Feeding Live...

[Nikki0326]

I've been feeding my snake live with very little problems. However sometimes when he strikes he doesn't get the head so the mouse is free to move. One time I had to hold the mouse's head so he wouldn't bite. But sometimes the way he curls up I'm not able to get to the head of the mouse if needed (I'm not sticking my hand in there and unwrapping him from the mouse, thats just asking for a bite ). Is there anything I can really do to help with this?

[KIBPLOVER]

well we just let nature do its own thing... we had one last night we feed a small rat to our 1300 gram female and soon as we dropped the rat in the feeding tub she took it, she started eating the head before it was even dead but evetually she coiled it to kill it, it was weired.....i thought she was gonna eat it alive..

[rabernet]

I don't interfere with strikes that are off - they work it out just fine on their own. I had one last week that grabbed the back leg and did just fine working it out with no injuries. I've done over 2000 live feedings and never had an injury.

[frankykeno]

Most any healthy ball python will instinctively know how to handle it's prey. As long as the prey is an appropriate size and the snake is hungry and healthy, it normally is over in a second or two.

[MeMe]

I just let mine handle it. If the prey is the correct size...chances are the snake is going to have the upper hand. I have always fed live to my corns, balls, and boa. I have never had a problem. If they don't strike and coil when I put the prey in there (within a couple mins) I take it back out. I have no shy eaters so I know if they don't get them almost immediately...they don't want it. I would not stick my hand in there once they have struck the prey though.

[waldo]

I've fed live to my corns a few times and they always got bit. The place I got my ball from was feeding live, he has bites on his neck and was covered in blood. I will only feed F/t or freshly killed for now on.

[rabernet]

I've fed live to my corns a few times and they always got bit. The place I got my ball from was feeding live, he has bites on his neck and was covered in blood. I will only feed F/t or freshly killed for now on.

The place you got him from obviously wasn't feeding live responsibly. Sounds like they left live prey that he wasn't interested in for far too long!

Feed what you're most comfortable with and your snake will eat reliably for you!

[jotay]

Like the others said if the prey is the right size the bp will work it out.
But ALWAYS stay and supervise just to make sure. Never leave a live prey item in w/ your bp unattended. I keep a pencil handy to use just in case there is a problem. Never had one up to this point and I have been feeding live for almost 4 yrs now.

[bearhart]

I feed live. The first time I did it he got the mouse's whole head in his mouth and I thought that's the way it worked. But, over time I've found that the snake doesn't go for the head at all. It only happens if the rodent is coming straight at the snake for the strike. The majority of the feeds he gets them somewhere along the side and then re-aligns them for swallowing. So far, it doesn't seem to matter much because he squeezes them so hard they are unable to do much.

[crisstyle21]

I will only feed my young 1 year olds small mice alive. I learned this from my raising my older 11 year old female. I learned larger prey items have the tendacy to protect there selves and bite. So now my older female and borneo get pre killed rats. Once my het pairs grow up it'll be prekilled for them as well.

Today I realized that now im gonna feed all my snakes in seperate containers due to a factor which caused me to have a TITTY attack. I seen a peice of mulch in my girls mouth today and was made me sweet balls taking that thing out. I would defenity feed her and my borneo in the tub for now on, and my to hets in stertile containers