Finally Fed :)

Hey there guys I'm a long time lurker but first time poster. I recently bought a baby female Normal. I had tried to feed her last tuesday but she just wasnt interested in the frozen mouse I bought. So today I went and bought a live mouse to try that out. When I offered it out to her on the tongs she seemed a little scared of it. Being as it was a really small mouse I didnt think it would pose any threat to her. So I just put the mouse on the opposite end of the cage and let her stalk it. I'm happy that she ate but I'm wondering if that's a good way to go about this. Will she be in danger later on if I continue to do this?

Did you watch all this or did you just walk away? First one's good, second one's bad.

Any food item with teeth is a threat because if the snake is not interested and you're not around to stop it, it will chew on your snake and she will do nothing.

As long as you supervise, there's nothing wrong with feeding live.

While I didn't watch the whole thing I had it my peripheral vision to track the movements. But I did watch the last 5 minutes or so. Was very interesting to see the circle of life in action.

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Originally Posted by DMeis

While I didn't watch the whole thing I had it my peripheral vision to track the movements. But I did watch the last 5 minutes or so. Was very interesting to see the circle of life in action.

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I agree that it is amazing to see. But you really do need to watch closely. While accidents rarely happen, they will happen even less if you are paying close attention and have those tongs ready to pull the mouse back out.

Alright thank you, I'll do that for next time. In the mean time I managed to find some of the pictures of her:
http://i310.photobucket.com/albums/k...s_2008/BP2.jpg
http://i310.photobucket.com/albums/k...s_2008/BP1.jpg

Can you post a picture of her next to a dollar bill or something? She looks really tiny! It's not a bad thing. I just want to see how tiny.

I recommend you get a second, identical hide so she can thermoregulate and still feel as safe and secure as possible. Read the caresheet thoroughly if you haven't.

This is pretty unrelated, but I really feel like I should ask what you're measuring your temps with (I see nothing).

I can in the future once she's done digesting. If I get a second hide ill buy two smaller ones as the 10 gallon is pretty small. The picture is angled down, just above there's a Thermometer.

Your thermometers should be at the snakes level, not at the top of the tank. Also, they should be digital. Those round gauges are useless.

To be perfectly honest, there is nothing wrong with leaving a prey item in with a snake unattended for short periods of time. Less then 30 minutes will be fine.

Serious feeding injuries happen when a feeder has been left alone with a snake for LONG periods of time, overnight or for days. Almost all the breeders who feed live just drop the feeder in and check on them again in 30 minutes. If it hasn't eaten then the feeder comes out.

Oh ok thank you. I'll move it then when I give her some fresh water and ill pick up a digital on the weekend.

Small and crowded is good. Though I suppose smaller hides would fit her better.

I was unsure to answer about how you just watched out of the corner of your eye. The two opinions above are both very valid for the reasons they state, but I think that I would prefer to be on the cautious side. I think I once heard of rat running right up and chomping down on the snakes neck, severing it's spinal cord and killing it. Obviously an exceptional case, but I wouldn't trust them alone with my snake.

If the thing about the rat was true then whether you were watching or not, there would be nothing you could do. If it got a good hold, tearing it off would just do more damage.

Hey just a heads up for you on your substrate, that fir bark bedding is craptastic, it doesnt hold humidity and it is hard and chunky, terrible stuff for a ball python. I highly reccomend you go get some cypress mulch and spray it down once and awhile to keep the humidity around 50-60%. Cypress mulch is very good for ball pythons because it holds water well and is very mold resistant. I really want to stress to you how terrible that bark stuff your using is, ditch it fast...

On the other hand, those hides of yours are great! I love that brand of hide, they make bigger sizes that you can get as the snake grows.

Also I reccomend trying to get the snake started on frozen/thawed mice, its nice because you can store a ton of frozen rodents for long periods of time, that way you dont have to make a trip to the pet store every 4-5 days to get a live rodent. Not only that live mice and rats especially can bite the snake even while the snake is contricting them, I have seen it happen, just watch youtube if you need proof. In the wild snakes can be injured and killed by their prey more often than you would think possible, nature is brutal and the predator does not always win. Wild caught snakes usually have a number of scars to prove it. Frozen is just a way more convenient way to go about feeding the snake. This is all my opinion, but I work with hundreds of snakes a week, ( I volunteer at a reptile shelter ), and we always feed frozen if the snake is willing to take it. Why chance injuring your beautiful ball python?

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

If the thing about the rat was true then whether you were watching or not, there would be nothing you could do. If it got a good hold, tearing it off would just do more damage.

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That was kinda the point. Well, more like, it could start chewing on your snake right away, or it could wait that 30 minutes, but would you want to give it that 30 minutes to chew on your snake if it does start right away?

I'm not fighting. That's just how I see it.

And he may be fine with the reptibark. Let him see if he has humidity issues before condemning his substrate.

In my personal opinion reptibark is trash, its all hard and abrasive with sharp edges and stuff, would you want to sleep and try to burrow in that stuff?

That stuff is for landscaping not for reptiles...

Even if you could maintain proper humidity on it, which I think would be pretty difficult, it could lead to problems from abrasion and if they somehow managed to ingest a peice of that bark it would be instant bowel impaction.

Some people may think it is ok, but I am only telling you this because I love snakes and dont want your awesome pet to develop any problems from this stuff. I do alot of volunteer work with reptiles and have a large number of my own, I am not saying any of this to be pushy, its just that in my semi-professional opinion cypress mulch is a hugely superior substrate to use on your ball python, and the few bucks for the cypress mulch could save you a huge headache and vet bill later down the road...

I am psyched to see you getting into one of the coolest possible hobbies anyone could have, herping of course! And hope that your snake thrives under your care!

I'm pretty sure lots of people here use it without any problems. And skiploader made a thread in the general herp section (I think) and mentioned (and linked to) a thread on another forum in which someone's ball passed a piece of repti-bark the size of it's food without any apparent discomfort. The main point of the thread was to ask for people to report any and all firsthand impaction incidents and so far there are none. There is no reason to worry.