Question about my first feeding of live rat

[JimJam]

So I bought my BRB from a local exotic pet store that only fed her live rats. Tomorrow is our first feeding day at home and I don't know if I should put her into a Rubbermaid container to feed her or just put it into her terrarium. She's 4 years old and a good size with zero aggression when we take her out of her terrarium, or ever.

Also, if I put her into a Rubbermaid to eat, do I put in the snake and drop in the rat, or how do I do it? Should I put the rat in first? I'm open to suggestions. Any help is appreciated!

heres a pic for the heck of it
http://imgur.com/oWUkU0g

[JimJam]

Also, do I need to raise or lower the temp after she eats for a while? Warmer is better than cooler when digesting, right?

[JoshSloane]

Feed directly in her enclosure, do not feed outside of it. Just drop the rat in and let the snake do her thing. No need to change the temps, the snake will find the correct temperature for what it needs. Just make sure to not leave the room until the rat is dead, many times a scared rodent can do serious damage to a snake.

[Zincubus]

I'll be watching this thread with interest .....

[ballpythonsrock2]

Feed directly in her enclosure, do not feed outside of it. Just drop the rat in and let the snake do her thing. No need to change the temps, the snake will find the correct temperature for what it needs. Just make sure to not leave the room until the rat is dead, many times a scared rodent can do serious damage to a snake.

Josh is so right about feeding in her enclosure. Some pet store workers and websites will tell you that you need to feed outside because the snake will start biting whenever you put your hand in if you feed in the enclosure. That is so untrue. My snake feeds inside the enclosure and has never bite me yet. I believed it at first and tried to feed outside in another tub but all I succeeded in doing was stressing her out (and me). She never did eat outside of her enclosure. Once the live mouse used her head as a trampoline to try and jump out of the tote.
Although I would like to mention since I keep her in a plastic tub, if I put the room at 82 or even 84 a few hours before I feed her she will be more likely in the mode to eat. Other days I can keep it at 79-82. After she eats I can turn the room temp back down to 79-82 since I have the UTH temp set around 90 on the warm end. But room temp is a factor when you use plastic tubs and UTH heat and a little warmer sets the mood better I have found.
Also size matters when it comes to rats with my snake. Even though she is big enough to eat a medium rat, she won't. Live, F/T, doesn't matter, she shys away from a large meal for some reason. She will eat 3 mice or one small rat which look like an over sized mouse but NO Medium rats, period. And I need to use a hair dryer to dry and warm up the water thawed rat to around 90 because she doesn't want her small rat wet either, she likes em dry, warm and fluffy. But she loves live and will eat F/T if I do it as stated. Once she gets larger she might eventually go to mediums (which would be better for her) but right now she just won't eat a medium, so I guess a small rat every 7 days will be the schedule. Just had a thought, I wonder if I should try 2 small rats less often or one more often.
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[ballpythonsrock2]

Beautiful Snake by the way.

[JimJam]

I'll be watching this thread with interest .....

curious why...

[JimJam]

Full of good info. Thanks

[Zincubus]

curious why...

Curiosity itself . I'm a Brit and we just don't feed LIVE so I'm always looking out for accounts of LIVE feeding .

Other than that I'm not allowed to say .......

[Nixon]

Oh, it's you again, Zincubus.

Everyone said everything that needs to be said. Make sure you have tongs on the go to the rodent's mouth away from biting your snake. Mice can barely do any damage when they're constricted. Just watch out for those mice who knows what's going on and will go after your snake to defend itself. I've had some times where my snake covered the mouse of so much I didn't see it biting her, but it barely left a mark and it'll be gone in a shed or two.