How long do you leave a feeder in unattended?

First of all, I am not a newbie, not an expert either but not a newbie. Anyway I was wondering how long do you leave a live feeder in an enclosure unattended? I know that you shouldn't leave a mouse or rat with your snake very long, but I imagine that those with larger collections probably do this often.

I am only asking because my new addition that I got about 3 weeks ago, doesn't seem too interest in F/T. I tried a live mouse last night, he seemed interested but also a little shy about being watched. I took the mouse out after about an hour. He might have eaten it if I left it overnight, but I am not sure.

Your poll doesn't have an option for Never. I would never leave anything larger than a fuzy in with any of my BPs unsupervised.

When I feed I am always in the room, I leave the prey in each enclosure for 20 minutes at the most if not eaten by than I remove it.

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Originally Posted by mikedahitman87

I am only asking because my new addition that I got about 3 weeks ago, doesn't seem too interest in F/T. I tried a live mouse last night, he seemed interested but also a little shy about being watched. I took the mouse out after about an hour. He might have eaten it if I left it overnight, but I am not sure.

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NEVER leave a prey unattended over night!

Your BP not eating might be due to several reasons hard to tell really without any details, often new owners experience.

• How big is your BP?
• What kind of enclosure do you have him in and how big is it?
• What are your temps and humidity and how do you measure them? (Type of thermometer/hygrometer)
• Do you provide hides, how are your hides? Are they tight and identical will all sides touching your BP's body?
• What type of prey was your BP offered previously?
• How often have you offered food?
• How often have you handled your BP?

I stay in the room with mine when we feed, but the feeders only last in the tank about a minute or 2.

When I have had to feed live I never took my eyes off of the prey item. I'm a bit OCD about it I guess, but with my luck something bad would happen if I left it unattended.

I never leave mine alone unless fuzzie or under sized.

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Originally Posted by waltah!

When I have had to feed live I never took my eyes off of the prey item. I'm a bit OCD about it I guess, but with my luck something bad would happen if I left it unattended.

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I'm the exact same way! Our BP is relatively young yet, but we always watch how the situation goes. I would say just about 20-30 minutes i'll take it out if the BP doesn't seem interested, maybe even less depending on how the snake is reacting to the movement in the tank or close by it. Usually if the feeder crosses the path of our BP several times to know that our BP DOES sense there's a feeder near by, but our BP doesn't choose to pursue it or really isn't all that interested, that's when we'll take it out.

Word of advice though, I agree with everyone else before me that you should never leave a feeder in unattended. You might not think a feeder would be brave enough to do anything compared to a reptile that's bigger than itself, but feeders can get pretty defensive when they're put on the spot. I was worried for a couple days because the feeder our BP just recently ate was trying to bite our BP when our snake was wrapping around it after it caught it! Our snake is fine though, no noting injuries, but it goes to show that feeders don't surrender to the struggle so easily. And if they're roaming around with your BP not interested, there's a good possibility that they can hurt your BP by biting or scratching, so that's why you should NEVER leave it in overnight or for any period longer than I would say at least 30 minutes in my sense.

I would take into account the list that Deborah gave, since there's several possibilities why your BP probably isn't eating right now. If you could provide more details on that list, it would probably be easier to identify why your BP was uninterested in the feeder.

Keep us updated! :)

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Originally Posted by Deborah

• How big is your BP?
• What kind of enclosure do you have him in and how big is it?
• What are your temps and humidity and how do you measure them? (Type of thermometer/hygrometer)
• Do you provide hides, how are your hides? Are they tight and identical will all sides touching your BP's body?
• What type of prey was your BP offered previously?
• How often have you offered food?
• How often have you handled your BP?

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1. about 450 grams
2 I have him in a RBI mini cage which has the foot print of a CB 30 tub. I am keeping him in this until his QT period is up. then I will move him into my rack with the others.
3. Temps are about 78 on the cool side and 90-94 on the warm side. These are measure with two indoor/outdoor thermoters with probes. I also verify these temps with my tempgun. Humidity stays about 55% checke with hygrometr probe.
4. I provide two identical hide. They are smallest I could find without him wearing them for a hat. They could be a little lower though.
5. Previously he was offered live small rats
6. I offer food once a week to all of my BPs. The rest I have already switched to F/T.
7. While I usually handle my BPs pretty regularly about 1-2 times a week, I have only handled this new guy when needed such as when I first got him and after he pooped, to change the newspaper.

