What a night indeed.

So today I went up to get everyone feeders, 2 small rats and medium rats. This was our 2nd time feeding everyone, and after watching Scout eat 2 mice last week, we decided to try him on one small rat. Well that was when things went wrong, he hated it, struck it twice but never grabbed it...tried to avoid it the whole time and the rat tried avoiding him to. So I took the rat out and figured I would just get 2 mice tomorrow for him.
Then I grabbed Willow out of her tank and darn it if she didnt grab my finger, and then again as I placed her in her feeding container. And of coarse she drew blood....minor yes but still hurt my feelings. lol.
I then looked in on Tiombe to see if she might want to eat, and I was shocked to see that she was "lumpy" she was housed with Scout (a male) for a short time until we could get a tank for all of them, but was also housed with Scout for 2 years with her previous owner. So I reached in with both hands to pick her up and right when I got her out SHE bit me, of coarse in the same spot as Willow. So I put her back, hissing and biting and threw her dinner in there.
Went over to Rajiv to give him his dinner, and of coarse he struck, by now I have cat like reflexes and he missed, but still moms feeling a little sad. :oops:
I put his small rat in with him and he grabbed it, this time missed the head got the side and sure enough the rat bit his back. :( Its a little cut, looks very superficial. But I noticed he had some beeding (shreded cocunut husks) hanging out of his mouth, and I was a littlle worried bout it even though they say it digestable. So I reached in for him, just to get it out and he was pissed about this of coarse. I didnt want to hrt his little cut any more, so he ended up knocking the bedding out, but he "yawned" and I noticed his mouth was brown from some bedding, I was wondering what I could do to get it out, or just wait for a while and keep an eye on it. Also how do you recommend checking there mouths?

Any who that was our stressful night...now morning being that its 2am here.

Hope everyone has a good day.....or atleast better then this one. lol.

lol geez two bites in one night. sucks fer ya. good luck next week :)

That story is just chock full of SFE's....

I got bit last night too... :( But lucky for you, yours was by a snake... Mine was also a SFE... but I, for some reason decided to not use the tongs, and pick up a rat to hand to the 4 yr old to feed... and he climbed up his tail, and layed into me pretty good... glad he didn't get the 4 yr old! Rat bites STINK!

Can someone translate "SFE"?


(embarrassed newbie doesn't know the board slang :confused: )

Stupid Feeding Error

Just wondering - did you happen to wash your hands each time you handled the rat BEFORE handling the snake?

What I would suggest is:

Use newspaper substrate (easier, cleaner, cheaper & safer)
Feed in their enclosures (Haven't heard a good reason not to)
Don't handle on feeding day (just a rodents scent in the room will get them wound up)

Just my opinion...;)

Feed them in their enclosure's , I wonder who came up with the whole feed them out of their enclosure idea.

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Originally Posted by emilio

Feed them in their enclosure's , I wonder who came up with the whole feed them out of their enclosure idea.

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I think it was this guy:

http://www.be-hold.com/content/Image...30/1198k.6.jpg

I think antique pics are cool, especially if they are like that one, with a big fat snake in it!

~mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by emilio

Feed them in their enclosure's , I wonder who came up with the whole feed them out of their enclosure idea.

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The Exec's at Rubbermaid? :D

Oh yeah...and where are the pics? :)

Just personal oppinion here and some experience but I used to feed all my animals outside of their "usual" tub. Especially any that I transition from live to PK. Personally I don't want a rodent wandering around peeing and pooping all over the tub my snake may be sitting in for a few more days untill its cleaned. Not to mention with a bare secondary feeding tub the rodent has no place to hide (ya ya natural hunting instincts, yada yada...that's another debate). That said I've gone to feeding in their regular every day tubs with PK food unless I'm planning to clean that rack tub in which case I use a bare tub to feed.

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

That story is just chock full of SFE's....

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Thats a little hurtful.

The only reason why I took Willow out to feed her is because her T3 isnt here yet, we have about another week, and her tub is so tiny once her hides and water dish are in it. She is used to being in a large tank, so I we've just been waiting for her T3 to get here.

When Rajiv struck me it wasnt a SFE, I was taking the lid off of his habitat and he struck at me, never made contact with me.

Tiombe hasnt eaten in a month, so yes she is stressed, or was stressed, I was simply checking her over because she was laying vry odd and again looked "lumpy" as in having eggs lumpy, so I think that picking her up for that reason doesnt really fall under the list of SFE.

I thank everyone who had something nice or helpful to say, I mixed 3 bricks of Coconut shreds last night and have them airing out, after this Brian and I both said we are switching to paper. Once the T3 is here we will feed everyone in there house. And hopefully everyone will be happy. :sunny:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Just wondering - did you happen to wash your hands each time you handled the rat BEFORE handling the snake?

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And yeah actually I did, I have OCD and wash my hands like crazy lol.

Don't take the SFE comment too personal. I don't think any harm was meant by it. Just chock it up to a learning experience.
Part of the striking could possibly be due to the fact that the scent of the rats were in the room where your snakes are kept. Do you feed them in the same room where they are all kept?
Good luck with next week's feeding.

Where the rats are kept varies alot right now, reading previous threads on rat/mouse housing it was concluded that it didnt make a diffrence if you housed them in the same room has the snakes or not. But, some also state that its okay to feed in there habitats and other's strongly dissagree. So, I think in general its diffrent for everyone, I personally dont like my rats and mice being in the house because they stink some times. So we were talking about converting the garage into an air conditioned room and housing them out there. Who knows, but in last nights situation the rats were actually in our living room, which also is home to the only snake that didnt bite last night or even try to. But I've also been reading on here about how everyone brings the rat cage or what not and sets it on top of the snake enclosure or next to it. This helps there snakes get into the mind frame of feeding. So I just think its trial and error for everyone, maybe someones feeds best in a seperate tub, on frozen rats. And someone else's eats in his habitat on live mice that are housed in the same room. Who knows. But hey, we were all beginners at one time, went through the same things and asked the same questions I'm sure right?
And hey, I'm learning alot from them and what works for us. I'll keep everyone updated as things progress around here.
Thanks again everyone. :rockon: