Bud the Normal

For bud what you can do is hit it with a blow dryer and warm him up a bit then you can offer it to him so you don't have to run the rats head under any hot tap water.

Nice snake though.

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Originally Posted by Wheatley

He looks so sweet! My ball python, Cave sometimes does tail first. Which gets annoying when he does. xD

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Both Bud and Cloud have tried, but they haven't been successful so far. lol

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Originally Posted by Neal

For bud what you can do is hit it with a blow dryer and warm him up a bit then you can offer it to him so you don't have to run the rats head under any hot tap water.

Nice snake though.

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I think I may have mentioned it, but I boil water instead. I only put the head in, and only long enough to warm the head up, maybe 30-60 seconds. We don't have a blow dryer, though I've tried it before with Cloud. It stunk too much. If the blow dryer can get it hotter than hot tap water, it might work. Tap water doesn't get hot enough for him, so that's why I boil it.

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

Both Bud and Cloud have tried, but they haven't been successful so far. lol



I think I may have mentioned it, but I boil water instead. I only put the head in, and only long enough to warm the head up, maybe 30-60 seconds. We don't have a blow dryer, though I've tried it before with Cloud. It stunk too much. If the blow dryer can get it hotter than hot tap water, it might work. Tap water doesn't get hot enough for him, so that's why I boil it.

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Well with just thawing them out at room temp they're not going to be the temp that they'd normally be if they were live. That's why you're having issues with your BP not taking it unless you dip the head in boiling water. Boas have insane feeding responses and they rarely if ever go off feeding like BP's can and sometimes do. They wouldn't really require the rodent be heated up before they take it.

One concern about letting the rats thaw out overnight is that they can quickly decompose. My method which I've found works the best for me, and I would think it would work really good for anybody, but I can't say for sure. I take the rodents out that need to be thawed. I put them in a ziploc bag for 3-4 hours and let them sit. Then after that depending on if they're still not fully thawed out I will run hot water from the tap in a shallow sterilite container and fill it nearly to the top then I'll put the rodents in there and let all the air out to make sure because the water will push the air out. Then I put the top on there so it helps retain the heat. Once the water is getting cool I take the rats out put them on my reptile plate which has paper towels on it then I lay the rodents on it and put them in an empty tank with the heat lamp on and let them sit under there for 30ish minutes. I do put a few things under the plate to lift it slightly above half way to the light. Then once the time is up I'll put the plate on the floor grab the blow dryer(some Revlon one I picked up off ebay for like $12-15). Then I hit it with the hair dryer for about 30 secs - minute until I see my snakes come to the front or I at least see one coming, then I know the scent is well in the room. I forgot to mention the empty tank that heats the rodents up under the light is in the same room with the snakes. So after that I just get the tongs, grab the rat by the tail and wave it in front of the snake. All my snakes are eating f/t, though my lesser pastel is a shy eater and won't take it off the tongs, so I leave the rat pup near him and close the tub and usually within 20-30 minutes it's gone.

Everything else will take the rat from the tongs. In fact my Sable Pin usually eats 2-3 rat pups, because I heat extras up for my females since I went back to a 7 day feeding schedule because of winter. She's a pig. While the process I do isn't time consuming I've tried many methods of feeding f/t and this works the best. I can upload the feeding videos I've done if I still have them if you'd like to see?

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Originally Posted by Neal

Well with just thawing them out at room temp they're not going to be the temp that they'd normally be if they were live. That's why you're having issues with your BP not taking it unless you dip the head in boiling water. Boas have insane feeding responses and they rarely if ever go off feeding like BP's can and sometimes do. They wouldn't really require the rodent be heated up before they take it.

One concern about letting the rats thaw out overnight is that they can quickly decompose. My method which I've found works the best for me, and I would think it would work really good for anybody, but I can't say for sure. I take the rodents out that need to be thawed. I put them in a ziploc bag for 3-4 hours and let them sit. Then after that depending on if they're still not fully thawed out I will run hot water from the tap in a shallow sterilite container and fill it nearly to the top then I'll put the rodents in there and let all the air out to make sure because the water will push the air out. Then I put the top on there so it helps retain the heat. Once the water is getting cool I take the rats out put them on my reptile plate which has paper towels on it then I lay the rodents on it and put them in an empty tank with the heat lamp on and let them sit under there for 30ish minutes. I do put a few things under the plate to lift it slightly above half way to the light. Then once the time is up I'll put the plate on the floor grab the blow dryer(some Revlon one I picked up off ebay for like $12-15). Then I hit it with the hair dryer for about 30 secs - minute until I see my snakes come to the front or I at least see one coming, then I know the scent is well in the room. I forgot to mention the empty tank that heats the rodents up under the light is in the same room with the snakes. So after that I just get the tongs, grab the rat by the tail and wave it in front of the snake. All my snakes are eating f/t, though my lesser pastel is a shy eater and won't take it off the tongs, so I leave the rat pup near him and close the tub and usually within 20-30 minutes it's gone.

Everything else will take the rat from the tongs. In fact my Sable Pin usually eats 2-3 rat pups, because I heat extras up for my females since I went back to a 7 day feeding schedule because of winter. She's a pig. While the process I do isn't time consuming I've tried many methods of feeding f/t and this works the best. I can upload the feeding videos I've done if I still have them if you'd like to see?

