What should i do?

hi. this is the one out of many live feeding issues for my snakes... today while feeding, a mouse bit the eye of my baby ball, zeus. i saw there was some mysterious wet stuff that appeared to be comming out of his eyes. i called my herp vet to get him in. he said that there is not much that they can do, :( i am now stopping live feeding and going to pre killed. BUT, they WILL NOT take non moving. i have tried many times, no susses. how can i humanely kill the mouse but keep it twitching?? :confused: i do not like killing that much, and i dont have luck from frozen.

That sucks about your baby.... I have a set of kitchen tongs i grab em by the head with them and break their neck..... but i feed rats dont know you may decapitate mic

I would reccomend getting some good long feeding tongs. When you grab the prey, get it by the scruff of the neck, while still live. This will work best if the mouse was looking straight at the tongs. Try to offer it butt first, and keep the teeth away from the snake. You can hold it until you know it is dead, or is on no danger of harming the snake.

I am sorry to hear about you snake's eye. Let us know how it does. Get well soon.:please:

alot of videos I see the owner is using tongs and holding the mouse by the back of the neck. Most of the strikes are headshots.
Sorry to hear about what happened. Hopefully when I get my pastel girl in spring she will eat pre killed mice. I think everyone should feed pre killed or F/T just so this doesn't happen.

I feed live and we stun them prior to feeding. Mice do bite....I got bit the other day and it was a pretty nasty little bite that bled allot.

Ugh....this always starts arguements here but we whack them on the head to stun them prior to feeding. I then take long feeding tongs and hold them for the snakes. I do not let them run loose and the snake hunt them. I did read in one of my care books that like the other poster stated...grab them by the scruff of the neck and offer it like that. With tongs of course. This way if you pre-kill you can still make it move. The book also stated after the snake has it give a tug of the tail to make it more realistic. So far stunning them has worked for me. I have to put a disclaimer in here though. It is not the easiest thing to do. I cannot hand pic my feeders...I cannot look at them beforehand. I just have to get them and take care of business. My supplier of feeders knows what I need I walk in and tell her the size and it is done.


I have heard of ppl putting them in a co2 chamber and pre-killing them. You could do that and then try the tong trick.

By the way...If I were you....get a second opinion on the eye thing. I would think they would want to look at it and that there is some kind of drops that they could put in at least to prevent infection. But that could just be me too. There is a guy on here called Critter Vet....shoot him an email. ??

step 1 grab mouse by tail thwack that mouse off the side of something solid throw mouse in enclosure preferably in tub and twitch that mouse will twitch like there is no tomorrow should get great feeding response simple 1 step process

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gerbster1

step 1 grab mouse by tail thwack that mouse off the side of something solid throw mouse in enclosure preferably in tub and twitch that mouse will twitch like there is no tomorrow should get great feeding response simple 1 step process

---

ditto!

oh and im sorry to hear about the eye of your snake. and if it isnt too much to ask would we be able to get some pics?

You wouldn't think this, but Rats don't usually bite. In my experience if you're feeding live, feed rats.

Sorry to hear the news,
Jim Smith

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by j_h_smith

You wouldn't think this, but Rats don't usually bite. In my experience if you're feeding live, feed rats.

Sorry to hear the news,
Jim Smith

---

I always heard about this, and now I have experience to back it up. Micron was bitten by a mouse, I didn't even see it til it was healed up. I've had him on rats for a few feedings. This past feeding the rats mouth was open and was 100% able to chomp down on Micron... But he didn't. Snickets coils terrible and should have been bitten by now, but she hasn't. I like rats much more than mice, feeding wise.

I am just going to have to get over my fear of introducing something new and try the rats. I have no idea why I am so nervous about it....call me the paranoid mama. lol

The hubby suggests it each week and Im like...noooooo not this week:rolleyes: Im such a baby!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BPelizabeth

I am just going to have to get over my fear of introducing something new and try the rats. I have no idea why I am so nervous about it....call me the paranoid mama. lol

The hubby suggests it each week and Im like...noooooo not this week:rolleyes: Im such a baby!!

---

Lol, I was the same way. When Snickets took the rat so willingly, I was so relieved.

