The Art of Befriending Your BP

MiceDirect has been really good to me so far, my picky guy will only eat dark-colored rodents and I called ahead of a show to see what they had and they sorted out and brought me a big bag of dark colored, frozen rats. .....and of course he still won't eat f/t, but I'm working on it.

My bp is totally fine with me handling him, the only time he's ever been snippy was when I moved him into a new tank and swapped out his old hide with a new one to try to get him to move over the hot spot. I was well out of striking range, it was more like an adorable, cranky pout than a biting attempt!. However, as fine as he is with me, if I give him to anyone else he immediately goes in to ball-mode and won't come out. Even with people who've raised snakes and know how to handle them, yet he's never done that with me. So it really does seem like not only can they recognize your scent they can recognize "unfamiliar human" scents as well.

My baby BP "Lilly" is a shy,curious,sweet Normal that I am truly in love with. Three weeks ago, I responded to a Craigslist Ad of a baby BP a young man had. Turns out his roomie bailed out to Oregon,leaving this baby abandoned and cold. She was thin and starving as well. I took her home to begin the process of rehabilitation. :banana:
Presently, "Lil" (nick name) is thriving well and eating like a little garbage disposal.LOL. her body has increased in size as well as some length. Still in the process in getting all the equipment I want. I am wanting to get a digital Gram scale to keep accurate weight accounts. Her habitat is an ongoing process and I even have a vet for her.( The same one I use when rehabbing wildlife ) I keep contact with a local breeder I know personally. She is so helpful, I am even considering a second snake in my future.:P

0.1.0.Normal BP

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Originally Posted by Spookitie

Sounds like you have a nice friendly social girl :) I love the name you picked for her, btw. Sometimes I have dreams that my snakes grow wings and start flying:D

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Lol, thanks! I read those books years ago as a child, and somehow the name presented itself to me while I was trying to think of one for her.

We have one male that's particularly ornery and he used to love to strike at us and get really nasty. But my partner and I put small scraps of cloth that we wore in our clothing for a few days in his cage and he's much better now. He's still tense and rather shy, but he won't try to tag us anymore. Worked for us. :)

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Originally Posted by twoyrbrat

My baby BP "Lilly" is a shy,curious,sweet Normal that I am truly in love with. Three weeks ago, I responded to a Craigslist Ad of a baby BP a young man had. Turns out his roomie bailed out to Oregon,leaving this baby abandoned and cold. She was thin and starving as well. I took her home to begin the process of rehabilitation. :banana:
Presently, "Lil" (nick name) is thriving well and eating like a little garbage disposal.LOL. her body has increased in size as well as some length. Still in the process in getting all the equipment I want. I am wanting to get a digital Gram scale to keep accurate weight accounts. Her habitat is an ongoing process and I even have a vet for her.( The same one I use when rehabbing wildlife ) I keep contact with a local breeder I know personally. She is so helpful, I am even considering a second snake in my future.:P

0.1.0.Normal BP

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Nice to hear ya saved a BP!!! Good luck with your second one if you decide to go for one.

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Originally Posted by hotelvoodoo

We have one male that's particularly ornery and he used to love to strike at us and get really nasty. But my partner and I put small scraps of cloth that we wore in our clothing for a few days in his cage and he's much better now. He's still tense and rather shy, but he won't try to tag us anymore. Worked for us. :)

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That's a really cool idea!! Thanks for sharing, I'm gonna do that.


Rather than make a new post about it, I'm just gonna throw this out here. Now this is just a thought, an idea, a paranoid one at that. So those who look down on live feeding argue that the mouse could hurt the snake, which is absolutely true. But...not with broken limbs...

Anybody ever think about doing that? Its pretty cruel but snake > mouse. I don't have intentions do necessarily do this but...it was an interesting thought I figured I would share.

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Originally Posted by Xazereth

That's a really cool idea!! Thanks for sharing, I'm gonna do that.


Rather than make a new post about it, I'm just gonna throw this out here. Now this is just a thought, an idea, a paranoid one at that. So those who look down on live feeding argue that the mouse could hurt the snake, which is absolutely true. But...not with broken limbs...

Anybody ever think about doing that? Its pretty cruel but snake > mouse. I don't have intentions do necessarily do this but...it was an interesting thought I figured I would share.

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Uh....yeah that's not....not very kind. Plus, it's not the limbs you have to worry about, it's the teeth. There are two things I would suggest for lives if you're really worried (which is legitimate) about the rodent hurting the snake.

1) Do a "sloppy" cervical dislocation. It's easier than it sounds, if you're new at it, you probably do it all the time. A broken back or a crushed skull will result in a twitching, jumpy mouse that the snake will think as live, but will not be functioning well enough to bite the snake.

2) If you don't want to do a CD, then "twirl" the mouse/rat. They get surprisingly dizzy very easily. Pick them up by the tail and twirl them either by spinning them or just twirling your thumb and forefinger for a bit. Get them good and dizzy and dump them in with the BP, it'll take them a minute to orient themselves and it may be enough time for the snake to grab them before they're able to respond.

Just some ideas...

It is unnessary and cruel to break limbs of prey, or twirl them to make them dizzy.

Either feed live responsibly without torturing the prey item, or stick to f/t.

I feed live exclusively. In over 15K live feedings, I've never ever incapacitated the prey prior to feeding them off. It's simply not necessary. :mad:

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

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Originally Posted by OmNomNom

Uh....yeah that's not....not very kind. Plus, it's not the limbs you have to worry about, it's the teeth. There are two things I would suggest for lives if you're really worried (which is legitimate) about the rodent hurting the snake.

1) Do a "sloppy" cervical dislocation. It's easier than it sounds, if you're new at it, you probably do it all the time. A broken back or a crushed skull will result in a twitching, jumpy mouse that the snake will think as live, but will not be functioning well enough to bite the snake.

2) If you don't want to do a CD, then "twirl" the mouse/rat. They get surprisingly dizzy very easily. Pick them up by the tail and twirl them either by spinning them or just twirling your thumb and forefinger for a bit. Get them good and dizzy and dump them in with the BP, it'll take them a minute to orient themselves and it may be enough time for the snake to grab them before they're able to respond.

Just some ideas...

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Reading your post just cracked me up, lol. You're right its not very kind at all. I just couldn't help but notice the mice will scratch like crazy when she curls up on them. Like the really fast, maniacal scratching to try and break free. And then I noticed a little scratch on the top of her the following week, and I'm betting that it was the damn mouse!! I know its cruel...but the damn mouse is going to die anyways and if by some chance that mouse were to hurt her I know I would regret not flailing that little son of a butch in a plastic bag for 20 minutes.

I'll look into the CD..lol, might just stick with the plastic bag. That's not too inhumane anyways.

@Raber Your statistics encourage me to treat the mice better. Lol. I will take this into account!!

I agree with Robin; the only time a mouse is actually going to damage a snake is if it's left in overnight to chew on the snake. If you supervise feedings there's no serious risk. Worst case scenario, the mouse gives the snake a little nibble and you remove it. No harm done. Or the snake grabs the mouse too far down and the mouse turns around and bites it for a few seconds. Snakes are tough; a tiny nip or scratch from a mouse (which is in and of itself uncommon) isn't going to cause a problem. This is what snakes are built to do; as long as you don't lock them up in a confined space with a mouse that they're not going to eat, they can take care of themselves.