feeding problems

[Brandon.O]

today rocky had a little trouble and so did i with the mouse i was going to feed him.It was an adult mouse . When i got it home i tried putting it right from the pet carrier thingie into a plastic baggie so i could whack him but the thing jumped out !! but lucky for me he actually landed right into the feeding tank. so i stuck my baggie in there and the mouse went crazy running around and trying to jump out but i somehow got him into the baggie and had to whack him really hard twice becuase he ddint seem to want to become snake food.With all this exitment goin on rocky starts to strike at his tank and act really exitied,he almost bit me when i tried taking him from his tank to the feeding tank.anyways ....so i hold the thing by the tail in front of rocky's head and of course he strikes and "suffucates" the already dead mouse but then he had a really hard time swallowing the mouse,2,3,4 minutes go by and now im getting worried that he is just going to give up becuase he was trying to swallow it from the side and i knew that wasnt goin to work so i tried to adjust the mouse so he could find where its head was and i guess he thought it was alive becuase he wrapped even tighter around it,he eventually got it down,thank god


just thought i would share

[elevatethis]

wait until u start having to offer rats...then you'll really get a grasp on their feeding capabilities. Mice are no sweat!

[elevatethis]

and by the way, after a few weeks of feeding adult mice, you might want to consider offering weaned rats. Rats are good for ball pythons....

[Brandon.O]

for some odd reason the pet store here does not sell baby rats,they only sell adult ones,which is really wierd.I have seen young rats and they look too big for him,and adult mouse is quite a mouthful for him right now.

[kontron]

i had trouble finding small rats myself, so i decided to breed them so i can jusdge the perfect size with ease. i have had troubles with pet stores not wanting to sell babies or other types of "fancy" rats too. they would only sell larger adults. breeding is my f-u solution to all those problems.

[Brandon.O]

i would do the same thing (breed) but right now i dont have the space anywhere in my house. And i told my mom about it and she said no way.If i dont find baby rats soon i guess i will have to switch to frozen and order some rats.thanks

[led4urhead]

Brandon and kontron .. try asking the person at the pet store if they have any smaller in the back. Sometimes they dont put out the little guys and keep their breeding supply in the back. I had to do that around here until they got used to me comming in

[hhw]

By the way, if your BP doesn't tries to start swallowing some part other than the head, don't worry about... when they have difficulty finding the head, they often jaw around until they find it. Some BP's can get spooked if you disturb them while they're eating, and then go off feed for months because of it. There's no way he would try to swallow it sideways, so you don't have to worry about that happening. The only thing to worry about is swallowing tail first, but I've never seen this happen in a good sized prey item for the snake; it usually only happens when the prey is too small.

[Brandon.O]

i know he doesnt have any in the back,its a pet store that is basicly one room with a bathroom and a room where he keeps extra cages and you can see inside that room.And plus i have asked him.the only pet store that i know carries them is 1 hour away and there is no way my mom is goin to drive me that far every week for a rat.He gets the adult rats from breeders here in town and i am going to ask him for their number soon.

I know he couldent swallow it sideways but he did try to swallow it backwards and somthin happened to the mouses leg (i think i broke it when i whacked it) and he coudlent swallow it so after touching the head of the mouse and moving it slighty the motion attracted him to the head and he eventually got the point and got that sucker down.

[led4urhead]

He gets the adult rats from breeders here in town and i am going to ask him for their number soon.

Good plan!