Elated new BP caregivers

[Raymei]

You got pics? I would love to see a couple pics of your snake. Also when you are comfortable with it you should probably switch him over to rats. Ball pythons are girthy snakes and require larger and slightly fattier prey items than mice. There are a few picky ball pythons that will only take mice but they tend to be on the smaller side unless the owner slips in an extra meal per week but it could still cause your snake to stay on the small side. A good rule of thumb is to feed a prey item that is as thick as the widest part of your snake. Unless its a hatchling I think hopper mice are very small. I received my cinnie when she was only a month old and she started taking rat pups for me immediately. You can order frozen thawed rats in packs of 25 or you can make a weekly trip to the pet store...

Man, I am the worst about taking pictures! Good thing I don't have any actual children or they'd grow up resenting me T_T;;;

I'll take some once he's a little more active again; the lighting in the room is great for him, terrible for photos.
Until then, I do have these two (again, sorry for the quality, I'm really not a photo-person )

A guy at my local reptile store showed me a way to kill them that works well for me (everybody is different though, and my wife can't do it.) I grab the mouse by the tail near the base and flick them hard against the bone of my wrist right at the top of their neck. It breaks their neck and they are dead, just like that. There's no twitching or anything; just dead. Other people like to use a CO2 chamber and "put them to sleep" with carbon dioxide gas. Someone once recommended that I put a pencil against the base of their head and push down hard to break their neck; that was awful, it popped the mouse's eyes out but didn't kill it. I would personally never recommend that method.

I also love rodents; we have a pair of pet hooded rats. They are not snake food! But then again, I also have pet chickens, even though I love to eat chicken!

I want to get my BP on frozen/thawed, if for no other reason than for the cost benefit, but I think pre-killed is sort of a stepping stone in that direction. At least he's eating them while they are dead, even if they are only recently dead!

Oh dear god, the pencil situation sounds awful! @.@;; I'd feel SO bad.
Yeah, killing them ourselves is not an experience either one of us are jumping at, but seems like if we're transitioning him from live prey to eventually frozen, that'd be the best way to get him to cooperate successfully.

Going to have to find someone who can show me that trick... 8P