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Ah, yeah, the main reasons I started leaving them out was because it was so time consuming to thaw them out in water once Cloud got on mediums and then they just get absolutely coated in bedding no matter how much I dry them off. Impaction isn't likely because they have nice high temps, but I just prefer to lower the amount of bedding ingested as much as possible to make it easier on them. Bud also has a bad habit of just burying the rat if it's soaking wet. With it being set out overnight, I remove it within an hour if they don't take it (which they usually take it pretty much as soon as I set it in - that is, when Bud actually eats), so hopefully that's well before it goes bad.

When I was kicked out, my father wouldn't let me come back and get the rat out of Bud's enclosure later that day because...well, let's just say he's not that good of a person. I came back later the next day and it had bloated, so I have at least 24 hours after I put it in. The food I offer to the boa is just so large (270-290 gram rats and now 1lb rabbits), it would take well over 3 hours to thaw in water. Bud takes mediums, so it may take 2-3 hours to thaw out that way.

That's awesome! He's beautiful!

Here is a video I made a couple of weeks ago. Ignore my commentary to get bit as I was recording for a friend who said his ball python sometimes eats out of his hand and then all the sudden it started biting his hand instead of the rat. Now granted I told him that it's because he had the smell of rat on his hand, that or bad aim. So I tried this with one of my snakes that have a killer feeding response and I in all seriousness thought I was going to get bit. I wouldn't recommend anybody trying this as I don't want to see anybody get bit and especially if you panic and the snake gets injured in the process. I also was just getting my voice back as I had been sick for the new years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruck_MW1pbk

I had two snakes in here that won't eat off tongs, they only eat if the food is left in there, but I've sense gotten one of them to take off the tongs now. I used to do weekly feeding videos but I stopped because I don't think anybody really paid attention to them, lol.

He's a butt bitter like mine. Lol. It's funny to watch sometimes. Haha

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Originally Posted by Neal

Here is a video I made a couple of weeks ago. Ignore my commentary to get bit as I was recording for a friend who said his ball python sometimes eats out of his hand and then all the sudden it started biting his hand instead of the rat. Now granted I told him that it's because he had the smell of rat on his hand, that or bad aim. So I tried this with one of my snakes that have a killer feeding response and I in all seriousness thought I was going to get bit. I wouldn't recommend anybody trying this as I don't want to see anybody get bit and especially if you panic and the snake gets injured in the process. I also was just getting my voice back as I had been sick for the new years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruck_MW1pbk

I had two snakes in here that won't eat off tongs, they only eat if the food is left in there, but I've sense gotten one of them to take off the tongs now. I used to do weekly feeding videos but I stopped because I don't think anybody really paid attention to them, lol.

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One of mine prefers to be fed by hand. Granted he doesn't strike. He just gently grabs it and pulls it into his hide to eat. My other one on the other hand if he smeels food he strikes at everything. Lol. Been bit by him with thongs and all. Lol.

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Originally Posted by jasonmcgilvrey83

One of mine prefers to be fed by hand. Granted he doesn't strike. He just gently grabs it and pulls it into his hide to eat. My other one on the other hand if he smeels food he strikes at everything. Lol. Been bit by him with thongs and all. Lol.

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Yea, I don't generally hand feed because I don't want to stress the snake by having to uncoil him or spray him with a bottle of water to get him to let go, I was just doing it as to show my friend. He's not big enough to really do any damage so I probably would of just let him uncoil on his own.

The ironic thing is the one that I hand fed in that video nailed me yesterday. He overshot the tongs and the rat and caught my palm.

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Originally Posted by Neal

Here is a video I made a couple of weeks ago. Ignore my commentary to get bit as I was recording for a friend who said his ball python sometimes eats out of his hand and then all the sudden it started biting his hand instead of the rat. Now granted I told him that it's because he had the smell of rat on his hand, that or bad aim. So I tried this with one of my snakes that have a killer feeding response and I in all seriousness thought I was going to get bit. I wouldn't recommend anybody trying this as I don't want to see anybody get bit and especially if you panic and the snake gets injured in the process. I also was just getting my voice back as I had been sick for the new years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruck_MW1pbk

I had two snakes in here that won't eat off tongs, they only eat if the food is left in there, but I've sense gotten one of them to take off the tongs now. I used to do weekly feeding videos but I stopped because I don't think anybody really paid attention to them, lol.

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Nice video, I wish Bud had a good feeding response, but it's almost non-existent. It was starting to build up before I moved and when I got him eating regularly, though. He sent a hide flying one time. :O The smallest movement while he eats and he'll drop it and won't take it again. I was trying the "rat dance" with him at first, but it scares him really bad. His enclosure was about at eye level (5ft) and I was trying to feed him on a step ladder. He was fear-striking and I was giving it one more twirl to see if he would change his mind and take it before I gave up. He climbed up the rat, hanging out of his enclosure staring right at my fingers. I reached for the snake hook get him off the rat and he nailed me. The only bite I've ever gotten from him the entire time I've had him. No pain, but I got a few thin scratches and a good bruise, but it all healed up in a few days. Never did the dance again, though, because it obviously stressed him out. I normally don't tong feed, I just set the rats in the enclosure for them to get. Sometimes I'll dangle the rat over Cloud, but usually I just set it somewhere random and he goes and gets it.