Feeding Frozen/thawed?

[chavhing]

hi i am planing on feeding my ball python for the first time on friday and i am planing to feed him a frozen hopper mice. i was just wondering of some tips and a step by step on how to thaw and prepare the mice.

[littleindiangirl]

Get some soiled mouse bedding, or rat bedding if he was fed rats up till now. Pull the frozen mouse out a few hours before your going to feed and put it in the soiled bedding and put that near the BP's enclosure. Some people even put that into cups (lids on of course) with holes and put it right into the BP's enclosure.

That is prescenting. Gets the snake in the mood for food and hunting.

Next, about a half an hour before your going to offer (around 8:30 at night usually) pull the mouse and bedding. Put the mouse into a ziplock bag and put it into very hot tap water to finish thawing and warm up. Leave it there for 15 minutes or so.

Pull mousy out of the bag, put the mouse head up to a light bulb for a minute to get the head warm so the BP can "see" the heat and strike.

Grab the mouse with long tongs, do the zombie dance with the mouse (Dangling and flinching the mouse in the enclosure) and hopefully he will strike.

If after a few minutes he doesn't, reheat the mouse head again and offer one more time. If he still doesnt strike, warm up one more time and leave the mouse in the enclosure over night. Leave the BP alone in a quiet dark room.

Hopefully the mouse is gone by the next morning! If not, wait a week and try again.

[Jenn]

I don't feed FT anymore, but when I did I just put the frozen mouse on top of the snakes enclosure for about two hours to thaw. This also pre-scents the enclosure and gets the snake in hunting mode. Then I would give the mouse a quick blast with a hair drier. Then just drop it in. I had one BP who ate butt first a few times so I heated the head of the mouse with the hair drier and this worked like a charm. For some reason the head is the last part to thaw.

[chavhing]

i hearrd that its better to feed outside its home. should i be taking the snake out of its viv?

[Patrick Long]

I feed my monitor frozen mice. I get a ziplock bag, and put a mouse in the bag. Seal it up, and get a huge cup and fill it with hot water. Then I use a sink stopper to hold the mouse under water (in the bag). I wait like five mins, then replace the water with more hot water, and the second time around, its usually un-thawed.

The reason why I do this, because I feel if you let it un-thaw at the natural rate, you may get little buggies or bacteria, I DONT KNOW but thats just how I feel.

[soy.lor.n]

it does seem to be good to make sure the mouse is dry as well as warm. After I wamred mine up in the water, I dried it off really well and fluffed it up.
Also, my mouse came in a bag where his head was bent/tucked under really hard, so Uli had some problems with it (tried swallowing it backwards without much success...hehe) so the next time I made sure it's neck was all straight and it looked pretty much like a "real" mouse.
Also, if your snake had been eating live and you plan to feed in his normal enclosure, it might be good to put some newspaper over the substrate. Like I said, Uli had issues the first time- she wasn't even sure it was food at first- and she got it covered in Aspen while she was trying to swallow it.

[Jenn]

I think this is a very popular discussion topic on this forum. I have always fed in the enclosure but I'm sure others will chime in here.

[littleindiangirl]

i hearrd that its better to feed outside its home. should i be taking the snake out of its viv?

A lot of people say to do that because the snake will bite you if you open the tub, associating you opening the tank with him being fed. This is purely false unless you NEVER handle the snake. EVER.

Snakes can learn simple patterns. Pre scenting, same day of the week... these little things will let him know today is feeding day. All of my snakes know when feeding day is and are on a hair trigger feeding day. Any other day of the week they are little pumpkins to me.

Bp's in particular often get stressed out if touched, handled or moved prior to feeding. They like to hunt from their hide, having the advantage of security, and I always feed in the enclosure.

If you worry about the substrate, you can lay down a piece of cardboard or paper to keep it out of his mouth, but I have never had a snake die from eating a little bit that is stuck to a rat.

Either way, I would try in the tank first. I feel it's better than moving them.

[chavhing]

thx i will do exactly what u have suggested

[starmom]

Hi Connie!~ How long did it take for your snakes to associate food with that specific day of the week? Mine associate food with the pre-scenting I do, but I don't think it has to do with a day of the week, per se.