Feeding Live Mice in Living Enclosure

[baazi1]

We feed our BP once every few weeks... she takes live mice/rats. We have been feeding in a different cage most of her life, but unfortunately, that cage broke this afternoon. What are the downfalls of feeding live mice in her living enclosure? I guess my only concern is her getting the Reptile Bark in her mouth. Do we need to monitor that?

It would be massively helpful to feed her in the current enclosure. Thanks for any info for or against

[reptilemom25]

1. Every few weeks is not often enough. Should be one appropriately sized pre item per week. This is why I don’t feed live. If you don’t raise feeders it means going to the store every week.

2. Snakes should be few in their enclosure. They get stuff in their mouth in the wild, it will be fine.




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[baazi1]

She won't eat dead/frozen. We've tried multiple times. There are times she just plain won't eat. She's stubborn like that. We'll have to give the frozen mice a go again, see if they'll take this time. And we'll start feeding her in her enclosure. Thanks for the info!

[Craiga 01453]

Definitely feed in the enclosure.

If you're concerned with substrate ingestion, consider this: nobody cleans their food in the wild. They've survived thousands of years ingesting a little substrate here and there.

[pretends2bnormal]

1. Every few weeks is not often enough. Should be one appropriately sized pre item per week. This is why I don’t feed live. If you don’t raise feeders it means going to the store every week.

2. Snakes should be few in their enclosure. They get stuff in their mouth in the wild, it will be fine.




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Unless you know how much is being fed at each meal, it is not really possible to say if the frequency is too little. I've seen generalizations like that result in a snake being fed massive meals weekly instead of more moderate meals.

In general, adult ball pythons can easily be fed every 2 or even 3 weeks. (Referring to pets, breeding animals have a higher caloric requirement and generally need more food or more often because of it.) Both of my adult males eat about 50-70g every 2 weeks and are maintaining good body condition at 1400g and 1000g.

You can feed, say, an adult male a smaller rat every week, or feed a larger rat every 2 weeks. (I.e. bottom end of a small rat weight vs the high end of the small rat weight, 45g vs 80g) It depends how large the amount fed is. Some people feed on the large side and space meals out, others prefer smaller and more frequent.

Some argument can be made based on a study of snake digestive processes that feeding too often is detrimental. Their organs enlarge in order to digest food and it increases blood flow required and puts some strain on their organs. The time it takes for their body to return to rest mode is 2 or 3 weeks, if I remember right, so when you feed weekly, it doesn't let them return to a non-digesting state. How bad this is, I don't really know. Many snakes live full life spans fed both ways, so it doesn't seem like the end of the world either way. But there are many who will prefer to feed less often and allow them to fully complete the digestive process before providing the next meal, even if it means feeding a bit bigger prey item at each meal. This isn't necessarily waiting for them to poop either. (This larger prey can be riskier for live feeding, as bigger rats are more capable of causing significant harm, but that's a keeper's individual choice as well.)

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[mechliam]

I would definately try again to convert to frozen thawed. Have you tried the usual tricks such as warming the rat up before feeding?

You could also try other food items to get them started such as mice, gerbil or chicks. Once they start taking these you may be able to move them over to frozen thawed rats from there.

I wouldn't worry too much about the substrate. As long as it isn't ingesting huge amounts there shouldn't be any issues.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Feeding in another cage is not recommended anyway so the cage breaking is really a good thing.

As far as feeding live in the cage the animal leaves in it will be fine substrate wise (I have fed countless amount of live on every single different substrate known without issue), now the only thing is to make sure there is no decoration the mouse can hide behind and do as you usually do drop the mouse and remove if uneaten after 10 min.

[Craiga 01453]

I would definately try again to convert to frozen thawed. Have you tried the usual tricks such as warming the rat up before feeding?

You could also try other food items to get them started such as mice, gerbil or chicks. Once they start taking these you may be able to move them over to frozen thawed rats from there.

I wouldn't worry too much about the substrate. As long as it isn't ingesting huge amounts there shouldn't be any issues.

BPs can be extremely finicky. I would stick to mice and rats, especially while trying to transition from live to F/T.

Sticking to familiar scents is probably the most efficient way to transition and get the animal eating consistently.

The risk of offering other prey items is that the snake may decide to only eat one of the other, less common, more expensive prey items.

My two cents : keep it simple and stick to what works reliably.