Snake not eating live rat cage issue...

Okay I know from what I have read on hear that I'm probably about to get a lot of crap from some people but hopefully I will also receive some wisdom from wise and experienced BP owners.

Last night I put a live rat in my BP's cage to feed her. Normally I don't feed her in her cage but I hadn't fed her for a while and the last time I fed her (right before I left for 3 weeks on Christmas Break) she tried to tag me so I fed her in her cage instead of moving her to a box like I usually do for feeding. So I planned on feeding her in her cage again this time and then after a couple days start working up the handling again so that I wouldn't have that problem with her again.

Well except I now have another problem after i put the rat in and watched her for awhile she still hadn't eaten it, which I wasn't worried about because sometimes she takes a few minutes. Well I left the room for a little while and when I came back I didn't see the rat so I figures she ate it.

When I woke up this morning the rat was still alive and had started making a nest in her cool hide. I know I need to take the rat out but how do I go about doing that without getting tagged by my BP or bitten by the rat since it is scared it will be running away from me in the cage?

PS if there is a better section for this post I would love if an Admin would move it there.

If the rat is in the cool hide, scoop it up carefully in the hide, and put the rat in it's cage, or whatever you are using. The rat bite will hurt worse than the snake bite ever will. Your snake is not interested in the rat, or he would have eaten it before, so taking it out should not be that bad.

First, I would suggest getting the rat out ASAP. Remember it has been awhile since the rat ate and an uninterested BP is a source of protien.
If you are afraid of getting bit put some gloves on or something, grab it with some tongs, or trap it with a glass, or something. Put the rat in a box or tupperware container with some holes poked in it and a little substrate in it until you figure out what you want to do with it. Hopefully someone with experience in keeping rats will come in and advise you from there...

Hi,

Best advice I can think of is to put on a nice thick pair of gloves and just reach in and remove the rat. A bite from a BP really isn't all that bad - even a feeding strike and coil will probably hurt far less than a rat bite. Try and hold the rat by the base of the tail - if you grab the end of the tail there is a chance you could strip the skin off the tail.

I'll try and avoid giving you a load of crap. :P

I do always check after half an hour or so that the snake actually ate - and I feed F/T. It's just a good habit to get into and leaving it half an hour generally means I don't blunder into the middle of a feeding and put them off.

How long are you pre-scenting the room before the feeding?


dr del

If you are feeding live, I would suggest ALWAYS monitor the rat and snake, I would never leave them alone unsupervised. A rat can do some major damage to a snake.

Great topic. I've had this problem before too. Likely the snake will not strike you if he won't even strike the rat.

I have a huge tub available for just such a situation. I pull the tub while covering the top and place the whole thing in the larger tub. Then the rat can't jump out (sides too high) while I grab the snake. Once the snake is safe I deal with the excited rat.

Like Jen mentioned if the snake is not striking at the rat it shouldn't strike at you. I do one of two things, I either

1- remove snake put her another tub then work on rat, if you are worried about getting bite this is where a snake hook or leather glover come in handy. Once again in my experience if the snake isnt going for the rat she aint going for me either so I just grabbed her. IMO they do sense fear so if your scared she will be two, if you are calm and in control she should be fine. Snake hooks can keep her calmer as she wont sense a living thing grabbing her.


2- I cover snake in her hide with opening against the side of enclosure so she doent see whats going on and remove rat. I usually grab them by the tail(rat) and have the tub or whatever you will put rat it right next to you to drop her in. Rarely do rats bite but they can be fast so have both hands ready. If you are worried she will get away or bite get a small tub with lid and dropped it over her and scoop her up from the bottom with the lid to keep her secured and dropped her into the tub you have right there waiting.

I remove live rats that are refused all the time. Its not as bad as you think, unless your a rat, LOL

How old is your snake? It could be that the rat scared the snake....BP's sometimes can be very nervous eaters and if the rat was going up to the snake in the snakes face...it might have intimidated the snake. Continue trying to feed in the enclosure as this is less stressful for the snakes. When I first started off ...I too fed in another enclosure. It was a pain in the butt...and it was hit or miss as the snake was stressed.

Don't ever leave the rat unattended with the snake. It can lead to a dead snake or a severly disfigured snake. Though I have heard rats bite less than mice. Also your snake is probably biting at you because she is hungry and you smelled like a rodent. Get her on a feed schedule...like once every 7 days. You also might want to try pre-killing the rat...so that it is not in her face too much. Get some tongs grab it by the scruff of the neck and make it twitch. After the snake coils the rat....tug the rats tail one time for effect.

Also how long have you fed rats???? Have you tried mice?

One other thing...it is natural for BP's to hunt at night so make sure that it is quite in the room and the lights are out...or at least it is dark. That may help as well.

I wouldn't give you a hard time....everyone is learning something. I hope that I have helped you a little!

You could put something in front of the ball, like a piece of cardboard, and then pick the rat up. Another option is long hemostats, which is what I use. Good luck.

Thanks for all your replies everyone I actually didn't wait for the replies I just took the rat out and took this particular one back. I waited a week and tried again. Once again she didn't go for the rat (she is almost 4 years old by the way I have had her for almost a year) so after a while I took it out waited a day and fed it. I thought that maybe she was more comfortable being fed out of the cage because she always had been (when I adopted her she was eating rats has always eaten live, I was told when I adopted her F/T had been tried several times and never worked, I have tried mice and she was never interested) when I went to take her out of the cage she seemed like she might strike me (I have had her long enough to notice when she is acting a little differently) so I decided to try putting the rat in her cage again and she ate it right away!

