Switching to rats.

Hi I have a 3-4 ft ball python, he wont let me get a good measurement 8(.

right now i have him eating 2 adult mice once a week. i skipped this weeks feed cause hes shedding (its not going good either).

anyways i am thinking he needs to move up to small rats, problem is he eats live. does anyone have any experience feeding live rats? they look pretty nasty with those teeth and claws.

but maybe hes fine with 2 mice a week? heres a picture of him any help is appreciated.

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...ormal_Vito.jpg

have you ever thought about switching to frozen thawed or pre-killed??? he could definately take a rat, but obviously with those teeth and claws, feeding a live rat is dangerous. :?

Have you tried feeding him f/t ? one of my ball python is 3-4ft and i just switched him over from live to f/t without any problems. he eats every week since the switch.

Hey, that's a nice picture. If you download the snake measurer (link in the downloads section of this site) you can use that picture and the software to get a measurement of your snake :)

Also, what's your humidity like? You can always build him a humid hide to help out with shedding, or give him a nice 10 min soak in some warm water to help with the shedding.

Well, everybody is probably going to ream me a new one for answering your question, but yes, I DO have experience feeding live rats to Ball Pythons.The truth of it is that it IS dangerous because rats are much larger than mice and they CAN inflict injuries to the snake. That much being said, I can tell you how I have gone about it. I have a seperate feeding box that I place the snake in and I simply have dropped the selected rat into the box. Usually it is all over with in a matter of seconds. I would say that it is probably not for the squeamish as rats scream their heads off when they are hit. I am making efforts to switch over to the F/T method of feeding as I do not want to chance a bad injury to one of my snakes - I have had a lot of people on this forum enlighten me on this subject. The truth though is that there probably ARE some Ball Pythons out there that will stick up their noses at anything but live. If that is the case with your snake I recommend that you just excercise caution in placing the rodent with your snake ( do it fast - Ball Pythons can get quite excited at feeding time and may strike out at you ) and NEVER leave the rodent unattended with your snake. If your snake shows no interest in the rodent within about 10 -15 minutes, remove the rodent.

good luck
EyeLashViper

rats scream their heads off?? eesh... i didnt even like the little *squeak* i got from the baby mouse i fed Apollo. :(

Yep , the rats do scream - and struggle , and squeek , until almost fully dead . A Suggestion ? I breed rats , and have only fed my 3 month old boy , rat kittens since I've gotten him . A 3-4 week old rat is not nearly as aggressive as an adult - in fact , mine usually cruise around with the snake checking everything out , before sitting almost in front of him to groom itself - some have even groomed the snake . Being so young , and never having seen a snake before , they are not afraid of him (or aggressive towards him ) in the least .
A rat kitten , even at only 3-4 weeks old , is still significantly larger than a grown mouse , and would make a much better meal - even if you still had to give two . And the bonus is that you don't need to worry as much about your snake being injured by it's dinner .

I fed Kitty one live rat, and I tried twice. The first time Kitty didn't take it and I was terrified that it would hurt him. I probaly didn't leave the rat in the long enough I was so worried about Kitty's safety. The second time I had waited until I knew Kitty was really hungry. I sat like a hawk, I was so scared for my snake. Kitty got him, he screamed, scratched, and fought as much as he could. It was pretty nerve wracking. I mean, the rats head is bigger than Kitty's head. I vowed, never again, whatever it took. The following feeding I switched to prekilled, then two after that I went to f/t. Now I am not scared and can leav kitty with his prey all night if he doesn't eat inicially. It is way better on my nerves. The fate of the rat really isn't what bothered me, not to sound cruel. I don't care about the rat screaming or any of that, I was in fear of my Kitty's well being, so I had to switch. I really isn't that hard to do. I just didn't feed Kitty as often so he was prett hungry and more ready to eat what was put infront of him

hey everyone,

thanks for the replies.
for those of you who suggested FT an PK, ive thought of doing this before but theres no way i could bring myself to "whack", a defensless little rat against a wall. even if it dies instantly.
and FT just seems sick ive heard way too many stories about exploding guts to try it. and i as well as my family dont like the idea of frozen rats in the freezer.
besides im a strong beliver in the fact that the "hunting" aspect of killing the live animal is healthy for the snakes mind.
i would try the rat pups but i have no idea where to find them the local pet store only has med rats and petco has small-large rats no pups.
so ive decided to try feeding a live small rat, with tongs in hand ill be ready to break up any fight that my snake will lose.

wish me luck and thanks agian for your input,
-TokenLs

try this:

put the bp in one of its hides and quickly get the live rat and hold it by its tail and let it get like that(but be sure ur hand isnt going to be able get bit) there some thing like this in a forum ill find it and give u the link.....



here it is

http://ball-pythons.net/PNphpBB2+viewtopic-t-6309.html

If you get a male and female rat , within a months time you will have plenty of rat kittens .

lol...how well do rats live outside...

