Live prey vs......

huh well i will just kill them and then freeze them i could swear that the freezer than would have worked.good thing i never tried it lol

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Originally Posted by doobysnack

huh well i will just kill them and then freeze them i could swear that the freezer than would have worked.good thing i never tried it lol

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good thing :) when i first started breeding mice, I thought about freezing them. Then I read an article about the problems associated with each method (i am trying to find that article again...). The CO2 method is the best way. The 'pencil method' of breaking the neck only has the drawback that if done improperly the animal will suffer. Other than that is pretty easy to do, works very fast, and is generally not messy at all.

yeah well about 19 of my ratrs spoiled last week so i had to feed reeses 2 p/k mice for the second time. I am sad to say that i wacked both the mice and put them in there with reeses but i noticed one was twithcing. I figured reeses would get that one first so no biggie but he got the one that wasnt moving first(wuss) so it was pretty sad watching him twitch for those 15 minutes. so if it comes to where i have to kill a rodent again then i will try that pencil method. as for which method i prefer.......i'd have to say f/t just because i really dont like killing rodents and i am too paranoid to feed live. but shipping on those frozen rats costs an arm lol.

Brian

I know! I have yet to kill a rodent, and would preferably not ever have to (wistful thinking huh)...my guys can eat mice, and my petstore has f/t mice. But as soon as my BP reaches adult size...::squeak!:: I am going to have to start wacking. I think I am going to buy one of those Co2 Killing systems. ONE QUESTION about those, the Co2 doesn't hurt the snake? Or are you supposed to freeze/thaw the rats before you feed them??

The snake likes male prey over female....wow that is interesting. Test the theory maybe and rub one of your female's over a male (especially the back end area) to scent the female with the male scent and see what the snake does. Just might be an interesting experiment.

You said you live in Portugal where your ball is actually illegal so obviously you can't order from RodentPro here in the States and mice and rats aren't easily gotten hold of. I'd like to hear from really experienced breeders on this. Is long term feeding of any type of rodent like a hamster or gerbil really going to impact a snake's wellbeing? What would be the real difference in offering hamster/gerbils versus mice/rats over the lifetime of a snake?


~~Joanna~~

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

The snake likes male prey over female....

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I'm not buying that one.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

What would be the real difference in offering hamster/gerbils versus mice/rats over the lifetime of a snake?

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Nothing ... I know of plenty of ball pythons being raised on gerbils or being fed hamsters regularly.

-adam

LOL I wasn't saying I'm buying it either Adam, just that it seems interesting.

Thanks for the clarification about prey. I couldn't figure how it would really hurt a snake to have a prey other than rats/mice and I've seen threads where Kara from NERD was feeding guinea pigs to one of her bigger snakes so I kinda figured if that's the food this guy can get and his snake is doing good on it, what's the problem? Being a newbie though I figured it was best answered by others definitively.

~~Jo~~

I'm sorry, but I accidentally clicked pre-killed, but i reall meant frozen/thawed. I haven't had problems with live mice, but the F/T mice are incredibly cheaper. It saves me about $220 every 16 months or so!:D

I feed prekilled, because I breed my own rats and it is just easier. When I have a surplus, I kill them and toss them in the freezer when they are at the appropriate size. I do have 2 BPs that completely ignore f/t, so I work my rat-breedings so that I always have some that are the right size!

'Bo eats live. The guy I got him from about 3 yrs. ago fed him both. 'Bo wpuld eat the frz/thawed but, he had trouble figguring which end was which.:rolleyes: I've always fed live and he hasn't had any trouble figuring which was the right end.:thumbsup: