How do you feed live mice / rats?

Just wondering how you guys feed your snakes live rodents. Do you drop them in the cage / tub and let them run around or do you hold them by the tail above the snake and wait for the strike? I held a live mouse over one of my young ball pythons and he got too close and the mouse bit the snake on the nose. I also had one mouse that ran around in the tub, the snake tried to get him but missed, then the mouse got real smart and kept wanting to jump out of the tub, I think I'm going to have to try a fresh killed with that smart mouse. For the last round of mice I used live weanling mice, seemed a bit safer and a bit slower than an adult (a bit dumber). Just wondering what your technique is for live.

Almost none of my ball pythons will eat frozen thawed except my normal that I got for free LOL. For the last batch of six weanlings for my six ball pythons I dropped them in the tub and closed them up. Then I opened them up about a half hour later, only one was left, so I held him by the tail and waited for the strike. Worked that time but just wondering if my technique is right... Not sure I'd try it with an adult mouse that could potentially hurt the snake closed up without supervision. I really like feeding live because if they don't eat then I can put them back in the rodent cage for next time. With frozen thawed if they don't eat I end up throwing thawed mice in the trash, threw out six adult mice at a time a couple weeks back. Now if I do frozen thawed I only thaw out one or two mice at a time and move them to several snakes to minimize my losses. I have a big king snake that will eat my shoe if I put it in there, but she is only big enough for one or two adult mice max. And she is getting real fat since my ball pythons are so picky LOL.

I don't now since i have found a source close by for frozen t, but before when i had to feed live i would just drop him in there, waited till mouse/rat was dead then i leave him alone. i would just made sure the animal wouldn't bite my bp.

luckly i have a mini pig and eats every meal so i haven't had to throw a feed out as of yet.

Just drop them in. If you are holding them over the snake, both you and the snake are more likely to be bitten, because the mouse is frightened and stressed. They're much more calm with four feet on the floor. I put them in, close the tub enough that the mouse can't get back out, and just keep an eye on it. The worst bite I've encountered so far was just a very, very quick mouse... Miqula struck, and the mouse saw her coming. By the time the strike hit, she got it by the tail instead of the head as it was darting away - and very determinedly coiled it anyway! She got her mouse, but she got a few bites on her belly scaled in the process. Clean, and they healed fast.

When I feed live, I drop the rat in the tub then let the weapon of rat destruction do what it does best.

I know this seems cruel or whatever, but somebody I knew breeds their own feeder rats. For some reason these rats were all very aggressive; one of her ball pythons were killed by one.

So before she fed the rats to the snakes, she would get a really big knife and sort of bash the teeth out of the rodent.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else though lol

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Originally Posted by PythonBabes

I know this seems cruel or whatever, but somebody I knew breeds their own feeder rats. For some reason these rats were all very aggressive; one of her ball pythons were killed by one.

So before she fed the rats to the snakes, she would get a really big knife and sort of bash the teeth out of the rodent.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else though lol

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It doesn't seem cruel, it IS cruel. That's a living breathing being that is having it's teeth smashed out before being strangled to death.

First if you buy your rodent instead of producing them you want to feed and re-hydrate them

Second leave the rodent in the room 30 min to an hour prior to feeding, this is called pre-scenting and will entice your snake(s) to eat

Third feed the appropriate size rodent by dropping it in the enclosure.

Fourth removed if un-eaten within 10 to 15 minutes.


In many cases the feeder will bare have the time to touch the enclosure's floor and for those that do they will typically go in a corner after exploring a little, whee they will fall asleep.

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I know this seems cruel or whatever, but somebody I knew breeds their own feeder rats. For some reason these rats were all very aggressive; one of her ball pythons were killed by one.

So before she fed the rats to the snakes, she would get a really big knife and sort of bash the teeth out of the rodent.

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That's someone that has no business feeding live and obviously is a failure at breeding feeders as well.

Feeders should be selectively bred and well taken care off, proper diet and hydration that is key in breeding feeders not only for snakes but for the breeder as well.

Additionally what you describe is plain and simple animal cruelty which is punishable by law.

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Originally Posted by PythonBabes

I know this seems cruel or whatever, but somebody I knew breeds their own feeder rats. For some reason these rats were all very aggressive; one of her ball pythons were killed by one.

So before she fed the rats to the snakes, she would get a really big knife and sort of bash the teeth out of the rodent.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else though lol

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Whoever she is needs to have her own teeth mashed in.

In MY opinion. How cruel and unnecessary.
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wouldn't killing the rat with c02 be much better than bashing the rats teeth in before feed? I mean damn, bashing the rats teeth? damn...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PythonBabes

I know this seems cruel or whatever, but somebody I knew breeds their own feeder rats. For some reason these rats were all very aggressive; one of her ball pythons were killed by one.

So before she fed the rats to the snakes, she would get a really big knife and sort of bash the teeth out of the rodent.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else though lol

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This practice is absolutely NOT condoned at all by the reptile community. It is a highly cruel act and should not be practiced or tolerated. If we want to grow as a reptile community, and become accepted and respected by mainstream culture, this kind of behavior needs to stop. Feeding live is fine. But mutilating the feeder animal beforehand is not ok.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PythonBabes

I know this seems cruel or whatever, but somebody I knew breeds their own feeder rats. For some reason these rats were all very aggressive; one of her ball pythons were killed by one.

So before she fed the rats to the snakes, she would get a really big knife and sort of bash the teeth out of the rodent.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else though lol

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This is in no way responsible animal care, toward the rats OR the snakes. It is nothing more than base and contemptible cruel sadism. If the rat was able to attack and kill her snake, it was through her own negligence. There is no excuse whatsoever for torturing any animal in such a manner. It certainly is not grounds for laughter under any circumstances. Any live feeding should be supervised, so that if there is a problem the feeder animal can be removed immediately.

Wow and I thought the "flick club" was bad.


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Originally Posted by PythonBabes

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else though lol

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:rolleyes: :rolleyes::rolleyes:

I just hope there isn't a YouTube video...

Yeah, I'd told her many many times just to supervise, so that if anything does go wrong she can intervene and stop the snake from being injured in any way.

I don't talk to her anymore but when I told her to just supervise the animals she would get all pissy at me and talk about how it's nature. A mouse doesn't get its teeth bashed out before its eaten in the wild.

Dang, that's brutal! When I was growing up about 20 years ago there was a pet store owner that would grab the rat by the tail and smash him against the corner of the wall to kill it before feeding. I recently saw an article about a lawsuit about the very same thing and the long arm of the law confiscated all of the snakes from the pet store! CO2 is the only way to go and not very expensive either.

i think once the mouse or rat realizes it's food and gets aggressive you have to put it down with CO2 to feed it off.

First of all I would recommend that you never start ball pythons on mice, If you plan on breeding the female ball pythons then rats are the only way to go. Place the live rat in with the snake for no more than 10 minutes, if the snake does not eat the rat within that 10 minutes remove the rat and feed it to another snake or take it back to it's cage to continue growing. Some breeders including myself will place a couple of pieces of dog food in the snakes cage while the rat is in the cage with the snake. I also place a small blue paper clip on each cage that has a rat in it, this allows me to know which tub had a rat in it.

If you produce your own rats you'll need a larger snake such as a boa or Burmese python to feed the retired rats to, they are too big for most ball pythons.

If you have more questions about this subject or others feel free to call me at 408-981-6694, If I can't answer your question I'll find someone that can.

Happy Feeding

Brian Gundy
For Goodness Snakes