Feeding pre-killed mice and rats

It was pretty darn warm, i felt it and it was warm to the touch.So i got some tongs and held it in front of him and he just looked at me like i was crazy kinda like " you expext me to eat somthing that has been dead for a few days". I was seriously thinking of ordering some frozen mice but feeding pre killed is so much easier.Who knows maybe i will give it another try soon. thanks for the advice .

Maybe the frozen mice lost its scent, rubbing a live mouse wouldn't hurt.

i dunno, i think ill just keep on whacking,ill get used to it.

Good Luck, I hear those rats are hard to knock out ... I'm sure you can do it though.

I hope you guys use tongs or hemastats or something. Holding a rat in your hand and waiting for your ball python to take it can lead to stupid feeding error (SFE). The only way you will get any snake to strike a dead rodent is to pretend that it is still alive. A ball python's feeding response requires certain things, 1) The rodent must me warm enough to simulate a live mouse. You either thaw one out or you kill a fresh one. If you dont use tongs or hemastats then the snake will confuse your heat with the rodent's, Ball pythons have heat sensing pits at the front of their upper lip. 2) Smell. Perhaps one of the ball pythons most keen sense they can track a rodent a long ways by tasting the air. 3) Last but not least, movement. When the first two requirements are met they are waiting for the animal to move and if you just lay the carcas in the tank they will never strike at it. Lots of people are discourged about using fresh killed because they say they put the rodent in and the snake just sniffs it and passes it over and might even crawl over it.

Without all three key components a ball python will not eat a fresh killed or thawed rodent.

Excellent Tips Gozetec :)

Umm...i dont have to do the rodent dance thingie.I just hold it above his head with a pair a needle nose plyers (becuase i dont ave a pair of good tongs) and i have never had a problem with him biting me,one time i used my hand becuase i couldent find the plyers i jjust held it by the tail and he grabs it consrtics it and eats it.

Yeah I actually just put the F/T infront of my balls ... and let em strike. Don't really have to do a mouse dance.

yeah this last feeding i accidentally dropped the mouse in the feeding tank and it was sitting there for a few seconds laying perfectly still and he still struck and ate it.I guess differnt snakes require differnt feeding stratagies.

so far i haven't done any mouse dance for my bp, but if it isn't warm enough then she won't even look at it. i pretty much lower the mouse in with the tongs and by the time i have it halfway into the feed box with her she is flicking that tongue like crazy waiting for it to get close enough for her to strike. so far i'm counting myself lucky with her eating habits. :)