Technique for feeding live prey?

Thanks a ton for the tips! We found Monty (the snake) out of his hut just a bit ago with his tongue slithering away so we decided to give it a go.. Of course, as soon as my son opened the top of the cage, he darted back inside.. My husband decided enough was enough, no more stressing the poor guy out so we let a live hopper loose in his cage (we've been doing a separate eating box) and the poor little mouse only lasted about 2 seconds!!! I am not terribly over joyed about having to do live feedings but soooooo happy that it had such a positive effect on Monty! I did sit with him and waited until he swallowed the whole mouse just in case anything went wrong but he did great! Yay!

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Originally Posted by carrie77

Thanks a ton for the tips! We found Monty (the snake) out of his hut just a bit ago with his tongue slithering away so we decided to give it a go.. Of course, as soon as my son opened the top of the cage, he darted back inside.. My husband decided enough was enough, no more stressing the poor guy out so we let a live hopper loose in his cage (we've been doing a separate eating box) and the poor little mouse only lasted about 2 seconds!!! I am not terribly over joyed about having to do live feedings but soooooo happy that it had such a positive effect on Monty! I did sit with him and waited until he swallowed the whole mouse just in case anything went wrong but he did great! Yay!

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Congrats - most of the people I know who feed live (myself included) don't enjoy the actual act of feeding off live prey, but we do get satisfaction that all of us do when our animals eat, whether it be live, f/t or pre-killed. I feed live almost exclusively to my ball pythons. The only f/t feeder is my albino, and that's because minor scratches that you don't even see on animals with melanin show up so much on albino's, so I choose to feed him f/t instead.

We feed live to every snake and so far our techique has been to put the live rodent at the opposite end of the tub/enclosure as the snake. Stand by and check on occasionally. If after 20-30 minute the snake doesnt show any intrest remove the rodent and put him in a fish tank with food and water. Also when we do have a strike I always check to positioning of the rodent to see if it will be able to bite or injure the snake in its struggle to get free. If a strike is bad and I sence impending trouble, I have a small hammer that I carefully strike the rodent on the head with.

Now I have another question.. The closest place for me to get live prey for this little guy is almost 45 mins away.. I think my plan will be to get a small cage and keep 2 mice on hand so that I don't have to make this drive every week.. I would like to reintroduce f/t but not sure when.. Again, this little guy went almost 6 weeks without eating until the other night so I don't want to negate any progress made. How long should I keep doing live before introducing the f/t again?

My other concern (or my sons concern) is feeding him in his enclosure. I did this the other night because as I said in my original post, we just didn't want to stress him out any more but my son is worried that he will become 'unfriendly'. I did drop the mouse on the opposite side of the enclosure and I did NOT put my hand in.. I simply tipped the box that the mouse was in and let him plop into a corner. Have any of you had any issues with this concern of my sons?

Again, I do want to thank everyone for their advice. This is a whole new experience for us so getting advice from snake owners is such a big plus! The snake was my son's birthday present and he has been worried sick that something will go seriously wrong.. I'm trying to make sure it's goes seriously right :).

Oh, I almost forgot.. Where he hasn't eaten much in such a period of time and is skinny, should I try feeding him more than once a week for a while? Or more than one mouse at a time?

Most importantly, the snake will NOT become aggressive from being fed in it's enclosure. This is actually much better for it, as it will feel safe, be more likely to eat, and never even see your hand during the feeding process. If it never sees your hand at the same time it sees/smells food, how could they become associated? This is proven to be true more than 90% of the time, and the other 10% is about how many balls are aggressive regardless of feeding practices.

How much does this little guy weigh? If he's looking really skinny, and/or is young, I would feed him every 4-5 days, if he'll take it. A lot of people feed yearlings like that, then every seven days til adult hood, then slow down even more. I think I'll just feed my hatchling every 7 days as I'm not concerned with his weight. Some do a lot less. Feed him 10-15% his body weight per feeding for now. No more once he reaches 1000 grams. He could just get fat then.

I would feed him live for a while until he looks like he could go for another few weeks without food for the switch back to F/T. Perhaps you could do some breeding for yourself?

Based on the fact it's eating live, I would suggest setting up a mouse breeding tub, especially if you are planning on keeping extras on hand.

Start by getting the mice breeding, produce some babies, gradually feed off the mice when they are big enough, this should set you up for a while. From there feed as I suggested with hemostats (as the snake will get used to seeing them on the scruff of the rodent's neck. After this start stunning them before feeding them, then a few feeds of doing this, start prekilling (cervical dislocation), do this for a while, then finally kill and freeze your own mice, and start feeding frozen. From there you should be golden if the snake is taking the f/t.