Ugh..help?

I drive 2 hours for food twice a week. My babies like the heart still beating. I hold the mouse by its tail and smash it against the wall quick to break their neck. That way they don't injure my friends. A lot of time the twitching from the neck break stimulates feeding response. If she still won't eat, take her out for a half hour while someone else cleans everything I'm her cage. They won't eat if it smells like their filth. If they smell it prey smells it so it shuts them off. Clean everything out, add a hide for her. Break the mouses neck, throw it in tank, put your baby in the tank and cover it with a towel for 2 hours. I did this step by step and broke a 3 week no eating habit on my smallest girl. Cheers.

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I drive 2 hours for food twice a week. My babies like the heart still beating. I hold the mouse by its tail and smash it against the wall quick to break their neck. That way they don't injure my friends. A lot of time the twitching from the neck break stimulates feeding response. If she still won't eat, take her out for a half hour while someone else cleans everything I'm her cage. They won't eat if it smells like their filth. If they smell it prey smells it so it shuts them off. Clean everything out, add a hide for her. Break the mouses neck, throw it in tank, put your baby in the tank and cover it with a towel for 2 hours. I did this step by step and broke a 3 week no eating habit on my smallest girl. Cheers.

I 2nd try heating it up. also wiggle it around in front of the snake. I have read on some post that you can bump the snake on the side with the mouse to induce a strike, they say just stay away from the head. I have not had try this method and not sure if others would agree with it. I understand the frustration for a while there I had one snake on rat pups the other on mice, one would do F/T the other would not. now they both take rats, but still cant get one to take F/T so I started breading rats to keep them all happy.

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Originally Posted by Foolish1

I drive 2 hours for food twice a week. My babies like the heart still beating. I hold the mouse by its tail and smash it against the wall quick to break their neck. That way they don't injure my friends. A lot of time the twitching from the neck break stimulates feeding response. If she still won't eat, take her out for a half hour while someone else cleans everything I'm her cage. They won't eat if it smells like their filth. If they smell it prey smells it so it shuts them off. Clean everything out, add a hide for her. Break the mouses neck, throw it in tank, put your baby in the tank and cover it with a towel for 2 hours. I did this step by step and broke a 3 week no eating habit on my smallest girl. Cheers.

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I drive 2 hours for food twice a week. My babies like the heart still beating. I hold the mouse by its tail and smash it against the wall quick to break their neck. That way they don't injure my friends. A lot of time the twitching from the neck break stimulates feeding response. If she still won't eat, take her out for a half hour while someone else cleans everything I'm her cage. They won't eat if it smells like their filth. If they smell it prey smells it so it shuts them off. Clean everything out, add a hide for her. Break the mouses neck, throw it in tank, put your baby in the tank and cover it with a towel for 2 hours. I did this step by step and broke a 3 week no eating habit on my smallest girl. Cheers.

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Really??? You smash the poor mouse up against the wall!!! There are far more humane ways to kill a prey item. This is just barbaric. Please find better ways to euthanize a mouse. To the OP, please DO NOT do this to a live mouse. Stick with other advice you have been given.

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Originally Posted by angllady2

I'm not sure why no one has pointed this out yet, but are you making sure the f/t is good and warm before you offer it? Ball pythons hunt by heat. If you aren't getting her attention first, then heating the food up really nice and hot and then offering it, I'm not surprised she won't eat. The whole " drop in a thawed rodent and wait ", is the reason why most pet shop snakes won't eat.

Take her hide out first, heat the food up really good and hot, grasp it with tongs and offer it. Chances are, she'll hit it hard and fast if you do it correctly.

While it would be a little bit of extra trouble to get a small plastic critter keeper and fix it up to hold a couple of mice, if heating the prey doesn't work you have no choice. A baby this small cannot go without food for long. It lacks the metabolism to deal with long periods of fasting. You will do permanent damage if you don't feed soon. You can buy three or maybe four mice at one time, feed them lightly and offer one every 5 days to a week. That will keep the number of trips to the store to a minimum.

Gale

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I do thaw it out and make sure it's nice and hot. I put the f/t into a plastic bag and let it sit in hot water for anywhere between 15-20 minutes. Then I'll run hot water over the f/t to get the "Freezer smell" off of it.

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Originally Posted by ballpythonluvr

Really??? You smash the poor mouse up against the wall!!! There are far more humane ways to kill a prey item. This is just barbaric. Please find better ways to euthanize a mouse. To the OP, please DO NOT do this to a live mouse. Stick with other advice you have been given.

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Is it more humane to put a live mouse in a plastic bag and spin it around so the mouse gets all dizzy and disoriented? I did see someone on youtube do that and it seems somewhat more humane than smashing a live animal against a wall or table.

To OP: what we do to our ones who eat live is go to pet store the feeding day or the day before if necessary and feed directly from the plastic box the pet shop sells them in. E travel over an hour each way. My babies are worth the hassle even though I'm disabled and have to arrange a driver etc. Once the feeding response is well established I change to f/t but go back to live every now and then to freshen their response. I have no idea if this is correct but it works for mine. As far as frozen thawed goes I have never been able to get mine to take a wet rodent. I leave it out in the snakes room with other pets out of there all day to defrost. The smells get everyone "drooling". Then I use the hair dryer to heat the rodent to the required temp, especially the head. This is what has worked for me.

As for fresh killed, I made a CO2 tank and used it once. F/T is easier in my opinion.


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Originally Posted by calmolly1

To OP: what we do to our ones who eat live is go to pet store the feeding day or the day before if necessary and feed directly from the plastic box the pet shop sells them in. E travel over an hour each way. My babies are worth the hassle even though I'm disabled and have to arrange a driver etc. Once the feeding response is well established I change to f/t but go back to live every now and then to freshen their response. I have no idea if this is correct but it works for mine. As far as frozen thawed goes I have never been able to get mine to take a wet rodent. I leave it out in the snakes room with other pets out of there all day to defrost. The smells get everyone "drooling". Then I use the hair dryer to heat the rodent to the required temp, especially the head. This is what has worked for me.

As for fresh killed, I made a CO2 tank and used it once. F/T is easier in my opinion.


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Maybe I'll try the hair dryer trick. My question is: what do I do with the mouse if the snake isn't interested? Akeda eats only f/t and has only ever eaten f/t. I'm sure if I attempted to give him a live he'd probably eat it, but I've seen horrible pictures of snakes that have been attacked by the mice.

I personally have never had a mouse try to hurt my snakes but of course they still can and do. If he won't take it get a small box with a lid, a bowl of water and some peanut butter. Wait a few days (? Not sure what's recommended) and try again. If it's a fail then you may have to head to the vet. As others have said, babies can't fast like adults.


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Originally Posted by calmolly1

I personally have never had a mouse try to hurt my snakes but of course they still can and do. If he won't take it get a small box with a lid, a bowl of water and some peanut butter. Wait a few days (? Not sure what's recommended) and try again. If it's a fail then you may have to head to the vet. As others have said, babies can't fast like adults.


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OKay, I have 2 hours off in the afternoon so I might go buy a live mouse. I sent pictures of the snake to my breeder (the more trusted one) and they said that Assist Feeding is an absolute last resort. They said that if she got down to somewhere in the range of 65 grams to try assist feeding.

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Originally Posted by Reed12321

OKay, I have 2 hours off in the afternoon so I might go buy a live mouse. I sent pictures of the snake to my breeder (the more trusted one) and they said that Assist Feeding is an absolute last resort. They said that if she got down to somewhere in the range of 65 grams to try assist feeding.

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That's what I've read too.


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