Feeding pre-killed mice and rats

[EyeLashViper]

:? Okay everybody,
Lest you all think I am some kind of freaking monster :wink: I will admit that I am kind of behind the curve here on feeding pre-killed prey to my snakes. I hate to sound ignorant but I just don't really know how to go about this. I have tried feeding thawed out mice and rats in the past and my snakes would barely even sniff at them. I thawed them out good and even heated them under a lamp to body temp but it still did not elicit a feeding response. A couple of times I had the body wall of the rodent break open which was nasty and sort of put me off on doing this. I have heard all these tales of whacking rodents but it sounds horrible - I got to put them in a bag and bash them against the wall ???!!!! :shock: :roll: or I have heard of using a ruler and popping their spine ???!!! :shock: geez....I have been bit by rats and mice and I sure don't like the idea of trying to kill a full grown rat by popping its head off or something. I don't feel like getting bit ya know?

I see what you all mean by the dangers of live prey though. It has occured to me that now that my BPs are starting to take rats that it is probably a lot more dangerous to the snake than a mouse. Do you not agree???

I appreciate any comments on this from all of you... :mrgreen:

EyeLashViper

[Brandon.O]

well if its a rat you can put it in a pillow case and whack it against somthing hard (like wall,table top,bathtub) and if its a mouse a plastic baggie works great, thats what i use for the adult mice rocky eats. At first i couldent stand doing it but it gets easyier with every feeding. i dont know about popping thier spines with rulers,that sounds kinda cruel,i dunno. I also went through the same thing you are going through like your snake isnt intrested in the frozen thawed mouse and the walls of the mouse break open ,that happned to me only it was the stomach.The first time i tried pre killed he gobbled it right up,since they are at the perfect temp i think he likes them better.

[tman]

Have you ever tried keeping your rodent in the feeding box alive for a couple hours, then wipe out the box keeping the scent of the rodent, whack your rodent then rub it around the box to make the scent stronger. Put the snake in the feed box then try giving the rodent. My guy used to refuse everything but Live, but I've been doing this and he's been taking.....still won't take f/t but p/k is better than live.

[led4urhead]

Rats are definitely a different animal than mice are. They are bigger, stronger, and definitely have bigger chompers . If whacking rats and mice isnt your thing ( some people cant handle it and that is perfectly ok ), you may want to consider building the CO2 chamber described here by FourFeathers: http://www.ball-pythons.net/index.ph...ewtopic&t=3852 . If you dont want to or dont have the ability to make something that elaborate, a small piece of dry ice in a cup of warm water inside of a cooler will do the trick nicely. Keep in mind that a prey switch over from live to f/t or p/k can take some time and effort on your part. Doing the "mouse/rat dance" is not an uncommon thing to have to do until your snakes get used ( so to speak ) to taking dead prey. The thing to make sure of when feeding f/t is that the rodent is completely warmed up. The last part of the body to stay frozen is the skull due to the amount of bone mass. If you can feel that it is warm, then you've got yourself one warm dead rodent ready to go. The best advice i can give is dont give up. If you really want to make sure that your snakes are safe from potential rat/mouse bites, pre-killed or f/t prey is the way to go.

[kontron]

do what i learned here. get an enclosure. 10 gals. works great. put a bowl of hot tap water in, and drop in dry ice. 2.00$ a lb at baskin robin. you only need about 75 cents worth to kill em. if that.... easy and i think the nicest way. take em out after the smke clears, and they should be good and dead. i think still warm enough too...

[elevatethis]

Keep in mind too....a dangling, dancing rat can be kinda scary. I think the 2 most important things to focus on when offering a thawed rodent to a bp is temperature and the way it is offered.

Make sure the rodent is warm. Pretty simple to do via heat lamp.

Second, when you are dangling the rodent, do it at a relative distance from the snake to get its attention. I usually dangle the rat in one place and my bp will cautiously move towards it, then eventually strike. I've seen a friend of mine wave a thawed rodent around a snakes face, anctually hit it in the head with it, and the snake would just recoil back and lose any interest in feeding. Key is to make it seem like it is alive, but from the snake's perspective, not aware that there is a snake coming to eat it. Know what I mean?

[Brandon.O]

Im kinda scared about whacking large rats when the time comes, i guess i will learn to deal with it. I guess i would just have to whack it ten times harder than a mouse.Those things are HUGE!!!

[elevatethis]

Thats just one more reason to try and get switched to f/t prey! No parasites, no bites, no whacking, etc etc

[Brandon.O]

True,but i tried 4 times with frozenthawed and he wouldnt take them, and the very first time i tried pre killed he took it right away.Ive given it alot of thought and i think over time i will get more and more used to killing larger prey items for him but if somebody asked me to kill an adult rat right now i dont think i could do it.Ad if i did it would take me a few hours to build up the confidence

[Anonymous]

True,but i tried 4 times with frozenthawed and he wouldnt take them, and the very first time i tried pre killed he took it right away.Ive given it alot of thought and i think over time i will get more and more used to killing larger prey items for him but if somebody asked me to kill an adult rat right now i dont think i could do it.Ad if i did it would take me a few hours to build up the confidence

Did you get the f/t prey really warm?! I mean REALLY warm.
My snake wouldnt' take the f/t mouse either after I thawed it in warm water, so I had a heat lamp over the mouse to get it really nice and warm ... which worked ... I left the heat lamp it for 20-30 minutes even after I thawed it.