Plisskens First Rat!!!

[beaglegod]

Finally after a month off feed, Plisskens first rat was consumed last night. it measured 5"long nose to butt was perhaps a tiny bit thicker than Plissken. I scented it with horribly stinky mouse bedding (thanks Kara for telling me to get it real stinky). I played rat puppet for bout 5 min, Plissken was scared at first but I think I may have learned something. I used the rats whiskers to tickle Plissk' and that seemed to realy fire him up cause he struck and coiled round his food. Touching him with the rats body seemed to just make him move,but the whiskers are so light that he stood there for a minute getting tickled and WAP! I feel soooo good.

[JLC]

Hey, that's way cool! Way to go, Paul and Plissken!!

[beaglegod]

[Marla]

Very good Paul! I am glad he's not only eating but eating rat for you! I've also used the trick of touching the dead rodent to the snake's body, sometimes with success and sometimes not. He'll most likely speed up his growth for you now as well if he continues with the rats.

[Eddie_Z]

YAY PAUL & PLISSKEN!! I love that name Plissken, by the way. I imagine that it comes from Snake Plissken from that movie with Kurt Russell??

[beaglegod]

I imagine that it comes from Snake Plissken from that movie with Kurt Russell??

Thanks Eddie. Yep the name Plissken is from "Escape from New York"(Im a John Carpenter fan). Something by the way Im trying to do myself.

[Kara]

Paul -

First off, CONGRATS!!!!! That is awesome - I am so glad that Mr. Plissy Pants finally kicked his hunger strike! "Eau de Stanky Mouse" can work like a charm to switch those finicky feeders over to rats!

Just a thought - when you're feeding either of your snakes & they grab the rat, make sure you don't let go of the rat immediately upon them grabbing it. Give the rodent a nice little wiggle/shake/tug with the tongs, as this will elicit stronger constricting behavior from your snake - i.e. it makes them think they're really having to overpower the prey item. Sometimes asking them to "commit" to constricting their prey by giving it the extra tug can help to ensure they don't decide to drop the prey item later on, which some picky feeders will do on occasion. Nothing adds insult to injury like a snake that grabs a rodent & then drops it after constricting.

Don't jerk so hard that the snake lets go, just put up a little bit of a fake "struggle" - that's usually all it takes.

Congrats - keep up the good work!!! You're a diligently observant keeper & your thirst for further understanding of your animals is always a pleasure to see.

K

[Demonic_Rage]

Thats great news. Always like to hear about ball pythons feeding after there time off.

[jotay]

Congrats on the rat!
that's always good to hear when they love their meal

[lightningtiger09]

thanks guys. My snake has been having a tough time with rats, hopefully that works.