Re: Breaking up a feeding?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Purrrfect9
Snake's scales are a lot more delicate than what you would think, and it's no where near as tough as an elephant hide. As far as leaving a live mouse in overnight, it's not a good idea to ever leave live prey with any snake unattended, unless it's a pinkie mouse/ pinkie rat. I'm assuming that your snake is still pretty young if he's only eating a hopper mouse, so that means that the scale/skin is going to be even more delicate than an adult BP's. If this were to happen to me, I wouldn't want to leave a rat/mouse, that are notorious for chewing through wood and plastic (gosh, how would that turn out against soft scales?) unattended overnight with my BP's. Just my :2cent:
Agreed, if your gonna leave live prey in there, your asking for a big problem. Watch the mouse for a while, if he eats great, if not take it out and try next week.
Re: Breaking up a feeding?
I think because you mentioned tongs in your first post it sounded like you were being a dangler. I re-read it and it wasn't really clear what happened.
So, I just got done typing in my routine in another post so I'll let you look it up if you're really curious. But, I'll summarize by saying that I don't feed in-blue. My BP would surely eat but its only one feeding so its just not worth it. Also, my feeding sessions all involve the mouse actually running around freely for about 10 secs (30 MAX). Frankly, if the situation is such that it takes much longer than a few minutes for the two to meet up for dinner then I would remove some obstacles or something. I've never had a meal refused, but I would not leave the mouse in once my snake passed up on one or two good strike opportunities.
I'm not surprised that the strike was at the rear of the mouse. I would change whatever is necessary to prevent that from happening. There are alot of people that are big on the "at home" feeding and the "hunting down" thing. Personally, I go for the "rich guy on safari" approach. Make it easy on your snake which means no obstructions, good lighting, and no easy way for the rodent to get behind your snake. (psst - I feed in a separate container. shhhh.....)
