Worst feeding night ever.

[MattEvans]

Wow had two firsts for me while feeding. Had a female bite her own side har. So i pulled her out played with her tail, she lets go and goes back in the tub. I offer again she takes it. Going to give a dab of polysporin in a hour or so.

I was warming the rats with a blow dryer so everybody was alert. I open a males tub and bam! grabbed my finger. Thankfully he let go right away. I offered the rat and he took it.
I was going to feed my super dwarf retic tonight but I think ill wait until tomorrow.






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[Bogertophis]

Good idea...save some for tomorrow, it's not your night! Hope you have some thick gloves for applying the Neosporin...

[nikkubus]

Oh goodness. Haven't had one bite themselves yet, knock on wood. I've seen a retic do it in a video though and eek. Hopefully she heals up nice and easy with no complications. I'd have probably called it a night before the retic if I were you too :/ mine are still pretty little and don't have an insane feeding response yet but that would be the night for something to happen.

[BlueOrleans1290]

Oh, I hope your finger heals up nicely. And good luck with the polysporin!

[EL-Ziggy]

Sounds like one of those days. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

[MattEvans]

Rest of the night went fine. Its weird because the female who bit herself used to be the pickiest eater and would only eat live. After she laid her eggs last year she has just been ferocious eating frozen thaw. She was 2400g prelay, 1500g after laying and is back up to 2500g and change. From my worst to my best eater. I can't complain.

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[Bogertophis]

Rest of the night went fine. Its weird because the female who bit herself used to be the pickiest eater and would only eat live. After she laid her eggs last year she has just been ferocious eating frozen thaw. She was 2400g prelay, 1500g after laying and is back up to 2500g and change. From my worst to my best eater. I can't complain.

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That's my experience as well- nothing like reproduction to give a ferocious appetite to a female snake.

So if she bit herself, she's back to "eating live", eh? (jkg!)

[MattEvans]

I got to thank Garret from Reach out Reptiles. He posted the video of how to get a retic to let go by playing with its tail.

I thought about not bothering her and she would let go eventually. But she was biting and squeezing harder by the second almost as if her own movement and pain was triggering her response to fight harder. It took only a couple seconds of me touching her tail for her to let go.

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[Bogertophis]

I got to thank Garret from Reach out Reptiles. He posted the video of how to get a retic to let go by playing with its tail.

I thought about not bothering her and she would let go eventually. But she was biting and squeezing harder by the second almost as if her own movement and pain was triggering her response to fight harder. It took only a couple seconds of me touching her tail for her to let go.

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There's an old joke about the futility of herding cats, but I think trying to herd snakes would be worse. Still, if you ever need to, "playing" with their tail tip gets their attention to move forward- it's probably instinctive, in self-defense, as it's something predators may grab for.

Do share a link to that video though, I'm sure everyone wants to watch it now too.

[MattEvans]

I looked for a while last night for the specific video with baby retics but i couldn't find it. Might have been in a instagram live or something. Anyways here a little bit more version of the video I saw.
https://youtu.be/ie5Iauc3Q9E

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