Quote Originally Posted by dotc0m
Well from what I've heard, mice teeth are usually harmless and not strong enough to puncture skin or leave marks (unless you leave them in there for a long time of course). Rats on the other hand may be a different story.
Hi,

Actually this depends on the developmental stage of the prey item.

Full grown mice have dentition entirely capable of causing serious damage to a predator where a simliar sized rat is at a far earlier stage of development. It is still capable of biting effectively however so please do not think I mean it is not.

At the end of the day the chances of injury are more reliant on your feeding regime than the prey item itself based on all I have read on this forum.

We have members who feed many different types and sizes of prey to their animals each week after all and a good understanding of what may be appropriately sized or aged for your particular snake can avoid a lot of problems.

As always all animals are individuals and while Dotc0m is entirely correct that during the constriction period most snakes will be indifferent to interference if you are carefull about it there will be the odd one who will not be and adjustments will have to be made.

And yes Joanna's Ideas are, as always, bang on


dr del