What else can we feed our BPs aside from rodents

[Freakie_frog]

Everyone needs to chill.

All I said was hungry snake (including BPs) + available small pray = din-din.

Sorry if I offended anyone with my wacky, hair-brained ideas of a wild animal eating when it is hungry in order to survive... I've readily offered up that I am a newb at this and don't own or breed hundreds of snakes. Just making an astute general observation about nature, and, in particular, hungry predators.

No offence taken.. however I can tell you that I have (seen with my eye's and held with my hands) baby as well as juvi ball pythons that have starved themselves to death..The idea that a a hungry snake will simply because it is hungry is absurd. Wild caught adult reptiles are notorious for starving themselves to Death.

I understand what you were trying to convey however blanket statements in the reptile world don't hold true..Ever..just some food for thought.

[Darkice]

I offered one of my picky eaters a hotdog and he just looked at me like im an idiot.
I'll stick with rats.

My redtailed boas on the other hand will eat anything i put in front of them. There is no doubt that hotdog would have dissapeared in seconds.

[theartofsolitude]

i guess now that explains it why ball pythons make a good pet... since they are very picky with what they eat (hard wired to eat rodents) that's why it's not 'usually' aggressive with humans (unless they smell like rodents). very interesting and that totally make sense.

[vintod]

No offence taken.. however I can tell you that I have (seen with my eye's and held with my hands) baby as well as juvi ball pythons that have starved themselves to death..The idea that a a hungry snake will simply because it is hungry is absurd. Wild caught adult reptiles are notorious for starving themselves to Death.

I understand what you were trying to convey however blanket statements in the reptile world don't hold true..Ever..just some food for thought.

THAT TOO is a blanket statement.. also food for thought :o)

[Skiploder]

Some of you people absolutely slay me. Nothing is funnier that "watching" some boob attempt to teach using inaccurate, regurgitated facts.

What if I told you I could produce a study that examined the gastric contents of wild ball pythons?

What if I told you that this study determined that some ball pythons were found to have a predilection for birds? A wide, wide range of birds and wide, wide range of mammals. Would that get you to clam up and do your homework before getting into an argument you know nothing about?

Probably not.

Word to the wise - it's hard to school someone when you're attempting to talk around a mouthful of crap.

In addition to ball pythons, for years we herp keepers have been getting snakes to eat animals they wouldn't encounter in the wild. In many, many years of keeping snakes, both wild caught and captive bred, coming in heavily parasitized, stressed and being weaned onto non-native diets, I have never had a snake starve itself to death.

So yeah, to the person who has personally witnessed "dozens" of snakes starve themselves to death - bull spit. You heard me - bull spit.

[Ham]

Lol, ok man, I hate to tell you that its not bullspit, I have seen dozens of snakes starve themselves to death, I work at a reptile shelter, we have hundreds upon hundreds of sick and abused snakes that are confiscated from criminals and illegal smugglers, we deal with alot of venomous snakes that are brought into the country packed into weird objects like tires and other household items, we also got a ton of animals from the importer for PetCo, US Global Exotics, they were really abusing their animals. We got about 600 animals from them, a number of them were snakes ranging from baby king snakes to juvenile green anacondas, we lost probably about half of the animals that came in, many were sick and dying when we got them, but I personally watched every green anaconda refuse to eat until it was dead, as well as a crapload of milk snakes, and ball pythons in particular were impossible to get them eating again, I think every ball we received from them refused to eat even a single meal (they are all dead but 2). These animals may have already been abused and ill, but what else would you call an animal that doesnt eat until its dead, oh yeah that would be starving itself to death...
PS Coral snakes are notoriously picky eaters and if the correct prey items are not found will definitely not feed until they are dead...

[Freakie_frog]

THAT TOO is a blanket statement.. also food for thought :o)

You're absolutely correct I'm sorry

[Ham]

Freakie Frog, I need your help man, I feel attacked here! Someone called my comments bullspit! LOL

[angllady2]

If you've never had a snake starve itself to death, you are just lucky.

I got in a bag of 10 baby balls from Africa. Eight started eating within a few weeks, two would not. I tried live fuzzy mice, hopper mice, pinky rats, fuzzy rats, F/T mice and rats, you name it I tried it. Those two just kept getting thinner and thinner, they seemed to have no idea what food was. I tried assist feeding several times, nothing. I tried paper bags, deli cups, crumpled newspaper in the tubs, overnight... there wasn't a method on the internet I didn't try.

I broke down and force fed one, I about vomited doing it so I stopped at one. That baby is still with me, even though it still will not eat on it's own. The other baby finally wasted away to nothing and died without ever taking a meal.

Don't you dare sit there and tell me it doesn't happen, because it does.

Gale

[Ham]

This is a terrible subject, I can tell you that losing a snake to starvation is terrible, it is not only physically painful for the animal, but it is exruciating to try to deal with, I can speak from experience when I say that is probably one of the most stressful things that could happen to a snake owner, the debate that rages in your head about what you can do to fix the situation is agonizing, its back and forth about whether a force feed is a good idea or not, and the constant attempts to try to get the snake to eat is stressful in itself when it is constantly met by failure. I am sorry you had to go through that Gale, but thanks for backing me up on this one...