Feeding Frozen/thawed?

hi i am planing on feeding my ball python for the first time on friday and i am planing to feed him a frozen hopper mice. i was just wondering of some tips and a step by step on how to thaw and prepare the mice.

Get some soiled mouse bedding, or rat bedding if he was fed rats up till now. Pull the frozen mouse out a few hours before your going to feed and put it in the soiled bedding and put that near the BP's enclosure. Some people even put that into cups (lids on of course) with holes and put it right into the BP's enclosure.

That is prescenting. Gets the snake in the mood for food and hunting.

Next, about a half an hour before your going to offer (around 8:30 at night usually) pull the mouse and bedding. Put the mouse into a ziplock bag and put it into very hot tap water to finish thawing and warm up. Leave it there for 15 minutes or so.

Pull mousy out of the bag, put the mouse head up to a light bulb for a minute to get the head warm so the BP can "see" the heat and strike.

Grab the mouse with long tongs, do the zombie dance with the mouse (Dangling and flinching the mouse in the enclosure) and hopefully he will strike.

If after a few minutes he doesn't, reheat the mouse head again and offer one more time. If he still doesnt strike, warm up one more time and leave the mouse in the enclosure over night. Leave the BP alone in a quiet dark room.

Hopefully the mouse is gone by the next morning! If not, wait a week and try again.

I don't feed FT anymore, but when I did I just put the frozen mouse on top of the snakes enclosure for about two hours to thaw. This also pre-scents the enclosure and gets the snake in hunting mode. Then I would give the mouse a quick blast with a hair drier. Then just drop it in. I had one BP who ate butt first a few times so I heated the head of the mouse with the hair drier and this worked like a charm. For some reason the head is the last part to thaw.

i hearrd that its better to feed outside its home. should i be taking the snake out of its viv?

I feed my monitor frozen mice. I get a ziplock bag, and put a mouse in the bag. Seal it up, and get a huge cup and fill it with hot water. Then I use a sink stopper to hold the mouse under water (in the bag). I wait like five mins, then replace the water with more hot water, and the second time around, its usually un-thawed.

The reason why I do this, because I feel if you let it un-thaw at the natural rate, you may get little buggies or bacteria, I DONT KNOW but thats just how I feel.

it does seem to be good to make sure the mouse is dry as well as warm. After I wamred mine up in the water, I dried it off really well and fluffed it up.
Also, my mouse came in a bag where his head was bent/tucked under really hard, so Uli had some problems with it (tried swallowing it backwards without much success...hehe) so the next time I made sure it's neck was all straight and it looked pretty much like a "real" mouse.
Also, if your snake had been eating live and you plan to feed in his normal enclosure, it might be good to put some newspaper over the substrate. Like I said, Uli had issues the first time- she wasn't even sure it was food at first- and she got it covered in Aspen while she was trying to swallow it.

I think this is a very popular discussion topic on this forum. I have always fed in the enclosure but I'm sure others will chime in here.

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Originally Posted by chavhing

i hearrd that its better to feed outside its home. should i be taking the snake out of its viv?

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A lot of people say to do that because the snake will bite you if you open the tub, associating you opening the tank with him being fed. This is purely false unless you NEVER handle the snake. EVER.

Snakes can learn simple patterns. Pre scenting, same day of the week... these little things will let him know today is feeding day. All of my snakes know when feeding day is and are on a hair trigger feeding day. Any other day of the week they are little pumpkins to me.

Bp's in particular often get stressed out if touched, handled or moved prior to feeding. They like to hunt from their hide, having the advantage of security, and I always feed in the enclosure.

If you worry about the substrate, you can lay down a piece of cardboard or paper to keep it out of his mouth, but I have never had a snake die from eating a little bit that is stuck to a rat.

Either way, I would try in the tank first. I feel it's better than moving them.

thx i will do exactly what u have suggested

Hi Connie!~ How long did it take for your snakes to associate food with that specific day of the week? Mine associate food with the pre-scenting I do, but I don't think it has to do with a day of the week, per se. :)

I agree. I don't personally think that a Ball Python would be able to remember what day it eats each week.

I think they remember some sort of schedule... i.e. - prescenting the room, opening the tub, a mouse/rat hanging from the tongs, etc. That kind of stuff yeah, i'm sure they remember. But not a specific day in the week. I mean i'm sure if you fed every week on Tuesday and then randomly fed them on Wednesday.. they would prolly all still eat and everything would be hunky dory.

I do however like your idea's for feeding frozen thawed Connie. Heating a the head more than the body... I've never heard that before. I like the idea of a hair dryer too so that it helps "fluff" them. I'm really considering switching all mine over to frozen thawed shortly, simply because I don't like keeping rats.... it seems to be more of a hassle than anything.

