High fives with the kids tonight!

Well,
I'm sure many have posted a thread like this. I'll set the stage for those unfamiliar with what my situation is.

Our 9 year old son wanted B-day present. He researched B/P's on his own, then started bothering us non stop. We were totally against it but he's had a great school year and competed well in wrestling and gymnastics. Did very well in school and he's an animal lover with a big heart.

I finally gave in and said maybe. Then I researched, got totally into it and we have a 10 month old female Royal.

Long story short she was fed live at the place we bought her. Last week I tried F/T and got a strike and then I lost the mouse from the tongs and she bailed on the attack and it was over.

1 week later and some counseling from Aaron The Serpent Merchant and,,,,,,


I went through his feeding F/T'd warmup process,,, BOOOM! Not only a strike, she devoured the damn thing. I just read the post of somebody asking if their snake looked fat and actually started to wonder if our girl could have had a 2nd mouse. I have the correct size BTW, but she had this thing down so fast I was wondering if I should have gone for 2.

It was our 1st time ever feeding her and her first F/T'd ever.

She drank water right after the meal and then settled back in. My wife is out on a girls retreat but the kids and I were thrilled.

I'm so stoked right now I wanna get a Red Tail and start tossing rabbits!!

Obviously it's not gonna happen but WOW!! This is a great feeling.

I hope people can forgive me for the over the top excitement, but 2 weeks ago I had little to no interest in snakes outside of the cool TV programs.

Cheers,

Gio

That's great to hear! Nothing quite like getting a new snake to eat for you for the first time!

Welcome to the addiction Gio! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gio

I'm so stoked right now I wanna get a Red Tail and start tossing rabbits!!

---

lol... this is what I call, snowflake turns into blizzard!

word of advice....

it gets quite addicting....!
started with one. i have nine now and still every day looking at the classifieds for more.

theyre just so awesome. i take it as my personal goal to convert practically everyone that comes in my house to snake lovers. :)

if you think you may be as compulsive as i am, stay away from links of morphs. thatll spin your imagination!

theyre wonderful pets and just so much different than a dog or a cat. i commend you for doing the research and giving it a chance. Welcome to the forums, im sure youll find plenty of useful advice here.

pics of the little guy/girl?????

And welcome to the addiction... So since you already have a normal gal, what 2 gene male will you be getting as a bf for her? Pastel lesser? Super cinny? Kingpin?:D

Congrats on the successful feeding, it really is such a cool thing to watch and a great feeling when everything goes as planned.

Awesome, I've yet to get my bp over to f/t but he/she is so stubborn -_- oh well. Oh and just because im very obsessive compulsive I must tell you, no red tail would get big enough for a rabbit, just medium rats :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jasonx

Oh and just because im very obsessive compulsive I must tell you, no red tail would get big enough for a rabbit, just medium rats :D

---

Your kidding right?

Do you really think that a 12 foot 50 pound snake can't eat a rabbit?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jasonx

Awesome, I've yet to get my bp over to f/t but he/she is so stubborn -_- oh well. Oh and just because im very obsessive compulsive I must tell you, no red tail would get big enough for a rabbit, just medium rats :D

---

Sorry I'm a bit ocd also lol
I'm with Aaron on this one! When I had red tails it wasn't unusual for me to feed my breeder females small rabbits or even day old piglets. Especialy prior to breeding season. Even my breeder males were hammering large rats.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gio

I'm so stoked right now I wanna get a Red Tail and start tossing rabbits!!

---

I can't stop laughing... :rofl::rofl:

A breeder near me said he gives a live small rabbit when his girls get stuck around the 1000 gram mark. Within a month all of his girls are at 1200 grams. Not entirely sure if this is a recommended practice but if a ball python can I'm sure a red tail can as well :).

Congrats on the first feeding!

Thanks everybody for the positive comments and great advice.

I do have some pics in the photo section called "Hunter the snake".

Ha!! As far as morphs,,,, I'm blown away by the colors and saw something called a coral (orange/pink with specs) if it was real, that was amazing.

I'm not a morph guy yet. I'm so into the natural biology of the snakes that I just like the normals simply because they are adapted to their natural surroundings with beautiful natural camo colors. Again no knock on morphs,,, this is just me talking.

As far as Red Tails and rabbits, I threw that in cause I'm so damn fired up.

The big ones sure seem capable of more than rats. At the place we got my son's Royal there was a Dumerils that was super thick too. I though it could eat rabbits or small dogs LOL.

As far as more snakes,,,??? Well first we have to get my wife to like Hunter. I think she secretly does. But we are both still very into protection dog training and have 1 male Presa Canario who is not even 3. and our old almost 11 year old pit bull who is a sweety and just wants love.

But yeah,,, if m son takes his snake when he's old enough to leave the house, I'm set on a python that maxes out at 7-8 ft or a Dumerils.

Our recent feeding was the coolest fricking thing I've seem in a long time!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

Your kidding right?

Do you really think that a 12 foot 50 pound snake can't eat a rabbit?

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by H.o.F.R

Sorry I'm a bit ocd also lol
I'm with Aaron on this one! When I had red tails it wasn't unusual for me to feed my breeder females small rabbits or even day old piglets. Especialy prior to breeding season. Even my breeder males were hammering large rats.

---

Sorry, I should have thought before I posted, I was referring to my boa, but I remembered that she isn't a true red tail, she's BCI not BCC. Oops, sorry guys.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HerpsForDerps

A breeder near me said he gives a live small rabbit when his girls get stuck around the 1000 gram mark. Within a month all of his girls are at 1200 grams. Not entirely sure if this is a recommended practice but if a ball python can I'm sure a red tail can as well :).

---

Rabbits to his ball pythons....what?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gio

The big ones sure seem capable of more than rats. At the place we got my son's Royal there was a Dumerils that was super thick too. I though it could eat rabbits or small dogs LOL.

But yeah,,, if m son takes his snake when he's old enough to leave the house, I'm set on a python that maxes out at 7-8 ft or a Dumerils.

---

Bigger boas can take buns no problem, but IMO they don't need rabbits, large rats are fine. Only the true giants need rabbits IMO (ie tics and burms, afrocks and annies, etc)

The guy me and my bf gets feeders from has a nice big (bf says overweight though...) Dum female and she's pretty cool. You can't go wrong with one of those or a nice boa for a first "large" snake :gj:

Congrats on the first feeding! Glad it went well!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gio

I'm not a morph guy yet. I'm so into the natural biology of the snakes that I just like the normals simply because they are adapted to their natural surroundings with beautiful natural camo colors. Again no knock on morphs,,, this is just me talking.

---

:gj: I'm with ya there.