GAH - rat bite = pierced snake

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Originally Posted by jglass38

Neither humane nor particularly well thought out. Lets remember these are living creatures too. The answer is, feed nothing bigger than a small rat.

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True.. don't listen to me! lol

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Originally Posted by Sausage

This is going to sound terrible, but you can slam them on something, which should kill them instantly. To stun and not kill, maybe putting the rat in a dark bag and shaking him a little or something might help. That way, I think, it should be disoriented enough for the snake to get him without any trouble. I just thought of that randomly... don't take my word for it.

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very bad idea. now you have a disoriented stressed out freaked out rat!!!

EEK

For me stunning isn't the answer for a couple of reasons....it's unneccessarily inhumane to the rat and if your snake can't handle live prey in a natural state then it shouldn't be offered that prey at all. Keep to nothing bigger than a small (or two of them for a larger female if need be) and your snake will be much safer in the long run. Hope she heals up swiftly and with no complications.

ouch - hope she's ok for you lillyorchid



dr del

The only way to humanely kill a rodent as recognized by the American Humane Society is a CO2 chamber. You can build one yourself, and their fairly cheap to make. Not a bad idea either if you are going to continue to feed live. Just do a search on CO2 chamber or Carbon Dioxide chambers. :salute:

Here is a site that explains it all pretty well:

http://nwco.net/0531-StepThreeLethal...ideChamber.asp

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Originally Posted by jglass38

Neither humane nor particularly well thought out. Lets remember these are living creatures too. The answer is, feed nothing bigger than a small rat.

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Some people have snakes larger than BP's and probably want to know their options when it comes to larger prey.

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Originally Posted by Rapture

Some people have snakes larger than BP's and probably want to know their options when it comes to larger prey.

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Yes, some people do but this is a thread about bps in the bp section. ;)

My bad... :P

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Originally Posted by Rapture

Some people have snakes larger than BP's and probably want to know their options when it comes to larger prey.

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I'd still say to never stun prey. We fostered and fed a 6 foot BCI for 10 months and he ate live big rats, small bunnies and good sized guinea pigs without incident. I still say if the snake can't handle the prey then either feed it f/t or feed it smaller (and possibly multiples per feeding). In the case of this particular BCI he was very fast on the bunnies and the GP's and showed a more hesitant feeding response to the larger rats. He may well have had a rat incident in his past (though there were no bite scars). When we offered a particularily large rat we pre-killed it for him as we feel you cannot offer a large prey item like a big male rat to even a big snake if that snake isn't able to immediately, efficiently and safely deal with it.

My last issue with stunning is that you cannot in anyway real way judge just how stunned the prey really is. Live is live, dead is dead...stunned is way too variable for me to believe it's something you can consistently do and never mess up on. A prey item coming out of a stunned condition, hurt, stressed and freaked is not a prey item I want in with any of our snakes no matter if they are milks, BP's or BCI's.

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Originally Posted by Kojak

The only way to humanely kill a rodent as recognized by the American Humane Society is a CO2 chamber. You can build one yourself, and their fairly cheap to make. Not a bad idea either if you are going to continue to feed live. Just do a search on CO2 chamber or Carbon Dioxide chambers. :salute:

Here is a site that explains it all pretty well:

http://nwco.net/0531-StepThreeLethal...ideChamber.asp

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Agreed. Although people with smaller collections might not have the funds to continue to refill a Co2 tank once a month. I have to do the whack and dangle. I know it sounds rough but I a pretty strong guy and have been able to kill the feeder with-out a second whack. I'm sorry if this is a little graphic. I am investing in a Co2 tank now that my collection has grown.