about to make the dreadful switch :tears:

I always feed live and have only once had a problem with the snake getting bit and it was partially my own fault. I placed the rat too close to the snake in the enclosure, but it wasn't near his head.

As long as you are smart about feedin live by prescenting, and placing the rat on the opposite end of the enclosure you should be able to do it pretty safely. I feed in a 40qt tub and usually I take the cool hide out to open up a little more space for the snake to work with.

If you are nervous about the first time, start with a small meal to build up the snakes confidence.

The other idea that I have had (but never tried) is that you could put the rat in a pillowcase and spin it around a bunch. Now you have a disoriented rat (but still live). That would be an easy way to do the switch. Do a few disoriented rats then when your snake is a pro at eating those you could stop spinning em. Again this has not been tested by myself but it seems like a good idea to me.

spinngin the rat ... sounds like fun lol ... ill have to give it a try !

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Originally Posted by SnM_Man

spinngin the rat ... sounds like fun lol ... ill have to give it a try !

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-Blinks a couple times.- I got in trouble the last time I made an off-the-color comment like that.

Anyways, I'd first try pre-scenting the room. Mayhap you could hit up a reputable pet store around your area, pick up some of their shavings from their rat/mice bin, and scent the room for half-an-hour and then try your f/t off of the tongs. Take it in small steps. You're obviously head shy about feeding live, so why not try and stay as far away from that as possible.

I have a little hypo female who came to me and had been eating f/t.

She refused all f/t from after about the third feeding. She lost a lot of weight. I put a live mouse in with her (about 21g). Wham!!! She ate it.

She now always gets live mice and they are about 32g (hypo weighs 550g now). She took a multiples once or twice, but really only takes one mouse at one feeding. To compensate, I feed her every 5 or 6 days depending on the gram weight of the mouse. She (the snake) continues to gain weight.

I always pre-scent, I feed her in her enclosure, she has never been bitten and I doubt a mouse that size could do much harm.

That's the story of my little hypo girl :P

Hi,

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Originally Posted by skaplan86

The other idea that I have had (but never tried) is that you could put the rat in a pillowcase and spin it around a bunch. Now you have a disoriented rat (but still live). That would be an easy way to do the switch. Do a few disoriented rats then when your snake is a pro at eating those you could stop spinning em. Again this has not been tested by myself but it seems like a good idea to me.

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Sounds like a perfect way to gaurantee your prey item is frightened and more likely to bite to me. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by SnM_Man

spinngin the rat ... sounds like fun lol ... ill have to give it a try !

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I really wouldn't.


dr del

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Originally Posted by SnM_Man

how can u condone feedin in the tank ??... if u have loose substrate u run the risk of impaction

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I feed all of mine in their enclosure - on any kind of bedding, used to be aspen. I've fed ball pythons at NERD on cypress bedding. There is no one in the wild making sure that snakes aren't consuming leaf litter and twigs. They are perfectly adapted for ingesting small amounts of substrate with no negative effects.

While I've heard the warnings of impaction, I've never personally heard of anyone report that their ball python became impacted from ingesting substrate.

Their stomach's break down bones, toenails, teeth, fur - a little bit of substrate will also be broken down as well.

I'm the opposite of you though, I don't have freezer space to keep a bunch of frozen, so I've always fed live. Never had any significant issue with it, and I've fed off over 4000 prey items since I've been keeping ball pythons.

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Originally Posted by SnM_Man

spinngin the rat ... sounds like fun lol ... ill have to give it a try !

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Please don't - and it's not fun. There's absolutely no reason to. I don't stun or abuse the prey in any way. A calm prey item is much better than a fearful one.

I have a couple that were trouble. My one female was a good f/t rat feeder but when i bought her the move stressed her enough that she went off food. So I had to switch her to mice. She seemed to like them more. Once she was feeding consistantly i put her back onn rats, starting with a smller rat to begin with then moved her back to her usuall meduim f/t rats. Another female I bought was on f/t baby rabbits. She wanted nothing to do with anythinf ekse until I offered her live mice,(live rats are illigal here) she is now feeding better each time, accepting more mice with each feeding. I will eventually offer her f/t mice and once consistant in them I will offer the f/t rats. I do put live in with her and there has never been a problem. If worried about the mouse chewing on the snake, it is most likely hungry so I will leave a piece of cat or dog kibble in the cage too and the mouse would much rather chew on that.

Like I have said before, I am still new to the world of snakes, and am learning more every day.

That said, when we first got our ball she refused to eat F/T, and would not touch a stunned prey. If there were tongues anywhere near the prey she would completely ignore it. So we tried live, and she had a very very lively feeding response. So I kind of came to a conclusion (and please do not take this as a slight against anyone who does F/T or stunned prey).

As I understand it, snakes kind of have a weak immune system. So a wounded or dead animal in the wild would be more likely to carry disease. Yeah I know that we are all feeding clean prey, but the snakes do not know that, so evolution has taught them that alive is good, wounded is ok because it expends less energy to get its meal, and dead could be bad.

I don’t know much about how well snakes smell, but we are still learning a lot about exactly what other kinds of animals can tell by their sense of smell. As decomposition starts the moment an animal dies, it would not be unreasonable to theorize that a snake can tell the difference between a live rodent, and one that is dead.

I don’t know if I am correct, but it makes sense to me.

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Originally Posted by Kryptonian

If worried about the mouse chewing on the snake, it is most likely hungry so I will leave a piece of cat or dog kibble in the cage too and the mouse would much rather chew on that.

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im fairly new to BP husbandry aswell ... and after seeing some pics of half eaten snakes ... i will never ever leave a live prey in a cage unsupervised ... and also to note that u should feed ur live mice/rats cat or dog food, it contain a food colouring agent that is poisonous ... i forget the name of it but im sure someone else does.