Hello All,
I have a baby ball python. Right after we bought him he had mites and went to the vet for two weeks. During that time they fed him live mice twice. We have been told that he ate frozen prior to that. Instead of waiting a week and trying it again they went right for live. We strongly prefer to feed him dead mice for a number of reasons and neither of us have the stomach to kill the mouse ourselves. We purchased a bag of 3 adult mice that were frozen. These mice are about 19 grams each and they look too big for our snake but we are not experts. The pet store swears this is what they were feeding it. It is much wider than our snake at any given point on the mouse. Also, I was surprised to find the mice looked as if they were beaten in the head to kill. They are bloody messes and some have their eyes hanging out. Is this typical of frozen mice?
We offered a mouse last week and he had no interest at all; however, he was about to shed. We are going to try it again tonight. Of course we have a feeder box and know to dangle the mouse in front of him a bit. We also know to thaw it of course.
At what point should we consider going to live mice? Does the theory "let him get hungry enough, he'll eat it" apply to a snake? We really really do not want to feed live. My husband is military and leaves for long periods of time and I am not going to feed the snake a live mouse while he is going so we really need to get him to eat this frozen one.
Any tips or thoughts are so greatly appreciated.
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