Best Food for BP's

Ok wow, that made no sense whatsoever did it. Sorry need coffee.

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Originally Posted by Melicious

I'm really debating on whether or not to switch over to f/t. My rat supply is dwindling, and I'm sick and tired of spending $6.99 for a "medium" rat that should be in the "small" bin and spending $4.99 for "small" rats that are just glorified mice. I want to strangle someone right now. O_o

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I'm switching to F/T because I don't want to pay $1.75 for a small mouse. :cool:

What is the best way to switch from F/T mice to F/T rats??? Do you just do it and hope for the best??

This is making me very nervous, I have always fed her F/T mice for the past six months but she is getting a little too big for mice - having to give her mutliple mice per feeding - I really think I need to switch her to rats - I just fear her going off feed over it.

Any help.

Thaw the rat in some used mouse bedding that you can pick up in any pet store; they'll gladly give you some ;)

When the rat is thawed, roll it around really thoroughly in the bedding and pre-scent the snake area with the mouse bedding.

The snake ought to be faked out :P

I feed 2000g plus females mice and they are perfectly fine. Chunky butts... They get 3-4 mice every 10-14 days, maybe less if I'm running low and feeding babies is priority. Sometimes they get 5 or 6 if I just want to get rid of mice and they're still taking them with gusto. They tell me when they're done.

Plus, I get live medium adult mice for $0.47 each, same for frozen. Definitely not going to Petco and paying 2.99 per HOPPER. Dinky things.

I prescented the first rat I gave her - she took it just fine but should I continue to prescent her rat each week and for how long to keep this up??

Thanks everyone

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

I saw that they also showed a Ball and said "This killer could easily over power a small child and kill it."

I about craped my pants.

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Ok, yeah this has been a pet peeve for a while now. I have written Animal Planet every time I have heard this bullcrap spew out of my TV. A Ball will kill you, a moose a predator, this is a boa(and it was a retic) bla bla bla.... I dunno maybe an educational station about animals could try having.....maybe...the CORRECT INFORMATION? Sheesh

Croc Hunter would be turning over in his grave.

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Originally Posted by stormwulf133

Ok, yeah this has been a pet peeve for a while now. I have written Animal Planet every time I have heard this bullcrap spew out of my TV. A Ball will kill you, a moose a predator, this is a boa(and it was a retic) bla bla bla.... I dunno maybe an educational station about animals could try having.....maybe...the CORRECT INFORMATION? Sheesh

Croc Hunter would be turning over in his grave.

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You would think. But just like Discovery. They are selling out for the "danger" factor.

I have read this thread post for post, but I'm still a little confused. Those of you who feed more than once mice per week, instead of a rat; do you feed the mice at one sitting, as in the snake eat one mouse after another, or do you spread the feeding out over the week?

Hi,

Usually it is done in one sitting but you wait till the snake has finished one and got itself back in hunting mode before introducing the next one - you don't want to just throw multiple mice in and hope for the best. :)


dr del

I've been feeding f/t rats to my clan with the exception of the one or two that simply refuse. I'm actually thinking of going back to live mice because I hate having to heat the f/t. I don't have a good place to do it and most of the time I have to put them in warm water. Then the stupid bag leaks and I have warm wet rat, yuck. I think I would prefer to drop in a mouse and let nature take it course.

How does everyone else heat their f/t?

I feed mine frozen rats and frozen mice after thawing them of course.


I saw a few videos of people feeding hamsters to their ball pythons... Is that bad to do? Besides the fact that hamsters probably cost a lot more.

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Originally Posted by Beantown Reptiles

How does everyone else heat their f/t?

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I take the frozen rodents out of the freezer the morning of feeding day and put them in the fridge. They are completely thawed by the time I get home from work. You could do it the night before also.

I then place them on top of the tanks for 30-60 minutes to prescent and get them to room temp.

I use a heat lamp (red bulb) to heat them up a little before feeding.

I agree with you about the water. I tried it and don't that method anymore.

JohnNJ

the best food is what they will eat consistantly!

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Originally Posted by Beantown Reptiles

I've been feeding f/t rats to my clan with the exception of the one or two that simply refuse. I'm actually thinking of going back to live mice because I hate having to heat the f/t. I don't have a good place to do it and most of the time I have to put them in warm water. Then the stupid bag leaks and I have warm wet rat, yuck. I think I would prefer to drop in a mouse and let nature take it course.

How does everyone else heat their f/t?

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I defrost mine in warm water for 20-30 minutes with a warm water top-up 5 minutes before feeding, I then pat them dry with a cloth and introduce... works pretty well as the whole body of the prey is heated through.

I struggled a bit when I was using a heat lamp to warm up the head of a defrosted mouse/rat... Also by using the water I can warm up a heap of mice/rats if needed, useful for when I feed my lot on the same day....

