My BP is not doing so great with live food...

[BigCeC43]

I've been feeding him live hoppers since I got him. There was never I problem until last week.

For the first time, he grabbed the mouse by it's side instead of the face or neck, and with no suprise he was bit on the side of his neck. The mark isn't large at all, but when he was eating and his neck was all stretched out it looked a little nasty. I felt really bad even though there was no blood and he didn't seem bothered.
He was still in his shed cycle when I fed him last week (his eyes and skin had just cleared up again but he hadn't she yet).

Today I fed him again, hoping that was just a freak occurance. Unfortuanetly, he bit the side of the mouse again. Luckily, I was able to step in this time, so he didn't get bit. But I saw the mouse with it's mouth opened wide trying to attack.

I know the easy solution is to switch to frozen, but I am very very very busy at the moment and learning the process/thawing a mouse weekly will not be do-able yet. I will consider in the future if I can.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening again?

He seems to let the mouse struggle more now. The first time I got him the mouse was done in literally like 5 seconds. Since then he has slowly taken longer and longer to finish the job.

[scotty84]

Another lesson learned. Don't feed live.

If you can't learn to thaw something I can offer you another solution, stun him. Put the prey item in a bag and give it a good wack on a hard surface. Then if you snake isn't to aggressive. Do the mousy dance.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Another lesson learned. Don't feed live.

If you can't learn to thaw something I can offer you another solution, stun him. Put the prey item in a bag and give it a good wack on a hard surface. Then if you snake isn't to aggressive. Do the mousy dance.

Feeding live can be done safely, I have been feeding both live and F/T to multiple snake each week and never had any issue feeding live whether it is mice or rats

Stunning not only is inhumane but also potentially dangerous to the snake if the rodent wakes-up. In other words, not a good idea.

[MikeC1212]

I'm not trying to be a jerk..

Who decides what is and is not humane? Im just saying, if I was about to be eaten by a snake, I'd rather suffer a serious head-blow so I didn't realize what was about to happen. It's not like he told him to blow smoke in his face until he can't breathe and then start poking him with hot needles.

Other people will see differently.

He didn't say put the mouse in a sleeperhold, what I mean is: that mouse isn't "waking up" (if hit hard enough.)

By the way, I don't stun my rats/mice.. so I don't need to be jumped for that. I just don't jump other people for how they feed.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Who decides what is and is not humane?

If someone chose to feed P/K or F/T than it should be done by HUMANELY euthanizing the prey, not only by respect for the prey that sustain the life or their snake but also to avoid any issues (again a stunned prey regaining consciousness will become potentially more dangerous than a prey that has not been stunned)

Also this is what Stanford University consider the most human way to euthanize a rodent http://med.stanford.edu/compmed/word-pdf/oct_2003.pdf

[MikeC1212]

lol, nevermind.

[JoshJP7]

Yea i dunno if hitting the mouse/rat over the head is "inhumane".... either way its going to be killed by the snake right? ...if it wakes up its gonna have a concussion or whatever a rat/mouse gets after being blasted in the dome so i dont see it doing too much to a snake... either way OP i think your best bet is to get smaller prey... I dunno what your local pet shop has but see if they carry F/T or small mice... If your snake doesnt eat in like 3 weeks send me a PM and ill send you some F/T.

[cheryls]

I feed f/t and it's very, very easy. The thaw doesn't take long and our snake gobbles them right up! Never a worry. Also, I have a lot of them cuz I over-ordered and given that you're in Norwalk I'd be willing to share. Petco f/t mice tend to be terrible - I don't know what's near you.

[JLC]

I know the easy solution is to switch to frozen, but I am very very very busy at the moment and learning the process/thawing a mouse weekly will not be do-able yet. I will consider in the future if I can.

I'm not sure how time consuming it is to take a frozen rodent out of the freezer...pop it into a ziplock bag and toss it into the fridge to thaw overnight...then the next day heat it up with a blow dryer or a dunk in hot tap water.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening again?

He seems to let the mouse struggle more now. The first time I got him the mouse was done in literally like 5 seconds. Since then he has slowly taken longer and longer to finish the job.

Do you pre-scent the room before offering the mouse? If not...try it. Instead of tossing the mouse in as soon as you bring it home...put it into a little ventilated escape-proof cage or box and set that near the snake's enclosure for 20-30 minutes.

This will "wake up" the snake and get it into hunt mode...and by the time you toss the mouse in there, the snake will be very ready to catch it.

Another method of pre-scenting would be to drop a pinch of used mouse bedding into the corner of your snake's enclosure...but again, do this several minutes before offering the mouse....make sure the snake is "salivating" (they don't really do that...but you get the picture!) before offering the mouse.

Hope that helps some.

[serpents-prey]

i agree with mike c whatever stuning can be fatal i prefer to flick them in the nose they twitch and make the snake constrict quite frankly whats humane is not to own these creatures but we seem to get by that just fine mice are pests and as such have very high numbers so killing a few inhumanly to sustain a snake should not matter and to be quite honest the barn i used to work at used to hold contests to see who could catch more mild mice with flypaper they die eventually so what does it matter how they die