Hamster ball for mice?

I have just bought the most active mouse I have ever seen for my BP. My girl and I are staring at this mouse and it hasn't stopped running and jumping for 5 hours. I duct taped the holding cell to support it on the sides and laid it on the side. Now the mouse is running for an hour. After seeing this we are debating/discussing getting a mouse version of hamster ball for future mice. Our biggest worry is feeding our ball a mouse that is a gladiator. But since I always have him for approx~ 5 hours prior to feeding, I feel this is a good idea. In the pic you can see him running like a random hamster ball. My ideal end goal is to make the mouse so tired it limits opportunities to damage to the BP.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5d6b388755.jpg

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When I used to feed live and I had fighters, I had to stun them by hitting them against the edge of a desk and paralyzing them. It’s not fun or easy really so I recommend switching to frozen. It’s safer, cheaper, and there’s really no difference.


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Originally Posted by OneEyedFox

When I used to feed live and I had fighters, I had to stun them by hitting them against the edge of a desk and paralyzing them. It’s not fun or easy really so I recommend switching to frozen. It’s safer, cheaper, and there’s really no difference.


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Well she's been on frozen for last 8 weeks as our live mice breeder was under reconstruction during this time. I think they reopened 12/1 (first live tonight 1/24) and its been closed since Halloween. Hace been thru a box of frozen. My BP has been anti frozen and it's been a struggle since, but thought I'd treat her till this one mouse came home. Lol

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Originally Posted by Suitestuff

Well she's been on frozen for last 8 weeks as our live mice breeder was under reconstruction during this time. I think they reopened 12/1 (first live tonight 1/24) and its been closed since Halloween. Hace been thru a box of frozen. My BP has been anti frozen and it's been a struggle since, but thought I'd treat her till this one mouse came home. Lol

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Yeah sometimes it can be a hassle to get them to switch over to frozen, just takes time and patience. While switching Calliope over, I had to leave the mice in there over night a few times before he started taking them from my tongs.


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Originally Posted by Suitestuff

Well she's been on frozen for last 8 weeks as our live mice breeder was under reconstruction during this time. I think they reopened 12/1 (first live tonight 1/24) and its been closed since Halloween. Hace been thru a box of frozen. My BP has been anti frozen and it's been a struggle since, but thought I'd treat her till this one mouse came home. Lol

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If the snake is already accepting F/T prey why switch back to live?
The vast majority prefer feeding F/T, primarily for safety reasons, but also it's better financially and easier to store

I'm just curious why you would like to go back to feeding live?

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Originally Posted by Suitestuff

I have just bought the most active mouse I have ever seen for my BP. My girl and I are staring at this mouse and it hasn't stopped running and jumping for 5 hours. I duct taped the holding cell to support it on the sides and laid it on the side. Now the mouse is running for an hour. After seeing this we are debating/discussing getting a mouse version of hamster ball for future mice. Our biggest worry is feeding our ball a mouse that is a gladiator. But since I always have him for approx~ 5 hours prior to feeding, I feel this is a good idea. In the pic you can see him running like a random hamster ball. My ideal end goal is to make the mouse so tired it limits opportunities to damage to the BP.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5d6b388755.jpg

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What a good idea when you hae a feeder that you buy and have it for 5 hours is actually the total opposite you want to feed it, give it water and let it relax, that's how you prevent injury and feed live, not by getting a rodent all wind up with exercise which raises adrenaline.

Hey sorry, been busy at work all day. My BP doesn't accept F/T mice. I used to feed her F/T prior to bed, and it's always there by morning. I would take it out, toss it. I've been thru so many F/T mice this way for weeks. She wouldn't eat them. She would come out and observe them, investigate them. She went 3 weeks of me doing this, till I went to Hawaii for 2 weeks, not wanting her to be hungry I left one in there. She ate it by the time I came back. Which doesn't sound like the right way for me to do.

Anyways always bought live from there on out till my shop went under reconstruction. Forced to use F/T again. This time I wouldn't pull it in the AM. But when I got home from work, my BP would have eaten it. I still don't like this, even after thawing, it sits in the cage all night going to next day mid afternoon to eat. Live mice she swallows up immediately.

I understand the last posters concern about causing more damage to the snake by getting it hyped. I'm not a mouse savy person. I don't want to sound ignorant, I don't understand how expelling energy causes them to be more hype up; I always assumed food and water is the definition of gaining energy to expel. That assumption is based on my experience in sports and military as a human. So still not mouse savy, just threw the idea out for ideas and opinions. Some responses were sarcastic with little punctuation and no help or ideas.

Someone responded with F/T for financial reasons. I get 4 F/T for $11 where live mice is $1.50 each for me.

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A feeder that is in your car fore 5 hours with no food or water prior to being fed and not knowing if it was well fed or hydrated prior to that is the best recipe for a feeder to turn on your snake and have the predator becoming prey.

You want a well hydrated well fed and calm feeder prior to feeding.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

A feeder that is in your car fore 5 hours with no food or water prior to being fed and not knowing if it was well fed or hydrated prior to that is the best recipe for a feeder to turn on your snake and have the predator becoming prey.

You want a well hydrated well fed and calm feeder prior to feeding.

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Thanks Deborah :) . Food Coma to the mouse sounds the way to go. I usually did that till the mouse I got last night seemed to be running on crack.

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Originally Posted by OneEyedFox

When I used to feed live and I had fighters, I had to stun them by hitting them against the edge of a desk and paralyzing them. It’s not fun or easy really so I recommend switching to frozen. It’s safer, cheaper, and there’s really no difference.

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i don't recommend doing that at all. first it's cruel and then it can actually make the wounded prey more defensive. like Deb mentioned above, taking care of the prey until it becomes food is the best way to safely feed live.

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Originally Posted by Ax01

i don't recommend doing that at all. first it's cruel and then it can actually make the wounded prey more defensive. like Deb mentioned above, taking care of the prey until it becomes food is the best way to safely feed live.

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Yeah, like I said it isn’t fun or easy. I did it twice before I just decided to switch to ft instead.


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When I have savannnah monitors I would keep mice as feeders for them. One time the mice decided to go all cannibal on each other and I came home from work to find them eating a splayed open carcass. After that ordeal two things happened: 1) I never kept mice in volume again and 2) I never again felt bad feeding these abominations to reptiles ;)

I agree, give it plenty of fresh water and some really yummy food and let it relax.

The exercise for the mouse isn't like a human going to the gym. That mouse probably has never been anywhere except the colony bin in it's whole life. Now you've pulled it out, put in into a transport container that smells completely different, carried it in a vibrating noise maker(vehicle) jostling it in a way it has never felt before, put it into a whole new environment for hours, and to boot, you let the container roll about in an unstable way(the rolling) so yes, the mouse has gotten completely amped up.

You can probably keep some high quality dog food or rodent diet on hand, or fresh veggies and fruit to keep the mouse well fed and add those nutrients to your snake at the same time.

I just want to thank everyone for the help, I have been debating getting a small cage to store them in for a while. I think I'm going to do that now and keep water and food on hand. You guys really put this into perspective for me.

To the one who mentioned stunning it. My wife and I both had BP when younger. She's been telling me to stun it since day 1 and it's how she was raised on her BP. I'm more anti stunning, but it's more of performing the act I'm anti. She supports you, and if you can do the act, I support you too.

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