My first SFE....

[elevatethis]

I switched my bp over to rats a couple weeks ago without a hitch. I always feed p/k, and I've found that rats are much more difficult to quickly put down than mice are.

Well I whacked the rat on my coffee table right before I offered it to the snake in her eating box.

When I threw the rat in, it was twitching and didn't stand up when I put it on the floor of the box. It stopped moving shortly after that. Then Amber grabs it and coils around it. To my suprise, this critter wakes up during constriction. Within about .005 seconds, it leans around and bites down on Amber's body. She hissed, but didn't let go and actually wrapped another coil around.

I was right there, and the rat didn't have very long to fight back due to me grabbing its face with my hand and essentially holding the rat down while Amber constricted it. She was coiled around its feet, basically leaving its upper body free to move.

Luckily, the rat did NOT even leave a mark from the bite, but I know she felt it because I've NEVER heard her hiss...ever. I feel very fortunate that no damage was done, and I'm glad I was able to successfully intervene on this UGLY UGLY feeding experience.

I feel somewhat responsible because I didn't make sure that this rat was dead. But I mean, it wasn't even moving after I bashed it. I don't know what to think.

Morals of the story-

Rats are much harder to bash than mice.
Even when feeding p/k, don't look away until the rodent is a lump in the snake's body.
Switch to f/t as soon as possible. F/t rats don't come back to life and bite your snake.

[rex322]

Switch to f/t as soon as possible. F/t rats don't come back to life and bite your snake.

lol! sry about the experiance, but at least amber wasnt hurt

[gozetec02]

Yea you got to smack them rats really hard. I check mine for a heart beat before i dangle it in the cage. Its good amber wasnt hurt. We have all done SFE's one time or another so dont feel so bad just consider it a learning experience.

[Marla]

Could have been a lot worse. Count it as a learning experience and make use of it. I'm glad Amber's okay.

[Tigergenesis]

I'm glad she wasn't seriously hurt. It does go to show that for those who feed live, even if you're watching you can't always intervene in time to avoid injury.

But again - glad it wasn't serious.