Quote Originally Posted by cchardwick View Post
Are these ball pythons we are talking about? You didn't mention it in the post. Some snakes will only take fish or lizards for their first meal. If these are ball pythons you can try mice or rats, I'd try medium sized mice, all my snakes prefer mice over rats when they get picky. If the snakes are striking out of anger you may be pushing them too hard, personally I'd offer rodents every 2-3 days and just for 30 seconds or so. Don't chase the snake around with the rodent or they can get scared / defensive of it. I'll usually just hang it by the tail about an inch from their nose for about 20 - 30 seconds and then give up, usually no longer than a minute or so.

So it's illegal to have live rats? Where do you live? I couldn't imagine not having my breeder rat colony. I've found the easiest thing for picky ball python baby snakes is to put a rat pup in with them overnight, they almost always will eat live rat pups. And it would be really easy to feed dozens of hatchlings that way.
They strike anything...I guess fear was a more appropriate word then anger. I clean tubs and they strike at the front of thier tub if they can see me. They strike when water is filled, paper is changed. We have a friend who breeds 500 to 800 clutches a year and he said it's totally normal. We plan to ask him for tips too when we pick up our next feed order (he also supplies us with dead rats) but figured I would ask on here first We don't chase them or over offer. Luckily we have enough BP experiemce in general to know they are like spiteful toddlers when it comes to food haha.

Yea if you get caught with a live rat where I live it's a $500 fee PER rat. Also roaches. I own tarantulas and getting caught with a live roach is the same fine. I have 18 BPs. So if none of them ate F/T and I thought it was smart to sneak that's $500 X 18 = $9500 in fines! If you can find a live wild rat within the province borders they pay you $50 for it Haha. We DO have them but they are few and well hidden. Im 31 and have never seen a live rat in my life!

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