I always feed my snakes fresh killed rodents. Ive never really had a problem feeding frozen thawed or fresh killed. Ive had ones that would only take rats over mice or gerbils over mice\rats. If it will only eat live try feed it by holding it with tongs and make aure the snake gets a good grip on it. If the mouth is exposed to the snakes body you can pull back the rodents mouth as the snake constricts it. Leaving the mouse hopeless of ever getting a bite off. This is the method i use for feeding live rodents and havent had a rodent bite a snake in years. I made the mistake of leaving a live rat in with my 8 foot burm when i was around 12 years old and the snake was bitten behind the head and passed away a week later. Ever since its been fresh killed,frozen thawed or live but i make sure they get a good bite. If they dont i use the method above to avoid any injurys.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by j_h_smith

You wouldn't think this, but Rats don't usually bite. In my experience if you're feeding live, feed rats.

Sorry to hear the news,
Jim Smith

---

same here everyone eats live and no problems

On the few occasions when I've hed to feed live mice, I break the neck. I just grip the mouse right behind the head with feeding tongs, grab the tail and pull, HARD.

The sound is not pleasant, and the mouse will twitch for several seconds after. So, if you have everything ready beforehand, that might work.

Otherwise, go with rats. A fuzzy rat is almost the same size as a young adult mouse, but is basically helpless. It does not have it's eyes open yet and I don't think it could harm the snake. Of course, if you are sensitive like me, it takes a little bit of stomach to go that route, but it comes down to what is best for your snake.

Gale

Ok...this Saturday...I am going to try rats...oye. Everyone say little prayers for me to be brave...lol. :rolleyes: As I am the biggest baby when it comes to my kids. I know I am totally over reacting...but.....

Do you guys pre-kill the rats?

By the way sorry to Hijack

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BPelizabeth

Ok...this Saturday...I am going to try rats...oye. Everyone say little prayers for me to be brave...lol. :rolleyes: As I am the biggest baby when it comes to my kids. I know I am totally over reacting...but.....

Do you guys pre-kill the rats?

By the way sorry to Hijack

---

What size mouse were you using? You will probably be using pups, crawlers or small rats. Pups and crawlers couldn't bite to hurt if they wanted to. Small rats coould bite, but I've never seen it happen. I used to breed Dumeril Boas and the big females took jumbo rats. When I couldn't get frozen and had to feed live, I didn't pre kill and my Dumerils woould never get biten. Although if you've ever seen a Dumeril feed, some would be amazed how fast a rat can be eaten.

You can pre kill if you'd like but I feed live and don't.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

I feed F/T to mine. I use a pair of 18" hemostats and grab them by the scruff of the neck. Sometimes I get a quick response which is awesome. When they don't take it immediately I "walk" the rat around the tub like a puppet. Make shuffling vibrations, have it run away from the snake, etc... to simulate a hunt. Aside from the female I have that hasn't eaten for me yet (Four refusals earned her some time in a 6qt tub to try and help her settle), the other three have eaten every frozen they were offered and then some.

To give some perspective though. Last night my strongest female feeder came out and missed her first strike, I think she make have hit the hemostats because she seemed a little hesitant. I left the rat in there for an hour. Came back, heated it up and offered it again. She showed interest but didn't take the song and dance. Left it in there for a couple hours and repeated the process. She hit it on the side, wrapped and started the swallowing process. I left her alone for maybe another 45 minutes before I went back to check if she got it down. She didn't but she tried hard enough that she skinned the side of the rat exposing the rib cage. Last try because she has tried to eat it a couple times, I heated it again and didn't the "walk" around and she got it by the headish and was able to get it down.

In some cases it can take patience and reading your snake. This process this time was lapsed over 6+ hours. I stuck with it and she stuck with it and everyone's happy. This morning she finished her shed too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by j_h_smith

What size mouse were you using? You will probably be using pups, crawlers or small rats. Pups and crawlers couldn't bite to hurt if they wanted to. Small rats coould bite, but I've never seen it happen. I used to breed Dumeril Boas and the big females took jumbo rats. When I couldn't get frozen and had to feed live, I didn't pre kill and my Dumerils woould never get biten. Although if you've ever seen a Dumeril feed, some would be amazed how fast a rat can be eaten.

You can pre kill if you'd like but I feed live and don't.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

---

Right now two of my snakes are taking one jumbo mouse every 7 days(and one of them looks at you like...ok...where is the next one). My little baby is taking two medium size adults every 7 days. What size rats do you suggest?

Small to medium should be fine. Use the girth rule. But, I would make the first rat a bit smaller than girth, and make it smell like a mouse first.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jenn

Small to medium should be fine. Use the girth rule. But, I would make the first rat a bit smaller than girth, and make it smell like a mouse first.

---

Good advice.

Jim Smith