Feeding help, sideways mouse?

[Sonya610]

I thought of this thread a few minutes ago while feeding my baby BP for the second time. It was an adult mouse, and I was hoping it was not too big (no other slightly smaller frozen ones available, and I went to two stores).

Anyways he stared eating sidweays along the neck, and that was just not going to work. I watched for 10 minutes and wondered if he would abandon the effort.

Then he stopped biting it, and seemed to ponder the situation, smelling the mouse face (tongue flicking) for about a minute before starting again at the nose. It was as if he realized the sideways strategy was NOT working and intentionally figured out how to restart properly.

The mouse looked much bigger after blowdrying, I was amazed to see it all go down.

Question, the mice i ended up buying were very clean, healthy looking, and it appeared very fresh but in paperbags (obviously killed by the mouse breeder, a small operation). It had blood on its face. How are they usually killed? Does the blood on the face signify a less than painles death?

[Bruce Whitehead]

In an effort to not waste the four remaining pinkies, can feed her in succession (two per feeding) until the pinkies are gone? Or should I just scrap the remaining pinkies? It's not like they're expensive, but they were alive once.

I know, I know, total whiny hippie. I'll stop now...

Thanks again for all the input! This board is amazing!

What most of us do when faced with a dilemna such as this... is to die another snake that can eat pinkies.

*kidding* Ok, not really...

How big is your snake? Size is best expressed in grams. I know I cannot imagine feeding pinkie mice to my smallest BP. Definitely you can feed them off in the next few feeds, but you do want to get her on something more substantial soon. Pinkies do not offer much in the way of nutrition.

Bruce

[Bruce Whitehead]

Question, the mice i ended up buying were very clean, healthy looking, and it appeared very fresh but in paperbags (obviously killed by the mouse breeder, a small operation). It had blood on its face. How are they usually killed? Does the blood on the face signify a less than painles death?

As far as I know the bloody noses are just the blood vessels that burst in the process of euthanizing and freezing them... does not mean they were not killed humanely, etc.

But again, *I think* and someone can correct me if I am wrong.

Bruce

[the bull]

Don't know how old you BP is, but even the small babies should be able to eat mice hoppers at least.

Yep, Pinkie mice, thats like throwing a hotdog down a hallway!

[bushonk]

Oh man. That's awesome...

[Natashaw123]

LOL mine just took it sideways too.... seems pretty determined to wrestle with it a bit so good to hear he will prob figure it out on his own.... Im sure in the wild every catch is not face or ass first .... haha

[Yzmasmom]

Our girl will try to eat them leg first or neck first. She always stops and finds the head.