. that wont hurt anything right? afterall- in the wild they must get dirt and stuff in there mouth all the time. :weirdface

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Originally Posted by rando

it was feeding night tonight. im feeding her small rats at this point. anyway, she had a nice fast strike-but it was strait for the rats backside. the rat stayed alive for about five minutes. due to the bad strike, she got some alpine shavings in her mouth. that wont hurt anything right? afterall- in the wild they must get dirt and stuff in there mouth all the time. :weirdface

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Alpine?

Exactly what type of substrate are you referring to?

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

Alpine?

Exactly what type of substrate are you referring to?

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haha. i meant to type aspen.

A little aspen usually does no harm. Sometimes strikes are bad... but what gram size rat are you feeding to her live?
Just my opinion here, but rats, when larger sized, can be dangerous to the snake when fed live.
Again, my opinion, feeding live is great and I feed multiples of mice to reduce to almost nothing the chances of a bite.
Again, my opinion, my snakes who eat rats get them f/t....
Have I mentioned that these were only my opinions...? ;)

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Originally Posted by starmom

A little aspen usually does no harm. Sometimes strikes are bad... but what gram size rat are you feeding to her live?
Just my opinion here, but rats, when larger sized, can be dangerous to the snake when fed live.
Again, my opinion, feeding live is great and I feed multiples of mice to reduce to almost nothing the chances of a bite.
Again, my opinion, my snakes who eat rats get them f/t....
Have I mentioned that these were only my opinions...? ;)

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and i'm a testament to feeding too big of rat to a snake. she's fine now though.:D

feeding day is tomorrow and i'm not sure if i should feed her one small rat or two mice.

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Originally Posted by starmom

A little aspen usually does no harm. Sometimes strikes are bad... but what gram size rat are you feeding to her live?
Just my opinion here, but rats, when larger sized, can be dangerous to the snake when fed live.
Again, my opinion, feeding live is great and I feed multiples of mice to reduce to almost nothing the chances of a bite.
Again, my opinion, my snakes who eat rats get them f/t....
Have I mentioned that these were only my opinions...? ;)

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i dont have a scale, but the rat is always a little bit smaller or equal to the size of her girth. and the problem is ive probably went through 10 mice and she wont eat them. i dont know why, but ive tried multiple times.

How bout f/t rats??

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Originally Posted by starmom

How bout f/t rats??

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i tried that too. i even tried the broth trick. nothing. it seems that all she will eat are live rats. ive already learned to live with that, even though they cost 5 bucks a piece and i have to drive 35 minutes to get them. its all good though:cool:

It won't be good when she starts eating 80, 90, 100, 110g rats and has a bad strike.... :(

I think the "same size or slightly smaller than the girth" is a bit overused.

You can feed multiple small rats as easily as you can feed one larger prey item.

I feed all my adult BPs multiple small rats. I mostly feed the adults 30g - 40g rats... just figure out how much your snake should be eating in a feeding and do some very simple math.

Two 40g rats (or even four 20g rats) are going to put your snake at less risk then one 80g rat.

Invest in a $10.0 digital scale and do not guess on prey sizes. Once you get good at it, then you can start eyeballing them and figuring out weights.

I used to take mine to the feed store to weigh my live feeders. You may get a few odd looks, but *meh*...

Bruce