Need help with a small bp.

[Boca]

Hi, I got my first Ball Python about 3 weeks ago and I just got him to eat this past Saturday. After a few weeks of trying to get him to eat a pre-killed mouse without success I bought a live gerbil, and he ate it. I'm happy he did but I really don't want to be feeding him live rodents (I'm worried about the gerbils hurting him if he's not hungry). Does anyone know a good way to get him to start eating dead rodents? I really don't want him to go without eating,
Should I kill the gerbils myself before feeding him or should I just get pre-killed ones and thaw them out (which didn't work the first time)?

[PrincessErica]

If I were you, I'd start switching over to rats ASAP. Gerbils are a very expensive taste.

There are a bajillion threads about switching from live to pre-killed or frozen/thawed... try the search function, and if you can't find what you're looking for, I'm sure everyone would be willing to help.

[Adam_Wysocki]

A frozen thawed gerbil left in front of a hide box over night is a good way to get him/her switched to F/T food items ... after a few good feeding like that, rats or gerbil scented rats shouldn't be a problem.

Be careful with those gerbils, they are CHEWERS!!!

-adam

[Boca]

Thanks! The bp is very small just around 10 inches long I'm not sure if can handle a rat, maybe a small one.

[Ginevive]

At that length, you could get away with feeding a small mouse; I would leave rats for later. A half grown mouse would be a good size; one that's about 2 inches long not including tail. You could feed live for now, carefully supervising of course. My main concern would be to get the snake onto cheaper mice and off of $$ gerbils!

[alexrls]

At that length, you could get away with feeding a small mouse; I would leave rats for later. A half grown mouse would be a good size; one that's about 2 inches long not including tail. You could feed live for now, carefully supervising of course. My main concern would be to get the snake onto cheaper mice and off of $$ gerbils!

amen gerbils are like 8 bucks at my local petstore and (great deal) all white feeder rodents eg mice rats no matter what the size are 2 bucks (which is the the higher end of the general mouse price range)

ps ginevive is that a pacman frog on ur avatar?

[frankykeno]

Kinda wierd question here but do b.p's pick prey solely by scent or does color ever come into play (can they even see color?). As in would a darker mouse work better than a white mouse for a snake that prefers gerbils (being they are dark in color)? I know our pet store sells feeder mice in brown shades at the same price as the white ones and our b.p. has taken both with the same feeding response so I'm not sure if color even matters.

If you bought a mouse and put it on bedding a gerbil had already been on...would that transfer enough scent to interest the snake perhaps?


~~Joanna~~

[Schlyne]

If you bought a mouse and put it on bedding a gerbil had already been on...would that transfer enough scent to interest the snake perhaps?

I can't answer your other questions. "Scenting" as it's called is used fairly often when trying to change a snake over from one prey item to another.

[Scared to touch]

I first started to feed our BP F/T mice....didn't care too much for it. I used hemostats I got from work to hold the tail of the mouse and shake it for the snake to grab at. I hated thawing it out...grossed me out. Now I transfer the BP into a feeding box and drop the mouse in and it loves it.