I really want this guy to start eating soon. I know it is not unsually for BPs to go off food, for a little bit. My 2 year old has gone as long as 6 weeks. It just makes me nervous when a new one does it because, I just spent X about amount of money on him and have some future breeding plans for him.

I selected the 15 min option.

But I'm always still in the room feeding others, cleaning, record keeping, or whatever.
I always feed any picky eaters or "seasonal" eaters first. Then hopefully by the time I'm done with the others the ones that aren't sure will have eaten.

I feed mostly f/t on tongs so "how long" is not much of an issue for me. Most bite it right away. The live mice are never left in the tub longer than an hour. If it's not gone by then the snake gets to wait till next time.

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Originally Posted by mikedahitman87

1. about 450 grams
I really want this guy to start eating soon. I know it is not unsually for BPs to go off food, for a little bit. My 2 year old has gone as long as 6 weeks. It just makes me nervous when a new one does it because, I just spent X about amount of money on him and have some future breeding plans for him.

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It's understandable to be nervous about newbies not eating. Just keep in mind your breeding plans are not necessarily their breeding plans. ;)

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5. Previously he was offered live small rats

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To me here is your main problem, you offered F/T mice to an animal that was eating Live rats.

Switching can be tricky and when done it is often better to

1# Switch a well establish snake, which means a snake that is eating for you with consistency already

2# Take one step at the time in other word switch to mice first than once your BP eats mice with consistency switch to F/T

Right now your priority is to get him to eat so try offering live rats once a week (If your BP refuses wait a week before offering again).

In the mean time only handle him like you have done only when necessary.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

To me here is your main problem, you offered F/T mice to an animal that was eating Live rats.

Switching can be tricky and when done it is often better to

1# Switch a well establish snake, which means a snake that is eating for you with consistency already

2# Take one step at the time in other word switch to mice first than once your BP eats mice with consistency switch to F/T

Right now your priority is to get him to eat so try offering live rats once a week (If your BP refuses wait a week before offering again).

In the mean time only handle him like you have done only when necessary.

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I was offering F/T rats and he didn't seem that interested. I only tried the live mouse because: 1. their cheap at 1.50 2. When my older snakes were on live, I found them to easier to remove if they aren't eaten. I had a near escape of a feeder rat before I was able to properly dispose of him.

I will try a live small rat next time.

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Originally Posted by mikedahitman87

I was offering F/T rats and he didn't seem that interested.

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Which is normal since he was eating live rats ;)

Again switching is easier done when the animal is well established and a consistent feeder.

Switching can take time and tough love but for now get him to eat at least 4 to 6 meals before trying to switch him to sometng different.

Some of my snakes will not eat if I am watching over them, they just wont. I clicked the 15 minute option, but I check in once every 5 or so. Pretty much I stay in the room because every single rat/asf/mouse seems to go into a corner and mess with the beding; they are not going to attack the snake. When I hear a thump I take a peek into the tub to make sure everythings going good and then I leave. Some people think leaving them alone with the prey is crazy ( Then again they normally only have a few snakes...)but if I waited around for each one to eat while I was watching a few wouldnt eat and Id be there all day. If you do have a large collection and wait for all the trouble feeders to eat in front of you then more power to ya.

I don't walk away until the rat is dead. -Shrugs.- I don't even set the rats down. They're fed off of tongs. I feed live because that's what my snakes eat, but I won't take risks with them. It's not worth it.

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

Some people think leaving them alone with the prey is crazy ( Then again they normally only have a few snakes...)but if I waited around for each one to eat while I was watching a few wouldnt eat and Id be there all day. If you do have a large collection and wait for all the trouble feeders to eat in front of you then more power to ya.

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This was one of the points I tried to make with first post. If more people with large collections responded, it would be interesting to see how they affected the poll.

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Originally Posted by Melicious

I don't walk away until the rat is dead. -Shrugs.- I don't even set the rats down. They're fed off of tongs. I feed live because that's what my snakes eat, but I won't take risks with them. It's not worth it.

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I have seen that in some videos. How you do that? Does the rat squeak and shriek?

Simple.

1) I hang until a good strike is put on the rodent.

2) Next, even if the rodent is in a death lock, I check that the rodent cannot bite the snake. If I see that the rodent can or is biting the snake, I break its neck.