PS Sorry for such a long response

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Originally Posted by seclark

Okay I know from what I have read on hear that I'm probably about to get a lot of crap from some people but hopefully I will also receive some wisdom from wise and experienced BP owners. You may or may not consider this "crap", however, I think you realize you have a problem here.

Last night I put a live rat in my BP's cage to feed her. Normally I don't feed her in her cage but I hadn't fed her for a while and the last time I fed her (right before I left for 3 weeks on Christmas Break) she tried to tag me so I fed her in her cage instead of moving her to a box like I usually do for feeding. So I planned on feeding her in her cage again this time and then after a couple days start working up the handling again so that I wouldn't have that problem with her again. If the last time you fed her was around 12/25/09 it's been well over a month. In that time was anyone checked and changed water or bedding or kept her humidity up? It doesn't sound like it. I don't mean to sound unfriendly but your Ball Python needs a lot more care than that. Not handling her will make her more apt to strike when messed with. Keeping her in a cage without adequate humidity, water, temp or dirty will certainly keep her stressed and more apt to strike at you.

Well except I now have another problem after i put the rat in and watched her for awhile she still hadn't eaten it, which I wasn't worried about because sometimes she takes a few minutes. Well I left the room for a little while and when I came back I didn't see the rat so I figures she ate it. You should never ever leave a feeder item in a Ball Python cage, alive if there is ANY risk for it injuring your python. This link is to a picture of what can happen to your ball python when you leave a prey item in it's cage and leave. I warn you it is extremely graphic. http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/b/jbuncc/d...ed%20live1.JPG

When I woke up this morning the rat was still alive and had started making a nest in her cool hide. I know I need to take the rat out but how do I go about doing that without getting tagged by my BP or bitten by the rat since it is scared it will be running away from me in the cage? It sounds to me like you have developed a pretty good fear of your Ball Python which is going to make it very hard for you to care for it in the way that it needs to be cared for. I would strongly suggest that you get her to a reptile rescue or a keeper that is not afraid to deal with her and care for her the way she needs to be cared for.

PS if there is a better section for this post I would love if an Admin would move it there.

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I hope that you will consider what is best for this animal.

Someone pointed out the date on the first op post and I guess I didn't see that. I hope that you have worked out your problems and again, I don't wish to seem unfriendly but it is important to understand that ball pythons need more care than is realized. They need certain things in order to be healthy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iCandiBallPythons

If you are feeding live, I would suggest ALWAYS monitor the rat and snake, I would never leave them alone unsupervised. A rat can do some major damage to a snake.

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exactly right I am very surprised anyone would leave a live rat with any snake at all its just plain dangerous to the snake. :(

I am not going to criticize but please be more careful feeding live. I am not a fan of feeding live but I that's personal preference, but please listen to the people on here who do so and do so often they will keep you right and have tons of experience feeding live.

On the other hand it may be a better option for you to feed frozen thawed to eliminate any such worries you currently have about feeding live.

I don't want to come across harsh and hope I am not but you really need to do some research and afford plenty of care if feeding live.

I will leave the live feeders to give you the info you definitely need.

At least your asking the questions which will enable you to learn and reduce or eliminate future problems. You need to get rid of any fear you have about your snake biting you if you cant then your snake is not going to do well in all honesty. Use gloves as has been suggested it will enable you to gain more confidence.

Best of luck and glad your snake was not injured.

I think everyone should try and plan on feeding F/T if they can. Its certainly the safest and easiest way to feed. The problem of course, is that your snake doesn't care about your plan and some will not eat F/T consistently. I have been feeding live for a while now and my BP is very finicky. I am very careful not to disturb her while she is eating or after. On the other hand if I do not see the tail slide down her throat I would take everything out of her cage to ensure that the rodent was indeed in her stomach. I would rather risk a regurge than risk injury more than necessary. As for getting bitten by your BP. Get over it. Seriously compared to dogs and cats BP are pet rocks. If you are that nervous about getting bit then put on some gloves. Do not leave your snake in potential peril when a pair of gloves will fix the problem. It sounds like you are trying to learn your snakes ways and be a good pet owner but we all have seen the pics of rodent bites if not with our own eyes. Leaving an adult rodent alone with a snake overnight is a big mistake.

After writing what I did I have no credibility and everyone who read it must think that I am not fit to own a bp. However after reading my post things did not happen exactly as someone reading them might guess. I do know how to properly care for my bp and although I was wrong to leave a rat in there that long. I did watch them for quite some time and was checking up on them every few mins afterwards. I should have taken the rat out sooner though. For those of you who constantly push F/T if that is for other readers great, if it is meant for me then you should have read everything. If I got another bp I would go F/T for sure, but I adopted this one and was told when I adopted it by someone who rehabilitates that they tried to get her on F/T but she was 3 years old and had been fed live all her life.

If you are going to tell someone that they should give their animal to a reptile recovery person. I would hope you would talk to that person first and find out if they just messed up or are truly ignorant and don't care about the animal.

I am sorry to everyone that I offended and hurt because I exposed my snake to a rat for to long don't worry I will not be posting again because I will never have this issue again. Oh and I was monitoring her temp and humidity and changing her water and cleaning her cage frequently. Yes I shouldn't have gone that long without holding her and I'm sad I missed out on that time with my snake I am now working on getting her used to being held again.

I was not afraid of being bit I just wanted to keep a no bite record with her but I took the rat out anyway because her health is more important than that.

Good thread. Thank you all for being so informative!! :D