Live feeding: in-tank or separate tub?

[dakski]

yes I agree it’s looking like f/t will be easier. My snake is 2 years old and honestly I have no clue how much she weighs but I’m fairly sure she’s over 4 feet and is pretty thick, I have pictures of her in my gallery. She eats medium rats right now and is teetering on needing to move up to large ones, but I’ve noticed there’s a lot of discrepancies with the sizes depending on where I buy my rats from.

She looks healthy to me - weight wise.

Medium rats are about 90-150G. I would not go any bigger than that unless she got unusually huge. I think 99% of owners never have to feed more than a medium rat, and that's generally for very large individuals. My female BP (Shayna) is 8 years old now and about 2KG and about 4 feet +. She eats small rats (60-90G) every 2 weeks in the spring, summer, and fall, and fasts most of the winter while barely losing any weight.

I used to offer her mediums, but she skipped a lot of meals. That might be part of your issue there. Smaller meals generally reduce meal skipping. It doesn't seem to change the snakes that want to fast in the winter, but it tends to make them eat better when they want to eat.

In fact, when Shayna started eating small rats regularly, versus mediums sporadically (1, 2, skip, skip, 1, skip, 1, 2, skip, etc) she will only skip in shed, and went from averaging about 1.7kg to almost 2kg in 2 years. I started this technique thanks to a former moderator on here, who said to try smaller meals every two weeks instead of what I was feeding (medium rats) every 2-3 weeks. Has worked like a charm.

I would consider letting her not eat for a little bit - say another month - and then offering a F/T small rat.


This is my step by step list on defrosting F/T rodents.

Others may do it differently and that's fine. This how I do it and it works for me.


STEPS FOR DEFROSTING F/T RODENTS/PREY

1. Put prey item(s) into appropriate size plastic bag. I use Quart size ziplock bags up to a medium rat. NOTE: Bags are optional. Some people just throw the prey in the water. I like the bags, but you have to squeeze the air out of them.

2. Fill the container/storage box 3/4 of the way with room temp to slightly warm water. If you have a temp gun (which you should, so if you don't, get one), make sure the water is not hotter than 85-90F, or there about.

3. Put F/T prey item(s) in water. Cover (optional) and leave for an hour +/-.

4. After an hour, rotate/flip prey. If in plastic bags, they often will stay on whatever side you put them in on. So if mouse is on left side, turn to right side, etc.

5. Leave for another hour +/- for a TOTAL of about 2 hours (up to medium sized rat - longer if bigger prey).

6. Check that prey is defrosted totally through. Squeeze at different sections of the preys body. Should be cool/room temp to touch, but be soft with no cold spots. If hard (except for bone), in abdomen, for example, or cold, put back in water until room temp and soft.

7. Take prey out of the container/storage box and put aside. THEN FOLLOW STEPS 8-11 OR STEP 12

8. Fill container with hot water from tap. If using temp gun, water temp should be 110-130F, not more.

9. Drop prey item into water for 30 seconds +/-. If multiple prey items, do one at a time. You want each item hot when you offer.

10. Remove (if hot water, with tongs).

11. Dry as best as you can, and is quickly as you can, with paper towels. I dry with paper towels while I am walking from the bathroom where I defrost to the snake tanks. I kind of wrap the prey item up in them. It's ten feet, so by the time I get to the tanks, the prey is drier, but still warm.

12. If not using hot water, use a hairdryer to heat rat so it entices snake

13. Open tank and offer ASAP.

Offer on tongs - NOT WITH HAND!

Wiggle a little to make seem alive to not so much to scare her and do not get in her face with it. Can move around near her, but not on top of her, etc.

She should strike. If not, you can leave for a few hours in the tank and see if she shows interest. Otherwise, remove and try again in two weeks.

Also, offer prey at night with lights dim when BP's naturally hunt.

If you need to know where to get tongs, just let us know. Also, we can advise on a good source of F/T prey if you are interested.