Once those two criteria have been met, I move on.

Brandon

I have found for me the best way is:

phase I: let rodent hang around for 15-20minutes (I have big viv)
phase II: when mouse is still there unattached i try to "raise probability" by putting in barrier and wait another 15-20minutes

When nothing is happen... snake is hiding and I can not see head of snake (I call it "I don't care pose") I just remove rodent...

I didn't answer the poll because there's no never option.

I only have 3 snakes that eat live. I use separate feeding tank because my viv is packed with too much decorative stuff in it so the live rat has a gazillion places to hide and chew on the decor. I take out the snake, put in the feeding tank, drop a live rat, watch until rat is coiled. I have 2 immediate strikers, so they go first because they're easy. And then I got 1 prima donna. If she goes on that S-curve of the neck, then she's interested and it's easy because she's a pro-striker - never missed the back of the rat's neck. But then, if she doesn't go on the S-curve, then I just sigh and sit down infront of the tank for about 20 minutes before giving up and taking out the rodent. Sometimes she strikes the rat after 10 minutes of disinterest, but after 20 minutes and she's still not in hunt-mode, she starves for another week.

I can't leave them unattended because I've had instances when the rat bit the snake! One time, the prima donna wasn't showing interest so the rat got brave and took a bite out of the snake's neck which caused the was-not-interested snake to pull back and WHAM! Dinner. The rat didn't puncture the snake that time.

Then, another time, my silly spider (who is such a bad shot!) struck the rat on the back leg, coiled, but left the rat's head free, so the rat took 2 big bites on the snake, but before I was able to intervene, the snake coiled up the rest of his body around the neck of the rat. It was wierd because usually, the snake only coils about 1/3 of his body, but this time, he was coiled up all the way to the tail! He had 2 bloody punctures. I was not happy. So now, I watch the rats with tongs at the ready.

ive had them bite the tail and coil

I only have 9 snakes right now and im feeding them all Live ASFs. I just hold the rat by the tail and dangle ofer the snakes head then BAM. One of my snakes wont eat if he can see me so i use tongs and hold the live rat by the scruff of the neck and walk him into the hide.
Im lucky all my snakes will eat instantly at feeding time. I dont have a problem with leaving a live rat to wander the cage but ill be in the room the entire time constantly checking.
Never leave a rodent in a cage overnight.

I leave mine in between forty-five minutes and an hour. BHB said on reptile radio that he leaves his in overnight.

I didn't vote mainly because you don't leave feeders unattended period! I feed live I choose to feed live my animals thrive and to this day never had any problems, mainly because I NEVER leave my snakes unattended during feedings.

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Originally Posted by mikedahitman87

This was one of the points I tried to make with first post. If more people with large collections responded, it would be interesting to see how they affected the poll.

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True, most people you see on here have only one or two snakes. I have forty keepers, and many more during hatching season. It would take a while for me to watch over every one. It would be impossible for someone with thousands of snakes to watch over them.

from my experience I leave a feeder in the tank about 25 min. If my ball doesn't take it in 25 min she won't take it at all. Try again in 2-3 days.

Tip: try feeding at night less noise, light, and movement outside the tank.

99% of the time, all my snakes eat within 5 seconds of prey being offered, but I occasionally get one that won't take that second or third rodent. When I'm done with each round of feeding (I have a few mousers that get 3-4 mice per feeding) I do a quick check and any rat or mouse that is still alive gets taken out.

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Originally Posted by Slim

Your poll doesn't have an option for Never. I would never leave anything larger than a fuzy in with any of my BPs unsupervised.

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Amen. I will NEVER leave a live feeder unattended with ANY of my animals. I've invested too much money, love, time, etc. into these animals, and I won't risk their lives for convenience.

Wow this really is going to strike people as odd. But I feed live every one of my animals eats live prey. So heres how I do it.

I take and toss the small rat in the tub with the snake. Now 9:10 the snake nails it not 3 seconds after the feeder being introduced. how ever I do have a couple of animals that are ticky so they take a little longer..I will leave a small rat in the tub for up to an hour checking on it every 15 minutes or so. Most of my picky eaters will eat during this time.

However I have a Mojo female that the feeder has to be left over night with her. I have never had an injury after 5 years and thousands of feeding. I think as long as your responsible and not leaving the rodent in the enclosure for long periods of time its fine.

