If you feed live...how?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Pre-scent the room - open tub - drop feeder - close tub – done - moving on to the next snake.

[West Coast Jungle]

Pre-scent the room - open tub - drop feeder - close tub – done - moving on to the next snake.

Ditto

[SatanicIntention]

Ditto

Double ditto. No stunning required.. They've been on this planet longer than we have, and have survived and thrived through it all. Humans don't normally hover around burrows dangling stunned rodents.

[elevatethis]

Raul and Becky are right on.

Unfortunately, the anti-live people out there have circulated those same 10 or so pictures of mauled pythons and boas, almost like propaghanda to further an agenda...if feeding live in this manner is as dangerous as they say, where are all the NEW pictures that should be surfacing every other week? And why isn't my whole collection dead?

Stunning is just unnecessary...be nice to your rodents...feed, clean, and treat them well...and they'll be nice to your snakes.

[SatanicIntention]

I'll be feeding about 45 Ball Pythons as well as a Sumatran Short Tail Python tonight, and I will report back how many got maimed, ok? I've never had a snake get bitten to where it left a mark, or even to the extent that the snake bled. It just doesn't happen if the feeding routine is done properly.

Turn off the lights, pre-scent for a good half hour to full hour, put flashlight in your mouth, pick up rodent, open snake tub, place into tub as gently as possibly without getting face or hands bitten off by snake, close tub quickly without sloshing water everywhere, go on to next tub..

Even if the mouse can nip the snake, the snake knows this and will coil up even tighter. The mouse has other things to worry about, such as getting blood flow back to its brain..

[bearhart]

Yea, I think with BP's and mice and small rats the risk of injury is fairly low provided that the right conditions exist.

I have two snakes that take much larger prey and I think the risk is much higher then.

I wouldn't consider myself a pro-stunning advocate by any means. After trying it a few times I have become frusterated by the unpredictability of the rat's behavior after being hit.

[jason4173]

My female normal was eating F/T mice, she stopped eating. I got my first Pastel (Thanks Tim @ Ballroom Pythons) which was eating live rats so I figured that I would try live with my female since I was going to continue with the feeding that Tim was doing with my pastel.

Both are eating live rats, usually they are in their hides...I empty the cage of all decore give my snake a rub to wake them up a bit and dangle the rats in the cage by the tail for a few seconds and then drop them in at the opposite end...BOOM, within a minute, no more rats and no problems. AWSOME feeding responses from both snakes now!!

[bearhart]

Yea, I would say that decor has a big impact on how well the feed goes. Most of the feeds that haven't gone well for me involved the snake taking difficult strikes because of decor (around corners, etc).

(of course this isn't so much of an issue with tongs)

[jason4173]

Yea, I would say that decor has a big impact on how well the feed goes. Most of the feeds that haven't gone well for me involved the snake taking difficult strikes because of decor (around corners, etc).

(of course this isn't so much of an issue with tongs)

I just figure that the fewer the hiding places available for the rat the better and makes it easier for the snakes to get to their dinner...also gives me faster access if there is a problem without having to fumble around everything to give a good sqeeze to a rat in case of a bad strike...tho that has not happened yet, they always get them by the head....

[jotay]

I just open the tub and drop the rodents in.
With my crew of bp's they don't need any pre scent. If they are hungry, which is always, they seem to know soon as I walk in the room with the box of rodents and are almost trying to come out of the tubs waiting for me to drop them in.
Seems they know every Friday at around 2pm when I open their tubs it's feeding day.