Not very well . You don't like them I take it ? They actually make very good pets , the best in the rodent family in my opinion . They are very clean , they are as intelligent as most dogs , and bond with people in the same way . I have four does and six bucks , myself .

its not that i dont like them its just they smell like fanny 8-D

lol - if you're getting them from a pet store , that would be why . Rats that are cared for properly , have very little smell - males included . A clean rat smells ten times better than a mouse any day .

Yep, I clean my cages once a week, and if the rat itself needs a bath, it gets one. Ours don't like baths, but they tolerate them. Rats really don't smell unless you don't take care of them. And as Luvit73 said, they do make awesome pets. I think that mine are smarter than my dogs, except for Harry and Lloyd... But they are special...

If you have problems killing a rat, then try making the CO2 chamber. It's not too difficult. I was going to gas these 2 rats from my school since they are not useful and only 1 is kind of nice. I am going to put them in a cooler with some dry ice in a cup, add water to the dry ice and wait a few minutes. The carbon dioxide should put them to sleep, no pain, and no bloody noses from hitting them against the wall. I will probably put them into the freezer for later use when my girl is bigger.

Store bought, live rats are dangerous, because they are afraid and for the safety of your snake, it would be best to kill the rats beforehand either using the method above, or buying the frozen ones online/at a pet store. Maybe the pet store would kill them for you, it doesn't hurt to ask. The frozen ones rarely burst, and usually it's from being improperly frozen for too long, or being refrozen. I mean, you're not supposed to refreeze meat, so rats would be the same thing. Try a prekilled, and if your snake takes it, then the transition to f/t will be much easier. Frozen rodents really aren't as bad as you may think they are. I have about 14 frozen mice in my freezer, all of which I killed myself. None have burst, except for the one I hit too hard on the wall, LoL. All thawed very easily in a jar of water changed twice with just hot tap water. It's just so much easier than having to keep live rodents, feed them a "Good" diet, and then have to watch for however long it takes for the snake to get it. If the snake isn't hungry, what do you do with the live mouse/rat...?

Just some things to think about. Try prekilled or frozen, it's really not all bad. :)

Just adding in that your bp looks like it could easily take a small to medium rat. My bp is going on 6 months old, 2 feet long, and is the thickness of a banana. And she just ate her first rat last friday. It was a big weanling rat. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luvit73

Yep , the rats do scream - and struggle , and squeek , until almost fully dead . A Suggestion ? I breed rats , and have only fed my 3 month old boy , rat kittens since I've gotten him . A 3-4 week old rat is not nearly as aggressive as an adult - in fact , mine usually cruise around with the snake checking everything out , before sitting almost in front of him to groom itself - some have even groomed the snake . Being so young , and never having seen a snake before , they are not afraid of him (or aggressive towards him ) in the least .
A rat kitten , even at only 3-4 weeks old , is still significantly larger than a grown mouse , and would make a much better meal - even if you still had to give two . And the bonus is that you don't need to worry as much about your snake being injured by it's dinner .

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ahh, a bad memory went into my heat when you said rat kitten, I think cody heard about this but, on another forum, there was this big topic on someone that fed there BP ktittens. It was really awful....ahh...i'll try and find the liink if I can...ok here: http://repticzone.com/forums/BallPyt...es/167905.html

Anyways, I fed live rats to a rescue RTB that would hardly eat the live, one did bite her on the nose, but it didn't even make a mark, what happend was she bit it on the but and it turned around and nipped her, but there was no blood, or mark.

Wow, i read that thread on the "12 foot ball python" eating kittens, im so glad our site is not like that, that thing was freakin crazy!!

Read it and you will know what im talkin about.

Wow , that's horrible . I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories for you . I hear alot of people calling baby rats "pups" , but the correct term for a baby rat is actually "kitten" . So I'm wondering , after reading that thread , if the person's brother was referring to rat kittens , but left it at kittens , to mess with that person's head . Either way it's still wrong .
Yeah , my ratlets have occasionally nibbled on me (when my hands smell like food) but they just don't have the jaw strength to really do anything .

On a side note - and don't get me wrong here , a snake must be fed what is appropriate for it , and I personally feed mine rats - but domestic rats have actually been bred , for over 100 years now , as pets - not feeders . If anyone is interested in a history of domesticated rats , just ask , and I'll be happy to post a link . :)

Hi guys, thanks for all the help.

id just like to give a quick update for the people who posted.i
i bought a live, fairly big, almost medium small rat, and put it in vitos cage. he took it no problem.
also his shed skin is almost completly gone, and his new skin looks great.

thanks again for all who replied.