treating rat bite..

Cameron got bitten by her rat during constriction.. it isnt bad but we cant see the severity until shes done eating.. we did see where the rat pinched her skin though. in case its bleeding or broke skin should we treat it with anything in particular?

I fed live once. Got bit even though I did everything I could to prevent it.

I cleaned it out with a light spray of my chlorhexidine.

Then put a skim coat of triple antibiotic ointment on it. Without any kind of pain killer seems to be what everybody recommends.

Skim coat twice a day until it healed up.

Hope this helps :)

usually I put a pen in the rats mouth once my snakes have grip

your feeding rats? seems like it should be ok, how bad was the bite

I thought you were feeding mice too, Ashley. I know I wouldn't be caught dead bringing unquarantined rats into my home full of 30 pet rats. I did once and lost 10 of my heart-rats in a week from strep-based pneumonia(I had a culture done on the lung fluid of one of the deceased)..

I promise, Balls do just fine on mice their entire lives. Boas absolutely do wonderfully with f/t rats their entire lives(mine is 8ft long, so she's on 2.5lb rabbits every 3-4 weeks).

I know you have pet rats that you care about, and wouldn't want to risk their health just because someone told you that one prey item was better than the other.

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Originally Posted by AshleyB

Cameron got bitten by her rat during constriction.. it isnt bad but we cant see the severity until shes done eating.. we did see where the rat pinched her skin though. in case its bleeding or broke skin should we treat it with anything in particular?

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Neosporin will work to treat the bite just in case.

Hope this helps

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Originally Posted by JBallPython

Neosporin will work to treat the bite just in case.

Hope this helps

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the stuff without pain killers!


i had one bite on my male snake. nothing major on his neck, treated it with neosporin (no pain killers) and it was clear in a few days. now i use bamboo feeding tongs to allow the rat something to bite other than my snake.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

I thought you were feeding mice too, Ashley. I know I wouldn't be caught dead bringing unquarantined rats into my home full of 30 pet rats. I did once and lost 10 of my heart-rats in a week from strep-based pneumonia(I had a culture done on the lung fluid of one of the deceased)..

I promise, Balls do just fine on mice their entire lives. Boas absolutely do wonderfully with f/t rats their entire lives(mine is 8ft long, so she's on 2.5lb rabbits every 3-4 weeks).

I know you have pet rats that you care about, and wouldn't want to risk their health just because someone told you that one prey item was better than the other.

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husband brought it home, he went for mice and they didnt have enough (on top of the guy at the shop telling him feeding our larger 1000g female 10 mice is unrealistic which is what i think swayed him even more to thinking it was ok)... trust me im not happy about it and i didnt watch. i just went in the other room and hugged my love rats.. was the first and last time. if nothing else, if our larger balls refuse mice when they are due to eat we will purchase prepackaged F/T so there is no death and no risk.:tears:

i just called my husband to talk to him and brought up the whole "we dont feed any rats" thing and he said it wasnt a rat! it was an african something rat.. is that those soft furred rats? the ones that are just a tad bit bigger than mice but isnt that a different species than real (as in my pet) rats? he said he knew we didnt feed rats and because i didnt see it i guess i assumed hes a jerk and got a regular rat (boy do i feel like a jerk now) he just told me it got her and i should post about it.. i checked her this morning and not only is there no signs she even ate (shes 400g and i know even a small rat would leave a lump) but theres no sign she was even bitten

Thank God! I was really upset over this whole thing.. now how much of a pain is it going to be to get her off this different kind of food? can they get my pet rats sick also? why do some people use them over other types of food? guess i need to get over to the feeder section, i really dont know anything about them.

10 mice for a 1000 gram female? :O

When I was exclusively a mouser (before I started breeding rats), I think the most even my largest female got was 4. Most just got 2 mice a week.

Hope your snake gets better soon!

So your snakes won't eat frozen?

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Originally Posted by spix14

So your snakes won't eat frozen?

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Not everyone cares to feed frozen thawed prey, its all a matter of personal choice.

I feed some of my snakes F/T to supplement the cost of live (live foods around here are much more expensive) if they will accept it, however with 20+ snakes and the time it takes to feed I would much rather find a solid source for live (which will likely end up being myself).

When I kept ASF for a short while I did notice that my colony was ultra aggressive and would rush my snakes, very nippy little buggers, and I wanted the peace of mind that my snakes wouldn't be attacked by their prey items, so I switched back to regular appropriate sized rats without issue.

And yes, neosporin without the pain meds...

Well, I understand that. I just thought most people chose to feed f/t to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Whatever flats your snake's boat though I guess.

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Originally Posted by spix14

Well, I understand that. I just thought most people chose to feed f/t to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Whatever flats your snake's boat though I guess.

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Inappropriately sized prey is generally the cause of feeding mishaps, generally because the snake cannot constrict the prey properly.

There are a lot of reasons one might choose either prey type, to each their own, and like you said whatever the snake will accept.:gj:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

10 mice for a 1000 gram female? :O

When I was exclusively a mouser (before I started breeding rats), I think the most even my largest female got was 4. Most just got 2 mice a week.

Hope your snake gets better soon!

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Thats great to know.. im sure the man was over exagerating.. i wasnt there when he picked up the feeders so i can only go by what DH said. most of our snakes eat two mice weekly also

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Originally Posted by JBallPython

Inappropriately sized prey is generally the cause of feeding mishaps, generally because the snake cannot constrict the prey properly.

There are a lot of reasons one might choose either prey type, to each their own, and like you said whatever the snake will accept.:gj:

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we usually feed mice and have not had this problem before. according to my DH he said Cam got the asfr at an awkward position leaving its mouth open for attack against the snake. (near its tail instead of mid body or even behind head) it didnt leave a mark and shes fine thsi morning thankfully. we are just going to keep to mice though. we feed live because so far cameron has refused F/T although that could be in part by us doing it wrong (we havnt mastered the zombie mouse dance) thawing, warming, exc is more work than just dropping a couple mice in. when you have seven snakes and each eats at least two mice it would be terribly time consuming to feed each one f/t. if we could drop it in front of their hide and them eat that would be one thing but we have lazy eaters (cam as the exception, she has an amazing feeding response but still refuses f/t)

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on top of the guy at the shop telling him feeding our larger 1000g female 10 mice is unrealistic

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You don't have to feed 10 mice, you can but you don't have to and 10 mice would be a lot of food it would be the equivalent of a 200/250 grams rat :O

I feed are 3 large mice (which is equal to a small rat)

My snakes grow just fine even on smaller prey items, I have my Spider who is 1700+ grams at a year and a half.

Only prior to breeding season would I consider feeding my females more, and in that case it would only be 5/6 mice.

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Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

My snakes grow just fine even on smaller prey items, I have my Spider who is 1700+ grams at a year and a half.

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wow, thats amazing!! good to know

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Originally Posted by AshleyB

wow, thats amazing!! good to know

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It depends on the snake of course, but because you feed smaller preys does not mean your snake will grow slowly, or only survive.

Mine are thriving on smaller preys.

cameron and hazard (a normal and a pastel who weve had the longest) are both thriving on eating two mice a week, my late 07 normal weighs 425g already... the only reason my dh even picked up the other food item (Turns out to be a ASF) was because they ran out of regular mice. we feed them adult sized mice weekly and they have done great so far... our new spider and mojave have also eaten a mouse each. the only animals to not eat as of yet are our two larger (cbb) girls who are 880g and 1100g and im sure thats in part due to the fact they were being "cooled" for breeding before i got them and the lighter female is in shed also.