The only problem for me getting my snakes on a routine is that I base my feeding schedule upon them deficating. Adults I usually feed every 7-10 days and yearlings/sub-adults I feed about every 4-7 days. It all just depends on how quickly they process the food. But most of the little ones deficate in about 3-4 days, and my adults can take up to 2 weeks sometimes, but most in about 6-7 days. Then I give them one or two days of rest and relaxation and start again.

Not sure if you guys have seen this yet, and I know that we aren't really supposed to post other websites, but this website has really helped me with my feeding, deficating and shedding schedules. It's www.iherp.com it's free and the database for your "schedule" is really cool... makes things alot easier for those of us who spend alot of time on the computer.

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Originally Posted by chavhing

i hearrd that its better to feed outside its home. should i be taking the snake out of its viv?

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If I am not mistaken my husband feeds all the snakes with the exception of one outside of their viv. We don't want the snake associating the opening of their viv with food and striking. On the other hand we try to handle them as much as possible so they continue to allow us to hold them.

You may want to try outside the viv to avoid ingestion of substrate (if any).

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Originally Posted by starmom

Hi Connie!~ How long did it take for your snakes to associate food with that specific day of the week? Mine associate food with the pre-scenting I do, but I don't think it has to do with a day of the week, per se. :)

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Mine did well within a few weeks. About a month.

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Originally Posted by elusivereptiles

I agree. I don't personally think that a Ball Python would be able to remember what day it eats each week.

I think they remember some sort of schedule... i.e. - prescenting the room, opening the tub, a mouse/rat hanging from the tongs, etc. That kind of stuff yeah, i'm sure they remember. But not a specific day in the week.

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Have you ever tried to feed them on the same day everyweek?

How do I know they know it's feeding day? Saturday morning I walk into the room, and instantly their little heads poke out of the tub. I can open the tub, and they immediately go into strike mode, some even do take a hit at me (my sumatran stp). These animals are on a hair trigger on saturday and aren't to be handled. THIS IS WITHOUT PRESCENTING.

You can't even imagine the energy these animals give off on feeding day after the prescenting. It's eery, but it's more than proof to me that they know exactly what day it is, and that they are being fed.

The young ones on 5 days are pigs, they want to eat all the time, but they to can be seen perched on top of their hides on feeding day. I never did prescent before I moved in February of this year because my rats were all being raised in the same room as the snakes. LOL, 24.7 prescenting.

My snakes know feeding day, and they can learn those simple schedules in my experience. Maybe it's just a severe coincidence, but I'm rather doubtful of that. ;)

I'm sure they can't tell what day of the week you're going to feed them, but if you feed them a consistent number of days apart (5, 7, 10, 14, whatever...) then it wouldn't be too surprising for them to pick up on how long it had been since the last meal, and how long they normally have between meals

so I realize the way I said that sounds weird...but all I mean is that if you always wait the same number of days between meals, and you feed them often enough, that they may pick up on it. yeah.

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Originally Posted by chavhing

hi i am planing on feeding my ball python for the first time on friday and i am planing to feed him a frozen hopper mice. i was just wondering of some tips and a step by step on how to thaw and prepare the mice.

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use live rats/mice to pre-sent the room:snake::snake::snake::snake::snake:

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Originally Posted by soy.lor.n

I'm sure they can't tell what day of the week you're going to feed them, but if you feed them a consistent number of days apart (5, 7, 10, 14, whatever...) then it wouldn't be too surprising for them to pick up on how long it had been since the last meal, and how long they normally have between meals

so I realize the way I said that sounds weird...but all I mean is that if you always wait the same number of days between meals, and you feed them often enough, that they may pick up on it. yeah.

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That makes sense to me, since after several years of consistently feeding on the same day, all of my snakes picked up on it.


With four racks I found out is if I go into the room and just open drawers for a short period of time, slide them back, and continue opening drawers (as if I were feeding a few), some of my snakes will go into feeding position.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soy.lor.n

I'm sure they can't tell what day of the week you're going to feed them, but if you feed them a consistent number of days apart (5, 7, 10, 14, whatever...) then it wouldn't be too surprising for them to pick up on how long it had been since the last meal, and how long they normally have between meals

so I realize the way I said that sounds weird...but all I mean is that if you always wait the same number of days between meals, and you feed them often enough, that they may pick up on it. yeah.

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I THINK WE HAVE A WINNER FOLKS! Well put!

Well sure any snake is going to pick up on things like that... but knowing whether or not it's Saturday I HIGHLY DOUBT!

I COMPLETELY disagree! My snake has every feeding day scheduled in his PDA....... :D

Haha, o my. Obviously we know our snakes don't know what day of the week it is right? But they do pick up on how long it has been since their last meal, and if this is consistent, well golly gee I bet the snake knows that more food is coming! (right on the money soy.lor.n)

Anyway, I also believe that because I feed my snake the size of prey that will keep him full for about 7 days, well he is hungry when that 7 days is up. I was feeding 30 gram rats to him but that had him hunting every 5 days, so at 40 gram rats, he starts hunting every 6-7.