ball python bit by mouse

[em_24]

ok so im a first time ball python owner, and my ball python is about 2 months old. he is still on live and soon we are training him to be on frozen, and today was my second time feeding him live. first was a success, except this time, he had gotten the hopper by the middle so its upper half was exposed. he is on hoppers right now, and so the hopper had bit him and i went in and tried to get it off, and then as i tried to keep his head away levi (my bp) was moving around trying to wrap again as it was messed up. and i think it just nicked him but still I'm not sure about how much damage a hopper mouse can do to him, and i don't wanna handle him since i just finished but i am very worried. I didn't see any blood or anything but i wasn't exactly able to see the spot he was bit. I'm very anxious because i don't want something to happen to him, and i will check him tomorrow to make sure its not bad. but can a hopper mouse do a lot of damage??? it didnt look that bad but i don't want to take it lightly.

[Codil7]

ok so im a first time ball python owner, and my ball python is about 2 months old. he is still on live and soon we are training him to be on frozen, and today was my second time feeding him live. first was a success, except this time, he had gotten the hopper by the middle so its upper half was exposed. he is on hoppers right now, and so the hopper had bit him and i went in and tried to get it off, and then as i tried to keep his head away levi (my bp) was moving around trying to wrap again as it was messed up. and i think it just nicked him but still I'm not sure about how much damage a hopper mouse can do to him, and i don't wanna handle him since i just finished but i am very worried. I didn't see any blood or anything but i wasn't exactly able to see the spot he was bit. I'm very anxious because i don't want something to happen to him, and i will check him tomorrow to make sure its not bad. but can a hopper mouse do a lot of damage??? it didnt look that bad but i don't want to take it lightly.

If you don’t see any visible damage or blood I’m sure he is fine. Just keep a close eye on his bedding/hides for blood spots over the next few days. I wouldn’t worry about handling for a few days just to keep his stress to a minimum.

Switching over to f/t ASAP is a must. That hopper might not have done a whole lot of damage, but as he grows so do the prey items which means a greater risk of injury. Take it as a learning experience with minimal consequences.


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[em_24]

alright, i am definitely gonna keep an eye out for him. I'm gonna check on him tomorrow and see if he got a wound or not. This was my biggest fear, and now that it has happened i am really set on getting him on frozen more than anything. thank you, i feel a bit more reassured about it.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Switching over to f/t ASAP is a must.

Nope.... Its convenience to the keeper.
The only reason I am switching over to frozen is that I am tired of cleaning rodents twice a week.

[Codil7]

Nope.... Its convenience to the keeper.
The only reason I am switching over to frozen is that I am tired of cleaning rodents twice a week.

I could have worded that a little differently. Clearly you don’t have to. Some animals will only feed off live. But if there’s already issues with biting, why not try and switch over?


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[Godzilla78]

I am totally in agreement with Pit-on-the Prowl. I MUCH prefer to feed live as it is easier in my experience and the snake's feeding response is so much more consistent and stronger. The only reason I feed thawed, is that it is cheaper than buying live, and I tried breeding rats once, and it was a disgusting chore as Pit-Prowl pointed out.

With feeding live, you just have to be more careful to feed smaller prey, that are not as much a danger, and to supervise the kill. I have fed huge prey live to my snakes and they killed it without any problem. However, a big rat once scratched a scale off the head of my first snake, and since then I will not feed anything larger than a small rat as a live prey.

Frozen-thawed is more work to feed, but I much prefer them in my freezer than having them live and peeing and pooping all day long!

[PythonBabes]

Live done right is perfectly fine. Switched my boy and I got picky 2 months into eating f/t, so I switched him back.

My snake will starve himself if I don't give live, so no f/t is not a must.

[em_24]

well i really hope it doesn't end up that he will only take live. This incident scared the heck out of me and the last thing i wanted was for him to be hurt under my care.

[cchardwick]

I recently started feeding all of my nearly 50 snakes live rats and mice and most of the snakes that were fasting all started eating. I found that it's best to drop them in the tub and come back in five minutes and if they are not eaten remove them. Usually if they are not eaten I move them to another tub with a snake that is eager to eat a second time.

Last week I had one snake that got a pretty good bite from a rat. Now I feed pre killed for all rats that are medium or larger, I try to only live feed the smaller rats. It also depends on the snake, I'll feed a jumbo retired mouse breeder to one of my ball pythons that only eats mice. She is about 2500 grams so large enough to handle any size mouse. She still refuses to eat a rat, will even kill it and leave it uneaten, what a picky girl!

Here's a rat bite that I saw on the neck of my albino female ball python after feeding last week (she got bit and was still able to eat the rat). After I saw this I decided to go back to CO2 to euthanize my larger rats before feeding. (But I've always euthanized the jumbo retired breeder rats before feeding to my retics). The funny thing is that this week about a dozen of my snakes didn't eat the pre-killed rodents so I followed up with smaller live rats and they all ate! Feeding live sure changes the feeding response of ball pythons, they go into 'crazy mode' and are always in hunting mode. Sometimes I'll open the tub and they come flying out biting anything and nothing! I never saw this behavior when I was feeding pre killed.

[zina10]

Then you should be at my house !!

I feed frozen/thawed and its always rather "adrenaline inducing" to feed them. I'm trying to hold the rat on the long hemostats on one hand and open the tub with the other hand. Problem is they are SO ready and waiting , I can't move the rat in front of them fast enough.

Had more then one snake hang halfway out of the tub wrapped around the rat. They SHOOT out of the tub, snapping. It gets real interesting if they didn't get the rat right off and keep coming at me, LOL.