Now there are exceptions to the rule..Things do happen so I'd suggest doing what your comfortable with

I'm always the outcast on this topic, the pariah.

I have absolutely NO problem leaving a well-fed, well-watered rat in with one of my snakes for more than an hour or two. I don't do overnight but it has happened once or twice (on accident) with no ill effect.

A few points:

• I have multiple hundreds of snakes. I don't have time to sit and watch each of them for 20 minutes and then take the rat out if it doesn't eat.
• Some of my snakes NEVER eat within 20 minutes. They only eat after the rat has been in the cage for a much longer period of time.
• If I monitored every single feeding I wouldn't have time to make this post because I would be feeding 24/7 and would never do anything else.

In almost 20 years of doing this (hundreds of thousands of feedings) I have never seen a well-fed rat simply attack a snake. It just doesn't normally happen. If you throw a starving rat into a tub with a snake that doesn't want to eat, you may have a problem. If your rat can drink from the snakes water bowl I think you'll be fine. Unless you have an aggressive strain of rat they are pretty darn docile until they get very hungry or very thirsty.

Now, I know nobody who regularly posts here will agree with me on this but I'm cool with it. What I do works for me and I have not had an animal damaged yet from rodent bite (knock, knock).

If you have a ball python that doesn't seem to be eating in the 20 minute range, consider trying what I say. If it makes you uneasy, sit there the whole time and read a book. While you're at it, toss a piece of rat chow in the cage, too. That will give the rodent something to eat if it gets hungry.

Regards,

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Originally Posted by ColinWeaver

I'm always the outcast on this topic, the pariah.

I have absolutely NO problem leaving a well-fed, well-watered rat in with one of my snakes for more than an hour or two. I don't do overnight but it has happened once or twice (on accident) with no ill effect.

A few points:

• I have multiple hundreds of snakes. I don't have time to sit and watch each of them for 20 minutes and then take the rat out if it doesn't eat.
• Some of my snakes NEVER eat within 20 minutes. They only eat after the rat has been in the cage for a much longer period of time.
• If I monitored every single feeding I wouldn't have time to make this post because I would be feeding 24/7 and would never do anything else.

In almost 20 years of doing this (hundreds of thousands of feedings) I have never seen a well-fed rat simply attack a snake. It just doesn't normally happen. If you throw a starving rat into a tub with a snake that doesn't want to eat, you may have a problem. If your rat can drink from the snakes water bowl I think you'll be fine. Unless you have an aggressive strain of rat they are pretty darn docile until they get very hungry or very thirsty.

Now, I know nobody who regularly posts here will agree with me on this but I'm cool with it. What I do works for me and I have not had an animal damaged yet from rodent bite (knock, knock).

If you have a ball python that doesn't seem to be eating in the 20 minute range, consider trying what I say. If it makes you uneasy, sit there the whole time and read a book. While you're at it, toss a piece of rat chow in the cage, too. That will give the rodent something to eat if it gets hungry.

Regards,

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Colin, I 100% agree with you! I have never seen a rat that is well fed or watered just out right attack a snake. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that feels that its Ok.
:gj:

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Anyway I was wondering how long do you leave a live feeder in an enclosure unattended? I know that you shouldn't leave a mouse or rat with your snake very long, but I imagine that those with larger collections probably do this often.

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It depends. I have no problem leaving a crawler rat or a fuzzy mouse in with a snake overnight. They're small enough to not be able to do any damage. I also don't have much problem with small rats or hopper mice either and am willing to leave them alone for a while, but as the age and size of the prey grows, the less comfortable I feel about leaving them alone with my snakes. This is why my largest snakes that take the largest prey either take frozen/thawed, or fresh killed, I don't allow my largest snakes to kill their own prey.

I never leave anything bigger than a fuzzy unsupervised.

I also vote for never. There is no reason to have a mouse in there without watching. That is an accident waiting to happen.

I drop the mouse/rat in then come back in 20-30 min to check on everyone. But as others have pointed out, there are some snakes that don't follow the rules. My mojave girl has to be left alone for a couple of hours with her prey before she eats it. So its about knowing your animals and what they need to thrive.

But as others have said, a well fed rodent won't really be a threat to your snake if you're smart about it.

