So i just fed live!

[theartofsolitude]

so i just fed my bumblebee, coz he really really seem hungry like he never stops roaming around and i mean literally everytime i see him he is roaming around seems like he is hunting for food.

so i went to petco to buy some $2.99 female white mouse dropped it in my snake's cage/enclosure. he then immediately went to that S stance position without moving its head, just his body transforming to S formation (really cool! i wish i video that one) and STRIKE! mouse died quick, less than 15 secs i think.. and as i thought that mouse is pretty big for the snake, he actually ate em well in approx 5 mins.

my 2 normals eat f/t.. i hope i can convert bumblebee to f/t too.. any tips?

i'm so happy i just wanna share!

[Seru1]

I have had alot of success with f/t thank God. I have yet to have to resort to live.


I think the most important thing is prescenting. Make sure your rodent is thawed and then heat it with a hair dryer near the cage. Then to get it close to 100 degrees but not over 103 F.



Give it abit of a jiggle and dance on the end of your tongs and hold it above them. If the seem uninterested it doesn't hurt to leave an F/t overnight. I've had success with that especially with young feeders or new acquisitions. Or if you have a very shy skittish snake. For instance my milksnake will only eat once I leave.



There's nothing wrong with live feeding save for some small calculated risk. (mice and rats can do damage despite an attentive eye.) But I always prefer the personal ease of F/T.


There's no wrong way Live or F/t. Pluses to both sides. Glad he ate, Happy herping as they say

[Lolo76]

I gave up on feeding my BPs f/t, since I ended up throwing away more mice than were being eaten - or giving my corn snakes the leftovers, which would eventually make some FAT corns. For me it's just easier to feed live, knowing the majority of them will happily take it... but to each his/her own, so good luck on converting the bee to f/t! I've tried all the heating & jiggling tricks with low success rates, but I guess it works for some.

[wendhend]

Since I have started breeding my own rats, I have had lots of success switching mine ball python collection to prekilled and then to frozen / thawed. Before I was breeding my own rats, I had a hard time finding the smaller rats to buy for them, and they just weren't interested in anything very big, even if they had been eating something a little bit bigger live. I found that introducing prekilled smaller-sized rats (that have not yet been weaned) on tongs has worked great to transition the majority of my collection this summer. Also, the shyer ones seem more receptive if you dangle the prekilled small rat at the entrance of their hide rather than taking them out of their hide for feeding.

[Freakie_frog]

We have allot of snakes that will eat both F/T and Live. I find that feeding F/T is far easier when the room is presented with live prey. I've seen 30+ snakes all come and sit at the front of their tub..

[dr del]

Hi,

Just to address your point about wastage.

Hatchling BP's get offered every 5 days so only occasionally line up with the other feedings.

I started feeding on a staggered schedule, day 1 the house snake, sinaloans and juvie ball pythons get fed.

If housie doesn't eat (he's been moody lately ) then the male sinaloan or one of the hatchling BP's gets an extra fuzzy mouse.

If the juvie BP's don't eat their sm weaner rats then either one gets two or they go to one of the large BP's or possibly the cornsnakes (but they are kind of large for a corn really - it was easier when I fed them on mice ).

day 2 I put out 3 sm rats and 2 mice ( if the corns already ate I skip the mice ) and I then offer the snakes I think are least likely to eat first and move through them until I run out of rats. If the normal male refused his rat he will be offered the 2 mice as he has a fondness for them and the corns have to wait untill day 3.

Day 3 the only snakes that haven't been offered food are the ones I am most sure will eat them so I defrost what they need.

It sounds complicated but it really isn't - I just offer food in order of least likelyhood to eat (including shedding, breeding etc ) to most likely. So if I have refusals I just have to defrost less food the next day to compensate.

Since I started doing that I have virtually done away with wasted food alltogether. You do need to keep a good eye on your records etc to spot recurring non-feeders and it probably isn't all that practical in larger collections but as a small hobby breeder the money saved on feeders makes it idiotic not to make the effort.

I hope that made sense?


dr del