Just don't make the mistake I did, and that is to use boiling temp water from the kettle to heat up the prey, man it was sick.... the belly of the prey swelled up and when I picked them up for feeding they popped.... I almost puked there and then........

ASF's for sure. Thats what they eat in the wild.


But, Rats and mice are alot more convinient to access.

I don't know if it's been said already.. I didn't read the whole thread. But.. it has been said that rats are more nutritional than mice...ect. This seems to me to be an old wives tale. I've been told it many times even believed it for a while till someone pointed out that there is no scientific evidence that a rat is more nutritionally valuable than other rodents. They're bigger so therefore carry more of everything, but snakes do just fine on whatever rodent you can get them to eat. As long as your feeding the whole item.

i heard of someone feeding their ball python cooked chicken cut up in small pieces...:confused:

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Originally Posted by spalding11

i heard of someone feeding their ball python cooked chicken cut up in small pieces...:confused:

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If they acctually did this the snake probably died. :( :mad:

Chicken is sometimes fed to snakes, usually in the form of whole chicks but Cooked meat is BAD, very very BAD for snakes don't do it.

Just stick with rodents, it's natural healthy and easy to provide.

oh no, I DON'T DO THIS...and it suggests cooked chicken, cockroaches, mice, rats, etc in snakes for dummies...

(i work at a library...i see a lot of uninformational books):weirdface:weirdface:weirdface:confused::confused::confused:

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Originally Posted by spalding11

oh no, I DON'T DO THIS...and it suggests cooked chicken, cockroaches, mice, rats, etc in snakes for dummies...

(i work at a library...i see a lot of uninformational books):weirdface:weirdface:weirdface:confused::confused::confused:

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Good..
but with books like that out there no wonder there are so many bad, uninformed pet owners out there...

Any chance of said book disappearing to forever be counted as "lost" on the library catalog :rolleyes:

haha...that one, and 30 million others!
another one didn't even say certain temps the enclosure has to be or even mention HUMIDITY!

i hung my head in shame...:tears:

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Originally Posted by spalding11

haha...that one, and 30 million others!
another one didn't even say certain temps the enclosure has to be or even mention HUMIDITY!

i hung my head in shame...:tears:

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You're making me kinda happy my local lib has like zero books on snakes!
It made me sad that I couldn't find any when I first got into snakes... now I'm glad I didn't .

well...it would be more useless information stuck in your head like me, i got a lot of that!:rolleyes:
good thing you know better!

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Originally Posted by truthsdeceit

I don't know if it's been said already.. I didn't read the whole thread. But.. it has been said that rats are more nutritional than mice...ect. This seems to me to be an old wives tale. I've been told it many times even believed it for a while till someone pointed out that there is no scientific evidence that a rat is more nutritionally valuable than other rodents. They're bigger so therefore carry more of everything, but snakes do just fine on whatever rodent you can get them to eat. As long as your feeding the whole item.

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There are studies done on value of prey items. Mice have lower energy per gram, higher ash... the problem is not that value of prey items is not know but the exact needs of each species of snake is not known.


http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/Who...nal02May29.pdf


I'll feed what the snake will eat. I have one girl whom I tried to switch to rats for over a year, including 'coating' a rat (never again...) She was spotty at best I gave in and gave her mice again and she has not refused a meal since.

I would generally agree about gerbils I'd not feed them unless as a last resort. There are a lot of (incorrect) comments in all kinds of places trying to say gerbils are a natural prey item for Balls but this is not true gerbils are native to mongolia.

You forgot...

Chickens
Rabbits
Children
Neighbors yapping poodle


ok ok not the last 2... But im stuck on 12 hour night shifts haha


oh ya you also said BP's

I have personally seen BP's eat mice, rats, gerbels, hampsters, and even chics. Yes baby chickens. It gave a whole new view on road runner lol.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

There are a lot of (incorrect) comments in all kinds of places trying to say gerbils are a natural prey item for Balls but this is not true gerbils are native to mongolia.

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Gerbils have a huge geographical range. Pet gerbils are native to Mongolia.

Granted jumping rats are found all over the place but 'gerbils' you can buy are mongolian.

I feed rats. Simple, cheap, and convenient. When I got one of my snakes it was feeding on mice. Offered a rat the first time, and she didn't take it. I offered it again next week, and she ate it right up. No problems since. (NOT the same rat :O)

Mooses (Mooice? LOL) are not predators, but they get very aggressive during mating season. They probably called them predators to dumb it down for the 5 year olds and idiots that watch the channel. For the ball, they probably used it because it was available. Plus, the people who made the show didn't want to be eaten by the big, bad BOA...