Question about rats..

[Napoleon]

My ball python eats pretty much anything I throw infront of him. But the problem is...It has to be alive. Or he won't even look at it. It wasn't really a problem feeding him live mice, but now that he needs rats, I'd prefer to have them dead...So he doesn't get bitten. I heard that the transition from live to dead was easier when the rat has just been killed. Instead of thawing a frozen one. Any suggestions on how to get my BP to eat killed prey?

[tman]

Napoleon; I had the same problem and still to this day my girl won't take frozen, but does now take pree-kill. Here's a little trick that works for me. Feed in a seperate tank, buy your mouse/rat a day ahead keep the rodent in the feed bin, this creates a whole lot of stink ( its a good thing ). On feeding day take the rodent out wipe the bin out, the bin still smells like rodent. Put the snake in the feed bin, it should go into hunt mode. Place the rodent in a bag and give it a whack on something hard (no blood or guts). Dangle the food around the snake, she /he should hit it.......Give it a try. Hope this helps a bit and good luck.

[elevatethis]

Something else I notice that people do that often tunr their snake off from eating....the whole "dangling in front of their face" thing, especially when its a new kind of prey item. That dangling in front of their face often scares them. I've always dangled them in a location some distance away and allow the snake to come up to it, giving them more of a sense of control thank having a rat waving in front of them.

[Napoleon]

Thanks for the advice! I'll try that...And hopefully it'll work. He's pretty picky sometimes..

[Blink]

Another thing that might help would be tongs or forceps.
You could dangle the pre-killed prey infront of the BP.
It might react to the movement.
Try feeding once the sun goes down.

[Napoleon]

I've done that with some thawed out prey. The dangling with the tongs. Didn't do anything...He just sat there. I plan on trying that with pre-killed though...

[Brandon.O]

i just drop the rat into her cage and she does the 's' thing and then i take my dart gun (its a long hollow metal pole) and kinda nudge it and then she strikes at the rat.Rat fuzzies and pinkies dont have the long tails mice do and it makes them harder to hold with tongs. I dont hold the rat by the body with tongs becuase i dont want roxy to stike and hit her nose and get scared like she did the first time i fed pre killed.she dint like getting hit in the nose much.

[Napoleon]

Mine did that. Gentleman Jim Stacey. That's his name..>_> Which is why I just refer to my snake as 'him'. Eh heh. But anyway, yeah..He hit his nose on the tongs the first time he struck at some dead prey. Maybe that's why he hates thawed? e_e;

[BallPythonBabe448]

this is the advice someone gave me
Take the mouse and put it in a ziplock bag, seal the bag and slam the bag 4 times AS HARD AS YOU CAN (not slamming hard will make the mouse suffer). Take the dead mouse out of the bag (it still might be twitching) and give it to your BP. I suggest using hemostats/tongs/forceps and give it a little motion and your BP should take it. kill hoppers the same way as adults, to kill fuzzies give them 5 very very hard flicks on the head and they will die. Just put these in front of the BP, move them closer to the head of the BP for best effect. Don’t tap the BP on the head with the mice though. After they eat FK twice try feeding frozen. Completely thaw out the mice (on a plastic bag that is on a piece of metal), then put them in zip loc bags and put the bag in a jar of VERY Hot (as hot as your sink goes) water. seal the jar and run the very hot water over the jar. after around 15 minutes (if your mice are room temp) they will be hot enough to feed.
hope that can help

[Smulkin]

Good points.

Dangling a prey item RIGHT IN THEIR FACE is a good way to ensure they won't take it that day - esp i the BP in question is in the slightest headshy. Mouse dance it some distance away from the snakes face - some BP's don't liek it when the dangled/dancing mouse is tail-up and thus appears much taller than they would otherwise expect and then bump-dragging it horizontally across the substrate might do it.

A Single mouse in a shopping bag should go down with a single whack against a sufficiently hard surface - don't be ginger in doing this - too many whacks you'll have a mess - too light and you'll just feel guilty at the twitching. Some of ours have to have the prey's nose held against a heat lamp a few seconds so that there's a real solid heat signature in order for them to take it. While there is a lot of room for individual idiosyncracies for each snake most of the methods mentioned will generally work - just be patient and try a few.