guinea pigs?

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Originally Posted by Jonny2184

Mice are like mosquitos. You can find them basically in any country you go to.

BP's come from Africa and if you think mice and gerbils don't live and breed in the wild in africe you have to do a little more reading about this great Earth we live on!
I'm pretty sure they have rabbits in the wild in Africe as well! How could you not... they even have them in Australia and even in, and around the North Pole! Same idea as mice, they are eveywhere...and if a wild ball sees a littel rabbit go by, I'm sure he/she wouldnt have any trouble having a go at it!

But I totally would stick with feeding your pet ball mice and rats for now!

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The mice, gerbils, and rabbits that are native to West Africa are not the same species of mice, gerbils, and rabbits that are common to the pet trade.

I've spoken with people that have actually traveled to Africa and collected wild ball pythons, so I'm quite sure that I know what I'm talking about.

Thank you for attempting to correct me though ... I always enjoy that. ;)

-adam

Let's get specific here what do they eat in the wild , let's here the name's of the different species of animal's that are being eaten in the wild.

Yes, I do realize that our mice, rats and rabbits aren't available to them in their natural habitat either however the original poster wasn't asking about any of them he asked about guinea pigs. I know a few people who breed gerbils simply as feeders though...more trouble then it's worth in my opinion.

Actually the original poster did ask about rabbits. (That’s me) has anyone ever tried to feed a rabbit to his or her ball?

I overlooked the question about rabbits. I apologize. I don't think that a ball could successfully take anything other then a small rabbit if that.

i was on a website(forget which one) and it said a guy fed a baby rabbit to his ball python "just because it was easter". the moral of the story was that if you try something new, baby rabbits for example, your ball python may not want mice or rats any more and that it's best to stick to ONE prey animal that is easy, cheap, and convenient for you. or else you could be losing a pretty penny over the 20 plus year life of your ball python because "you wanted to try something new". stick with rats and mice;)

Hey Adam, don't BPs mainly eat Jerboas in the wild?

http://www.alsirhan.com/ImagSCreen/Jerboa_sc4.jpg

I friend of mine told me don't ever feed your BP a guinea pig. The reason he gave was because apprently guinea pigs are the filet mignon of the rodent world and rats are like hamburger helper.


He has a Burm. Someone had a guinea pig they were getting rid of and he took it because when you have something with an appite that large you don't turn down free meals. So, he fed his Burm the guinea pig and apprently he liked it so much he refused any other prey items for MONTHS.

This was several years ago though, now his burm is like 17' long and 200lbs and eats anything the moves. It is one scary beasty. Beautiful, but much more then I'd ever want to handle.

Lira

We did start a non-feeding WC adult female eating by enticing her with a hopper gerbil but then backed it up with a weanling black rat as soon as she took the hopper down. She didn't imprint on the gerbil thank goodness but we were aware of the risk of that and had accepted that if that was all she would eat (gerbils) we would assume that cost ($8.99 per gerbil) if that's what it took to get her to eat in captivity.

Since rats and mice are so easy to obtain or breed yourself I wouldn't mess around too much with a ball python when they are known to be imprint eaters more so than say a columbian boa.

I'm with Adam on the "don't mess with what works" theory of feeding.


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by emilio

Let's get specific here what do they eat in the wild , let's here the name's of the different species of animal's that are being eaten in the wild.

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Ok, lets ...

Turdus sp.
Psittacus erithacus
Cristicola galactodes
Dendropicos sp.
Nectarinia sp.
Ploceus sp.
Crocidura poensis
Cricetomys gambianus
Praomys tullbergi
Lemniscomys striatus
Protoxerus stangeri
Plecotus sp.
Epomophorus sp.
Megaloglossus woermanni
Galagoides demidoff

This is a partial list ... I didn't feel like typing the whole thing. :P

-adam