My snake bit my dog!!

As my husband was changing the bedding in my 900g female ball pythons tub he sat her on the bed with me and my puppy Chihuahua. For 10 minutes everything was good, then I notices my snake started to act over alert and was watching my dog and then my hands, and as soon as I tell my husband to get the puppy she jumped and the snake tagged her. It all happened so fast, I don't see any blood or anything. Im just curious why she would behave that way as if she was a rat. Im confused!!

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She was scared

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Ball was in the mood for a little Mexican food. Seriously, a puppy that small near a snake?

Well, I suppose that's a lesson in keeping your reptiles away from your other pets ― Try not to have them in the same room in future, especially if you're busy otherwise! :)

^ I have to agree with Jordan and the above sentiments.
Be careful with poochie and snake!

It's furry has a higher body temp (compare to human) and has a smell so yes it's bound to happen.



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She wasn't backing up from the puppy she was after her. Kind of a big Chihuahua mix. I thought it was a feeding response, but I also know my snake won't touch a rat, only mice so I didn't expect her to be interested in the puppy. It didn't cross my mind until she was after her fast and lunged at her. All I saw was open snake mouth coming at us!! I know I will never ever ever have those 2 together again. That was pretty scary.

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How many grams is your snake?
If you are feeding her mice I must assume she is under 100g as most hatchlings can pound a pinkie rat with no problem.
If she is a small snake, I'm surprised you trusted her around a dog basically unsupervised.
If she's big and eating mice, there's your answer. She is underfed and hungry for Mexican. :taz:

Definitely scary, though. Glad no injuries came out of it.


EDIT #1:
Just reread the post. Curious as to why she is eating mice at 900g. Picky eater? I would recommend ASF as an alternative to ensure she is getting the proper nutrients.. Mice are very poor in nutrients.......

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Originally Posted by WintersSerpentine

How many grams is your snake?
If you are feeding her mice I must assume she is under 100g as most hatchlings can pound a pinkie rat with no problem.
If she is a small snake, I'm surprised you trusted her around a dog basically unsupervised.
If she's big and eating mice, there's your answer. She is underfed and hungry for Mexican. :taz:

Definitely scary, though. Glad no injuries came out of it.


EDIT #1:
Just reread the post. Curious as to why she is eating mice at 900g. Picky eater? I would recommend ASF as an alternative to ensure she is getting the proper nutrients.. Mice are very poor in nutrients.......

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I didn't know mice were low in nutrients. I feed her up to 3 each week BC she will not eat a rat. I've tried and tried. She's very healthy. Gains weight fast. I was trying to get a pic up but my data is slow. But ill get one up. To me she's a big girl.

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My male ball python of 950 grams won't touch rats of any size either...it's maddening.

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Originally Posted by piedlover79

My male ball python of 950 grams won't touch rats of any size either...it's maddening.

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Yes. Its pretty crazy. But she will eat as many mice as I will give her. She's the only picky one I have.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrspoindexter

I didn't know mice were low in nutrients. I feed her up to 3 each week BC she will not eat a rat. I've tried and tried. She's very healthy. Gains weight fast. I was trying to get a pic up but my data is slow. But ill get one up. To me she's a big girl.

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I didn't mean to sound rude if I came across that way, I'm fairly new to ball pythons (about a year.) I've heard of grown ball pythons refusing rats.. But the usual supplement is an ASF or African Soft Fur gerbil. From my understanding mice do not have nearly the amount of nutrients as a gerbil or rat.. BUT I could very well be misinformed.

Maybe someone else could pitch in on the mice vs rat/ASF debate? Mainly mice vs ASF since baby girl won't eat rats.
I'm sure she's beautiful and healthy regardless.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WintersSerpentine

I didn't mean to sound rude if I came across that way, I'm fairly new to ball pythons (about a year.) I've heard of grown ball pythons refusing rats.. But the usual supplement is an ASF or African Soft Fur gerbil. From my understanding mice do not have nearly the amount of nutrients as a gerbil or rat.. BUT I could very well be misinformed.

Maybe someone else could pitch in on the mice vs rat/ASF debate? Mainly mice vs ASF since baby girl won't eat rats.
I'm sure she's beautiful and healthy regardless.

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I didn't think you were rude, and Im about a year in myself with 16 ball pythons she's my biggest! I take any advice and enjoy learning. I do tons of research and ask questions if don't find my answer. So for that I thankyou!! http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/57c5e95b...30_144531.jpg?


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Nutrition of rats vs mice is a common debate. From what I've been able to find, there's no real advantage of rats beyond convenience of fewer feeders per meal. If the snake is gaining weight, there's nothing wrong with mice.

I have a 1000g female mouser. She gets 2-3 adult/jumbo mice per feeding. Won't touch rats.

Also, avoid gerbils. Anecdotally, I've heard stories of snakes becoming heavily addicted to them, and refusing other feeders after getting one.

I'd do ASF but I can't get them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrspoindexter

I didn't know mice were low in nutrients. I feed her up to 3 each week BC she will not eat a rat. I've tried and tried. She's very healthy. Gains weight fast. I was trying to get a pic up but my data is slow. But ill get one up. To me she's a big girl.

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While the nutritional value is different there is no study on BP nutritional requirements. Gram per gram it's all the same, the only difference is that with mice you have to feed multiple prey items and with rats you don't, making them a more convinient prey item which means they are always recommended over mice.

It's can also be financial 3 mice are usually more expensive than a small rat.

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Its a dollar more for 3 mice vs one rat. So not to bad. And I'm trying to breed mice now.

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Great!! It looks like we both learned a little, lol!
She's absolutely beautiful, though. Great size on her.
That's so cute that they're called mousers, lol!

Best of luck, sweets.

Having three dogs, I'm pretty strict about those types of interactions. My dogs are rarely allowed into the herp room. They are definitely off limits on feeding night, as they tend to get overly curious.

In terms of prey items, Deb nailed it.


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I'm surprised that the response was attack, my corn snake used to run from the dog." (obviously not literally) and start running flat out the other way or in other words she smelt large predator and ran like hell.

Edit: this was when I was about 13-14 years old and it was my friends dog - usually turned up when he was being picked up after a visit.

This will never happen again!!. The cat is like hell no!! But the puppy don't care. She's not allowed in my room anymore. Still living that big mouth coming at me.

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If she struck in a bite that we call "tagging", and didn't hold on, it was a defensive bite. She may have felt threatened by the dog, no matter what size and wanted to show aggression to get it away from her.

If it was a feeding response, well, the dog is a small mammal. What would be surprising about a snake thinking a small mammal might be a prey item? Just because your ball doesn't like rats is no reason to assume it won't ever strike anything but a mouse.

As far as feeding mice to a 900g BP, if your snake is healthy and eats the mice well, then feed it mice. As long as you don't mind providing multiple prey items, I see no issue. I do think rats grow BPs better, personal opinion, but that doesn't mean a BP eating mice won't be just as healthy.

Thankyou, she's doing great gaining weight with mice. I got her in February at 480g and it sept and weighs 906g today. She always has great sheds never any problems from her, just the puppy jumping over my arm into her territory, she got tagged. Other than that she's only aggressive when she sees a mouse. After she eats she just as calm as before. I will keep trying to feed her a rat, but until then its 3 a week. Thankyou for your time!⬆

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