Feeding live

[Apollobull]

For those of you who feed live, do you ever find yourself having to assist the snake to make sure it does not get bit? I know some people say that they feed live, and they watch the whole time to make sur nothing happens. If anybody does this, when something happens how do you control the situation? Today when i fed my blood, i stunned the mouse by whacking it agaisnt a hard surface, she constricted the mouse, but she did not have control over the head, so i put the tong in the mouse's face and felt the mouse biting the metal, so i grabbed the mouse's head. i chocked the mouse with the tongs to quicken the process. i felt kinda bad, but my snake is more important to me then the mouse. The snake did not get bitten. When i got the snake the guy said she feeds on live, so thats is what i stuck with so far. i wiil try in the near future to get her on p/k-f/t.

thanks

[giaach]

I have always fed live mice and I always watch closely. The only time I step in is when the mouse might bite the snake or when the mouse gets too close to the snakes face without the snake striking. The last thing you want is the mouse to stress the snake out and cause him/her to go off eating. I never stun the mouse or anything, I just pre-scent for about an hr and then drop the mouse in, she usually takes the mouse with no problem. Just gotta make sure they go for the head of the mouse first, thats the dangerous end.

[mischevious21]

There was one time that I had a rat try latch on to my big girl- but I stopped it from bitting her before any damage was done.. But it was a very close call- it probably would have happed, but the rat threw its head back before it did it- because I was reching for it and I think it was going to bite me- but it changed its mine to get back at the snake...

Which is why I always have a pencil handy- I just held the rats head back for a bit with the side of the pencil... I felt bad- which is why Ive decided to switch to frozen (with her, anyway-too many wierd feedings with her..)- but it works.

Ive only ever had to do that one time before- just watch and be prepared incase a mouse or rat does start to bite your snake... It doesnt help much if your just watching the rodent knaw away at your snake, and thinking about what your going to do after the fact..

[mischevious21]

By the way, if the dog in your icon is yours, what breed is it? My Pit/Boxer looks just like it, only shes black and white, with some dark brown on the sides.

[rabernet]

I've fed live mice and rats, well over 3000 of them. I have NEVER interfered with any of the feedings. I just had a snake that grabbed her rat by the tail, and then adjusted and threw more coils around it and was not injured.

I don't feed stunned animals, ever. A stunned animal coming out of it is far more dangerous than one that hasn't been.

They are very capable of handling their kills if they are appropriately sized for them. None of my animals, not even my biggest girls get larger than a small rat (40-60 grams).

[mischevious21]

The first time I interferd was because a mouse was biting into Rin bad- at first I didnt think it was, but then I saw blood and it wasnt from the mouse. So I took a paitbrush (clostest thing to me), and moved the mouses head back from her (though it died very shortly after), and the mouse had taken a nice little chunck out. It took a few weeks to heal completely, I used neosporin on it. She still has a little scar from it though- and it was a little over a year ago now.

And I agree on never feeding a stunned animal- they would be way more likely to 'freak out' and hurt the snake..

Which is why Im not taking a chance of it happening again. Like I said, its only happend twice out of many feedings- I just dont want my snakes to get hurt.

[Apollobull]

By the way, if the dog in your icon is yours, what breed is it? My Pit/Boxer looks just like it, only shes black and white, with some dark brown on the sides.

Yea hes my dog, he is a pit bull, most people think he is a pit/boxer mix.