I do not as a general rule leave any live prey with any snake no matter what. I do have a decent collection but I also have worked at a few pet stores. At the stores there were hundreds of snakes and I just stagger fed them, Monday would be boas, tuesday would be pythons, and so on... I know with my collection and past experience that a live rat will attack a snake, I had one rat within 5 minutes kill my snake. The rat was well fed and watered as well as extremely tame but it still killed a beautiful snake all because I did not want to wait a few minutes.

That being said I also know quite a few people who just toss and leave the prey with the snakes.

I am against it even if it is just a pinky mouse i don'e leave it alone with my snakes. I like to be consistant with my animals so from birth they are watched feeding after 3 meals they are all switched to f/t or fresh killed.

I NEVER leave live prey unattended with any of my animals. You forgot to include an option for this.

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Originally Posted by Slim

Your poll doesn't have an option for Never. I would never leave anything larger than a fuzy in with any of my BPs unsupervised.

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Lol, I remember the good old live-feeding days. :P My big BP girl would take 20+ minutes to strike. My eyes did not wander from that rat for more than 5 seconds.

Ah, I love f/t!

I would vote NEVER.. i believe that even if your there watching the rat and the snake does strike, depending on where the snake strikes if the mouse is large enough it could still get a chance to bite and/or scratch some scales off!! so i do like giving my snakes live but i'll usually(sounds mean) give it a good smack on the head with my prongs, just to stun it.. and sometimes if the rat is medium to large i would consider killing it first!

I said that I check every fifteen minutes, but that's not entirely true; my bp eats the rat within 2 minutes of it being dropped in. It depends on the bp; when he was younger, mine wouldn't eat in front of people because he felt threatened, so I'd leave the rat in and check every 8-12 minutes. I do agree with what others have said: NEVER! Never is probably best, and back then I was a bit of a newbie and still kinda am.

I've done one of all of those options before. Most of my snakes nail the rat in about 5 seconds of putting it in the tub. Some of my snakes take their time and it takes a few hours or all night for them to decide that they want to eat. With those picker eaters, I ALWAYS place three rat food blocks in the corner of the tub of that snake for the rat. So in case the rat gets hungry during the hours or during the night, it has food for to nibble on.

Like said above, a well fed and watered rat, should not feel the need to attack or nibble on a snake. It more then likely will just make a "nest" away from the snake, and hang out there. Or at least that is what I have seen from all of the rats I've fed off or have seen be fed off at PKR.

Having seen what a rat can do if the snake doesn't strike it correctly, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving a live rat in overnight. The 2 snakes that are only eating live right now have superb feeding responses so I dont even have to consider leaving the feeder in. If on the off chance they don't eat, the feeder would go back into the holding tub w/ food and water.

Usually my snakes eat right away. If one is just coming off a fast or being finicky I'll put a live rat in with it and leave for 10-15 minutes. If it is not gone by then, I'll just take away the food item and wait until the next feeding day to offer again.

I watch mine for a bit when I first put it in if they don't take it in 10 minutes or so I put a little rat food in there and give them about an hour if its still not gone I take it out.

0 seconds.

I doen 15 mintues at the most I have had once or twice I was feeding and get a fire call and comehoem get a shower and go to bed and remember in the moring as i am feeding the rodents and foundo ne in the corner of the tub waitingot be removed. but theat only happen once so far.

Some of my snakes won't eat if im hovering above them watching.

I check every 5-15 minutes i'd say, depends on the snake, my pinstripe is very pissy and i know she won't let anything come near her she doesn't want to so i wouldn't worry leaving a rat in there for a half hour or longer. but normally by that time she figured out if shes gonna eat or not, so i take it out b4 hand anyways. but my smaller normal female is a very passive snake and just hides her head if she doesn't want to eat, so I check on her more often because if a rat did try anything i know she wouldn't do crap but run.

but i think your choices are bad for the poll, more like never, 5 minute, 15 minute, half hour anything above that even rebel me would find irresposible.

exception to that would be frozen feeders, which my big carpet python i just throw it in there and its gone in the morning. she doesn't like to eat in front of people for some reason.

I currently feed live, but both my BPs are fantastic eaters. The rat/mouse never last longer than 1 min in the cage.

If I did happen to have a snake that was hesitant about eating with me watching, I would probly just dim the lights and see if that worked. If not, I'd leave and come back every 5-10 mins. These are my pets, and I will not risk the chance of them getting hurt.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

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I agree, unattented live feedings is just asking for trouble ;)