8 Ball Pythons - Feeding Lessons

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Originally Posted by btrout56

Where can I get some of those tongs or clippers you use to feed the rats with...?

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Pet stores, online reptile supply dealers like Reptile Basics.

NICEEE video, I loved it, i just hold the mouse by the tip of the tail and wiggle it in front of my snake usually and she nails it.

great video!!! it just keeps getting better the more i watch it

I fed my new BP for the first time today and he took f/t with no problem (he had been eating live)...and I wouldn't have let it thaw next to the tank if I hadn't seen this video!

Couple comments.

You show a bin full of live rats moving around. Then you (presumably) feed stunned or pre-killed without saying they're stunned or pre-killed. I found this misleading as I tried to pick up a couple mice with tongs and hurt them doing it, trying to copy your technique. Now I feel bad about needlessly causing them pain.

The other thing is you contradict yourself. At the beginning of the video you say you love feeding your snakes. But at the end you say you hate feeding your snakes. Can't have it both ways.

OK so guy above me is very confused. Most animals have an excess of skin above their neck (the nape) and are almost always carried by their mothers by this flap of skin. Also he said he loved feeding the snakes, just not the killing of the rats. He can totally have it both ways.

Also I have a question. I plan on feeding f/t mice to my young ball python and was wondering how exactly to feed him. Do I need to use tongs like the video? Do I just drop the mouse in the cage for my snake to find? I know it's a very basic question but feeding time is approaching and I'm nervous.

I'm not a dude, dude.

And I did pick up the mice by the skin on the back of the neck and boy did they squeal and squirm. I went back and rewatched the video, and you can see the rats hanging limply. It is deceptive as it does show a bin full of live rats moving around. The shots of the snakes striking are quick so I had to watch closely to see what the rats were doing -- which was hanging there lifelessly.

I also got the impression he's not that concerned over feeding live rats given his enthusiastic affirmation of how he loves to feed his snakes but admitted what he did to assuage those who are quite vocally averse to live feeding.

As for feeding, do what works. I have 3 snakes that strike at tongs like there's no tomorrow. My newest BP still is settling in, he's struck and hit, struck and missed, and now totally ignores the tongs so I leave the prey at his doorstep. And my fifth snake has taken to refusing f/t so he's now getting live (that's easy, just drop it in).

ok when i hold mice but the extra skin by their neck it dosent hurt them, the squealing is fear because their natural predators will grab them from above like that

Do those work with f/t to? Whats the best way to sent the room with a thawed mouse.


Leave it near the cage while it thaws and warm it with a hair dryer near the cage?

Thanks! I used what I learned from your video to feed my bps this past weekend. I was able to get them both to eat on the first try with F/T mice!

I used a set of tongs and held the F/T mice by the tip of the tail. The tongs allowed me to put the mouse virtually in the snake's face. I moved the mouse around to get the snake to think that it was alive and then slowly dangled the mouse closer to the snake. Once it was in range...BAM! I got both snakes to take multiple F/T mice in one feeding this way.

It deifinitely works for F/T. Good luck!