Feeding pre-killed mice and rats

another thing some of you may try that have shy or not so good feeders , if you arent useing some sort of tongs or hemos I suggest a set atleast in the 12 inch range haveing the feeder rodent so close to your hand can be a bit confuseing to some snakes and they feel a bit intimidated after all your 98.6 degrees over 100 pounds and smell like a rat :D

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The only way you will get any snake to strike a dead rodent is to pretend that it is still alive.

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Well.....Not 100% true, but close.

With my ball Cheetah all I have to do is drop it in the tank. He can even be in his hide and I can put the p/k rat on the other side of the tank and come back later and it is gone. The times that I have watched, he does strike at it when it is laying there, but just not with as much authority. He has allways been this way since I have had him. With Monty Joe, it's a whole different story. Sometimes even the rat dance dosent work with him.

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Originally Posted by gozetec02

I hope you guys use tongs or hemastats or something. Holding a rat in your hand and waiting for your ball python to take it can lead to stupid feeding error (SFE). The only way you will get any snake to strike a dead rodent is to pretend that it is still alive. A ball python's feeding response requires certain things, 1) The rodent must me warm enough to simulate a live mouse. You either thaw one out or you kill a fresh one. If you dont use tongs or hemastats then the snake will confuse your heat with the rodent's, Ball pythons have heat sensing pits at the front of their upper lip. 2) Smell. Perhaps one of the ball pythons most keen sense they can track a rodent a long ways by tasting the air. 3) Last but not least, movement. When the first two requirements are met they are waiting for the animal to move and if you just lay the carcas in the tank they will never strike at it. Lots of people are discourged about using fresh killed because they say they put the rodent in and the snake just sniffs it and passes it over and might even crawl over it.

Without all three key components a ball python will not eat a fresh killed or thawed rodent.

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Not always true in my experience. I have three bp's now and all of them are have fed on pre-killed only. I have never once had to do the mouse dance. I open up the box, drop the dead rat in, and wait for them to eat it. I might have to wait a couple of hours for them to get the idea, but i've never had to do the dance. Two of them even strike and coil around the rat. Its all about what works for you and your snake. Every owner and every bp is different.

I used to have to do the dance with most of mine (not Bo, too scary for him), but they're all drop-in feeders now. It didn't take Hanover and Sir 10 seconds each to start swallowing their mice last night.

Just grab them by the tails and throw them really hard against the ground. If done right, they hit the floor perfectly flat which knocks them dead in an instant.

I had to feed Ruby a live gerbil to break her from a feed strike due to a former owner (too much stress, and she was losing weight; I didn't want to forcefeed unless it was an absolute last resort) but I buy my feeders from a Jack's Aquarium or a local pet store, and they'll p/k my feeders for me. Ruby has never taken f/t once since I've had her, she'll give me the same "You think I'll eat that junk?" look that others have described. I also try to preserve as much of the natural warmth as I can, and take home some of the soiled bedding from the cage to scent further any food that she doesn't have interest in.
RE: the ruler thing, the idea is to use the ruler to hold the head, then pull the tail and separate the spinal column. In my opinion, unless you *really* know what you're doing, this is a pretty blunt and painful way to p/k a feeder. The guys at the pet store usually just whack them hard against the wall or table, or if there's a CO chamber set up I'll stick around a little bit and just have them use that.

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Originally Posted by Brandon.O

yeah this last feeding i accidentally dropped the mouse in the feeding tank and it was sitting there for a few seconds laying perfectly still and he still struck and ate it.

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Yeah, one time I accidentally dropped the rat and he actually struck at it in the air before it hit the ground. It was awesome!!

And I've never had to do a mousey dance either. Norbert strikes within seconds of seeing/smelling his prey.

whoa, so he caught it in mid air?! that must have been SWEET!

Yeah, it was awesome, it happened so quick I barely saw it. I was holding it fairly close to him before I dropped it, and I think the movement of the rat falling caused him to just go after it.

Wow, i could never kill a mouse or a rat... haha i'd feel way too bad and it would freak me out. Whacking a mouse's head against a table? Goodness.... i just couldn't do it. i feed Pandora f/t adult sized mice. If i do move up to rats eventually, i definately won't be pre killing them. She eats f/t just fine, thank goodness. 10 mice for 12 bucks at my pet store. :)

edit that.... by me saying i wont be pre killing them, i mean some one ELSE will kill them for me. My dad or some one... i'd never feed her live mice/rats