2 quick feeding questions

[Tray]

Since I recently switched to feeding live rats to my bp, I had a concern since rats can injure a bp with their bites. In a prior thread someone reccomended stunning the rat prior to feeding.

My first question is, how do you go about doing that?

I suppose I take a small delight in seeing rats get eaten. I hate rats, for some reason they just get under my skin, so feeding Dante them for life holds some appeal to me.

But I also want to look out for his well being above all else. Whats the most humane and hopefully less hands on approach you use to stun the rat? I'm hoping theres something more humane them slamming them into a door, but I'll do what I have to do if it will keep Dante safe.

Now my next question is, introducing my bp to thawed rats at some point. How did you get your bp to accept frozen thawed food? Dante eats like a pig, but I've heard the horror stories of BP's not eating and I'm hoping to avoid that situation.

Thanks for all your help.

[steelsack]

Well, I use the door slam method. I feel it's pretty humane, as it's over quick as lightning. Rat goes in plastic grocery bag, bag goes into door/wall/frame, rat suffers from rather sudden deceleration trauma.
Some people use rulers. A ruler held against back of neck at base of skull, pinning rat. Then quickly pull tail and spinal column is separated. I think the bag to wall technique is quickest and requires the least amount of handling the rodent. I don't particularly enjoy doing this, but a trip to the vet due to a nasty bite would be far less enjoyable.
Is Dante still growing? They are usually better feeders while they're young. I did the frozen attempt to see if my bp would take it........no problem. I heated it in a zip lock baggie set into hot water untill the rat was nice and warm and soft in my hand. Dangled in front of hide with hemostats..........whap. No worries.
I try stunned/killed first, if not taken (which he has not refused yet) I would freeze it for one more try the next day or so.
Experiment a little and see what methods you prefer. It sounds like you know what you need to in order to feed your buddy. Get your Executioner's Hood out a wack the rat. Not much fun but a better trade off then Dante getting injured. Good job on deciding to go with pre-killed. Hope it works well for you two.

[Danny]

Guess what? I hate rats too, cats too but that's whole different story. When I buy my rats at my local pet store, they give them to me in two paper bags. When I get home, I grab the bag by with the rat(s) in it and whack it againt the pole of my fence. The rat(s) begins to "shake" (if you will) when I open the bag the rat is laying sideways still breathing but unconcious. I then grab it with some tongs and feed it to my snake. Now, about feeding thawed rats I don't know cause I've always fed my snakes "freshly knocked-out" rats.

[Marla]

For feeding the thawed rats (or mice), make sure you heat it inside a baggie cuz that will help it retain its smell so that it still smells like food. Otherwise it's just something warm and wet and the snake may or may not test it for being food.

[lastdoctor]

I tried feeding my bp for the second time since I got him last night. I was trying to feed him a f/t fuzzy rat. He seemed interested at first. I was wiggling it around in front of him and he started smelling it, so I layed it down on top of his hide. He then layed his head next to it. At one point he knocked it off of his hide and staired at it, so I left it in over night and it was still there this morning. The person I got him from said that he fed him f/t fuzzy rats. Guess he just isn't ready to eat yet.

Jeremy