I Bought my ball python last saturday. The guy told me to wait one week before feeding. So when I went to feed him today he would not take the frozen mice they sold me. So I tossed in a live pinkie and he took it does this mean I have to feed live? Is there going to be a problem with that. Just don't want to hurt my snake any info would be great thanx
i dont see how pinkies can hurt it, i know the older mice can hurt it, but i don't see a problem with a live pinkie, even tho some people think of it as "inhumane"
Most Balls can be converted to frozen-thawed or pre-killed. It can take time, patients and a little technique. Although some never will eat anything but live. I personally only feed live. Always have. Not once in over 10 years worth of keeping Balls have any of my snakes been hurt or injured in any way. I never feed them unsupervised and I never leave the rat in with them longer than 30 minutes. 99% of the time my snakes eat within the first minute. Yes there is a small risk involved with feeding live, but when done responsibly and safely you truly minmize the risk. Almost everytime you hear about a live feeding going bad it is because some snake owner did something stupid or careless.
No. A snakes personality or temperamental makeup has nothing to do with what feeding method you use. Regardless of feeding live, PK or FT they are still exhibiting the same behavior. So it really makes no difference. Most Balls adapt to being hanbled very easily. You just need to be consistant in your handling.
When I switched my ball over to frozen thawed mice I fed the snake two mice in one sitting. so smaller mice to compensate for the large ones. I dangled the live one infront of the snake and after it finished that one. I used the F/T and did the same. Dangle it infront of the snake going close to it's nose and then backing up..this method works for me so try it. My snake took the frozen thawed in less than 20 seconds. I used the same colored prey. I also heard that when they are babies they like eating live prey untill they get a little bit bigger. I used to feed my snake with live, but it's too much of a hassle for me to get the mice so F/T is just easier for me.
I'm not sure that it's mice or just rats. They can claw the hell out of your snake. But like Shrap said, the owner must not have been watching. He must have left the rat in with the snake for a while to have that much damage done. I think pythons usually go for the head, so it's over quickly.
Live mice can scratch and bite your snake. In addition live prey can carry parasites that can kill your snake.
Both mice and rats can KILL a snake in one bite. Both have very large incizor teeth that can penetrate a snakes skull with EASE. It does not take long at all for a rodent to kill or severely hurt a snake.. If the snake isn't hungry the rodent will walk up and chew the snake. If your snake constricts the rodent, the rodent DOES NOT die right away and CAN and WILL bite the snake during constriction. Does not matter if the snake goes for the head or not. NO Ball Python NEEDS to be fed live. They ALL can be converted. Anyone who says thiers won't hasn't really tried. I think your snakes well being is much more important than your convenience. If it takes longer to feed the snake SO WHAT? Two things you need to remember. 1) Snakes are opertunistic feeders. If they find a freshly dead animal, they WILL eat it in the wild. 2) Yes snakes in the wild eat live prey, BUT, in the jungles, plains, praries, rainforests, there are hundreds of thousandds of acres of land and millions of places to hind in ambush, the rodent NEVER sees it coming, and has SOOO little time to react. NOW you put a rodent in a snakes cage, that rodent knows exactly what is going to happen almost instantly. the instict of survival kicks in and that rodent isn't going to lay down and say here mr. snake please go ahead and eat me. He wants to live. and the only way he will live is to try and kill or severly hurt that snake. There isnt a snake in my house that eats live. they will all eat f/t in some form or another.
Thanks for that info Since its better to feed F/T, where would you find f/t mice? Bloodmor- sry for hijacking your thread
Ed, while I will be the first to admit that when feeding FT or PK you are completely eliminating a risk and that it is the safer choice, but it is not the death trap that it is made out to be. There is absolutely nothing wrong with, nor nearly as unsafe, as you dramatized feeding live to be. I feel that was completely misleading. I am not trying to bump heads with you bud. Just stating my opinion based on my personal experiences. I have made hundreds, if not thousands of live feedings over the years. I have never had a single snake bitten. Not one. It does not matter what feeding method you use ( live, FT or PK), they can all be done responsibly or irresponsibly. Do I think a newer herp keeper should feed live? No. I encourage everyone who needs to ask that question to feed FT/PK. Yet I am also truthful about the facts of feeding live.
I think there are just more positives with frozen prey than with live. Yes, you eliminate the bite/injury risk, but you can also stock up on frozen prey and eliminate any parasite risk no matter how slight. Plus, and I know most people don't agree/care, you remove the stress from the prey animal. So that's why I endorse F/T or P/K. Easier and safer on all grounds. You can get F/T mice at most pet stores or you can order online from places like RodentPro, but many online stores make you order large quantities. But they cheaper than pet stores. I know we pay about $25 for 10 mice at the pet store and paid the same amount for 50 mice online (plus shipping). So it depends on how many you can store and how many you use.
Shrap... Not taking it as bumping heads. I see it the same way venemous keepers see keeping hots. They know some day it will happen, yes you prepare for it and try to eliminate it as much as possible. MY PROBLEM with feeding live is the newbies that won't give their snake a fair chance to have f/t. they will throw in a dead mouse while the snake is in a shed and it doesn't eat it, they say "Oh well it wont eat it, gotta feed it live" Shrap I'm assuming you breed your own food. From what I understand you have a nice sized collection, So i know you dont go out and BUY mice/rats every week, that would drive someone insane and to the poor house. So I can appreciate your situation. I only speak bacause with the herp society i see quite a few snakes come in with scars from bites, weather they were fed responsibly or not i can't prove that. Plus i dont want to have to worry about parasites in the future. I just want to gaurantee 100% that it wont happen to snakes in my care. havent lost one yet to being a finicky feeder. They may not take rats, but they take mice. And too i have no intention to breeding my own mice and rats, dont have the time to care for them. I'm VERY glad you dont recomend it for a newbie.
Thank you guys for all of your comments & Suggestions I take them all to heart because my snake is my baby and I want nothing bad to happen to him so once again thank you guy's & gal's so much Kirt vance =)
Through my personal experiences, setting up feeding routines, and most importantly...knowing my snakes, I do not see it (rodent attacking snake) as being inevitable. I see it as being preventable. I fully understand what you are saying about newer snake keepers giving up too easily on FT/PK. They get discouraged, get worried that they are not doing something right and think their snake is starving to death. I get those call and emails weekly. All we can do is give them the information and the confidence that will help them succeed. The other thing I hear a lot from new snake keepers is how cool it is to feed live. I always just shake my head at that, because in reality it becomes as mundane as opening a can of 9-Lives for a cat. And you are correct, I do breed my own rats. Makes life much easier. I know what you mean about seeing snakes that have been bitten or mauled by a rodent. I get several phone calls a year from people with snakes that got bit by rodents. Every single time it starts with "I was running late" or "We had company over" or "I only left for an hour or so" as their excuse for leaving the rodent in with their snake unobserved. I have nothing against feeding FT/PK and I never encourage or recommend people to feed live. I will be the first to admit that most people should not feed live. But not because feeding live is unsafe, because it is safe when done responsibly. Most people should not feed live because they do not have the experience and they are irresponsible. There are so many fairy tales and bad information floating around the internet concerning live feeding. I am just trying to present the unbiased facts about feeding live.
