Feeding Night Terror (and lessons learned)

[mikedahitman87]

Hello everyone,
Tonight was a terrible night but in the end I learned a lot and none of my snakes were hurt. Ok so here is the prologue and story followed by what I have learned.
Prologue:
I wanted to start switching one of my two ball pythons to frozen this week. I can get 5 frozen small rats for less than one live one at petco. Also the convenience factor of not having to got to the store once a week. The other ball python is still on large adult mice which are cheap, plus I just got her three weeks and she just shed so I didn't want to introduce anything different to eat. Yesterday I attempted to feed the FT rat to my male mojo but he just wouldn't take it which leads to tonights story.

Tonight:
I bought an adult mouse and a small rat for my snakes. When picking out the rat I paid more attention to size than I did the behavior of the rat. Usually I try to pick one that is docile and friendly and doesn't mind getting picked up by the store clerk. This rat was not as nice and later tried to bite me through a glove I was wearing.

After pre-scenting for about 90min, I placed the mouse in with my female she killed it within 30 seconds. I place the rat in my in the male's tank and the thing just started running around. I wasn't too worried at first because usually my male waits for about 10 min in his hide while the rat settles down. I turned out the lights and left the room for 30 min. Came back later to find male retreating back to his hide as if he didn't want the rat or wait for the rat to settle down again. I decided to take the rat out and try again later.

Getting the rat out proved to be very difficult and during the process, the rat decided to probe wire for my thermostat which must be replaced. Then after getting rat out, the rat escaped from me and hid IN the couch. After about an hour my roommate and were able to catch the rat and dispose of it.

Lessons learned:
1. It is okay to feed live as long as you pay attention to behavior when picking a feeder.
2. Never place the t-stat probe inside of the enclosure
3. If you can switch your BP over to frozen, then it will make your life easier
4. I have the best roommate. After this incident, he is still cool with me have my snakes...He would just prefer if they ate frozen.

[Nate]

haha the rat in the couch is comical..i'm sorry...

first hand experience is a great teacher.

What kind of t-stat are you running?

One option you can try is putting the probe in an empty enclosure...

[mikedahitman87]

I am running a helix. Just put in an order for a replacement probe. I a "moonlight" lamp that I will leave on to make sure he is warm enough to make it until i get a new probe and can plug ultratherm back in.

Rat in couch experience was pretty funny

[ravenzwife]

Well I am glad everything worked out ok, but you are tempting trouble by putting a live rat in your enclosure and leaving the room for 30 minutes!!! (Especially one that's already shown to be a biter.)

Please add this to your list of lessons learned. Your snake wasn't bitten was it?

[frankykeno]

I turned out the lights and left the room for 30 min.

This would be the greatest lesson to learn when it comes to live feeding. Is the snake okay?

[MasonC2K]

2. Never place the t-stat probe inside of the enclosure

Actualy, it is fine to have the probe in the enclosure. Just take it out when you feed live and put it back in when done.

[mikedahitman87]

The first thing I said in my original post was that neither of my snakes was hurt. I am still pissed about the T-stat probe

[nevohraalnavnoj]

The first thing I said in my original post was that neither of my snakes was hurt. I am still pissed about the T-stat probe

I don't feed live, but if I had to I would sit and watch the snake the whole time. I have too much invested in my pythons to let a couple dollar rat do tons of damage.

Next time you could try stunning the rat? Put it in a plastic bag and give it a good conk on the floor (make sure your bag is sturdy)...it'll still be twitching pretty good for BP when you put it in the enclosure.

JonV