Feeding live mice and rats is dangerous... Wives tale?

[Adam_Wysocki]

HAHA. Ok, Adam, I'll say unequivocably that I don't think you're lying at all. And, if you keep that close an eye on all those snakes then that's great and I believe you.

Well color me lucky I guess.

I only called the "nary a bite or scratch" into question because it suggests that a rodent never even gets a chance. In the feedings I've witnessed a strike to the rear of the rodent gives it a small window of time to do something.

The way I feed and have my animals dialed in, the rodent never does get a chance ... 99.99% of the time, my snakes lunge out of their tubs and snatch the rodent off of the tongs throwing coils around them so fast if you blink you'll miss it. Most of them have to be lifted back in to the tub because they are dangling in mid air wrapped around the rodent. I have less than a handful of animals that need to eat in the privacy of their own tubs with no one around and for them, reducing stress by leaving the enclosure in tact is critical.

* I'm still debating the value of leaving everything in the cage. I can understand the value of leaving the snake's home undisturbed but I have noticed that poor strikes are more common when there are obstacles in the "kill-zone". My BP's eye scratch was from a small mouse that he took butt-first from around a corner. Because he had to pull the mouse back to get it to a point where he could constrict, it had more than average reaction time. The mouse used this time to double back and bite at my BP's face and eye.

My guess would be that the problem is more about your "routine" than anything to do with "obstacles in the kill zone" ... your snake has evolved over millions of years to be one of the most efficient predators in the history of this planet ... things in it's way aren't a problem ... it's having live rodents thrown into it's environment unexpectedly that usually messes them up.

My theory on this subject is that people with tubs tend to have simple cage layouts and perhaps overlook the effect of furniture in a decorative enclosure. In general, I think its easy for anybody giving advice to unknowingly assume that the snake's environment is the same as theirs.

Why would you believe that I don't have snakes set up in decorative enclosures?

* Does BP advice apply to bigger snakes?

I have no idea ... I only work with ball pythons.

Your questions seem to be based all around things going wrong after the rodent is presented to the snake ... what I advocate is to prepare your snake in advance and there won't be any time for the rodent to do anything. If live feedings are done properly by the keeper, the rodent should be out of commision fractions of a second after being presented to the ball python. That's how I do it at least.

-adam