Alternative feeders

[treeboa]

It was a joke.

[FireStorm]

I don't breed, so I'm curious as to what ice chips would help with. I would think it would just be painful having that sit inside of you slowly melting and brining down your body temp as a cold blooded animal. Similar to feeding a still partially frozen rodent. Does it make them contract and push the eggs out or something?

It's Mike...that was a joke.

[MarkS]

Ball Pythons are geared towards eating rodents. The area that they're native to has at least 20 different species of rodent. Did you mean you don't want to feed rodents? Or just mice in particular? They'll also eat rats, African soft furred rats (ASF's), Gerbils, Hamsters (rather expensive for these last two) or many other types of rodent. And Frozen/Thawed rodents are always a good option if you just don't wish to feed live. Just make sure you heat the prey item up first so they can sense it with their heat pits.

[MarkS]

I don't breed, so I'm curious as to what ice chips would help with. I would think it would just be painful having that sit inside of you slowly melting and brining down your body temp as a cold blooded animal. Similar to feeding a still partially frozen rodent. Does it make them contract and push the eggs out or something?

I understand that he tried to get her to do lamaze breathing with him also but she just hissed at him and called for an epidural.

[Mike41793]

I don't breed, so I'm curious as to what ice chips would help with. I would think it would just be painful having that sit inside of you slowly melting and brining down your body temp as a cold blooded animal. Similar to feeding a still partially frozen rodent. Does it make them contract and push the eggs out or something?

Have you ever had kids? Make sure i'm there. I'll piss you off and you can tell me if it makes you push harder. "GETTTT OUTTTT!" "I love you, hold me." "Dont touch me get away from me." "Wipe my faceDONT TOUCHHH MEEE!" My cinny only knows tough love, and i'm not even the baby daddy

[MootWorm]

Did you at least rub her feet when she was done? Rofl y'all are too funny. Maybe even put a disclaimer when you're being silly so people don't go giving ice chips to preggo snakes

[Qoph]

Are you new to reptiles?


Would you have a problem feeding frozen/thawed mammals or just live?

I would prefer not to at all, but while many may find this odd, I would prefer to feed live if necessary. I find feeding dead animals barbaric in comparison. Unless you've got a pet vulture or something. This is why I would like to feed lizards - because they've not got any incisors and I've seen mouse bites on a snake before. Of course, they were really bad and probably because people left the mice in without paying attention. This would be a return to reptiles for me. Last time I had any was when I was about thirteen or fourteen. An iguana and two anoles which we always called chameleons.

The problem with feeder lizards and amphibians is that (in the US) they are pretty much all wild caught and thus full of parasites.

I wouldn't use them if they were not bred for feeding. I will do separate research on that if it becomes relevant. I've already done a little and found a few sources. These pythons have bad eyesight then, and only rely on their heat pits and smell?

Ball pythons are well known to be picky feeder, the chance of an alternate prey is almost zero, additionally not only do they not need a variety in their diet but doing so will only make them even more picky and lead to long fast.

If you want a snake that east bug consider a Rough Green Snake.

I love green snakes as well, but after watching and reading so much about pythons, and seeing how a rather large Burmese python is what got me really interested years ago, I'm not sure anything else would fill that gap, even if I really liked them as well. If they take a lizard as their first meal, are they more likely to want to eat them? Or are they likely to be totally disinterested in any case? Or is it that nobody has tried because of the difficulty?

If you wanna get a pet that you can experiment feeding variety to then get a tarantula. Seriously theres so many options with them... Tons of different types of roaches, worms, flies, etc.

I'm arachnophobic, is all I've got to say to that. Curiously, scorpions don't creep me out because they look more like crabs, but their stingers scare me off.

Ball Pythons are geared towards eating rodents. The area that they're native to has at least 20 different species of rodent. Did you mean you don't want to feed rodents? Or just mice in particular? They'll also eat rats, African soft furred rats (ASF's), Gerbils, Hamsters (rather expensive for these last two) or many other types of rodent. And Frozen/Thawed rodents are always a good option if you just don't wish to feed live. Just make sure you heat the prey item up first so they can sense it with their heat pits.

If it is absolutely necessary to feed rodents, which would be the safest for a live feeding? Are any of them diurnal, where the snake is nocturnal, making everything go smoother hopefully?

[MootWorm]

I'm still confused as to why you object to feeding mice/rodents. Not only are they the preferred diet of keepers, but rodents are their natural prey, in addition to the occasional bird. Also, if you try to do a strict amphibian or reptilian diet, you may have issues keeping a steady supply of them. You'll probably have to start a feeder colony yourself, which will in turn require their own specialized diet. Seems like a huge hassle IMO when you can just stock up on frozen rats

[rascal_rascal_99]

I would suggest looking into some of the garter snakes that will feed on minnows and small fish instead, there are some really beautiful ones out there.

[The Serpent Merchant]

I would prefer not to at all, but while many may find this odd, I would prefer to feed live if necessary. I find feeding dead animals barbaric in comparison.

How is feeding pre-killed rodents barbaric? Last time I checked when I sit down to my dinner table my food is quite dead. When you pre-kill a rodent you have the ability to do so in the quickest/most humane way possible. Using CO2 gas the rodents fall asleep and don't wake back up. No pain, no panic just sleep. Whereas feeding live isn't going to be painless or necessarily quick either. Not to mention the fact that a live rodent has the potential to hurt the snake during the feeding process.

Ball Pythons evolved to hunt/eat small mammals and to some extent birds. They mainly use their heat pits and sense of smell to hunt. Insects and lizards aren't even going to show up on the menu to them. As has been stated numerous times in this thread already, if you don't want to feed rodents don't get a ball python, it's just that simple. Don't put your wants in front of the snakes needs.