I have many different kinds of snakes and morphs, such as balls, CRB, BRB, JCP, Corns, and Burms. But my balls are my problem feeders. No I don't feed live to all of my snakes, I raise my own prey and feed mainly F/K with left overs or over stock sometimes F/T. The bad part with F/T is that after 30 days old they lose alot of nutrients that they already lose after freezing. I also don't try feeding my snakes everyday. I was just saying with a new snake that has never eatten I give it a 7 day period of solitary then try once a day untill it eats. Also I don't leave the prey in their I just see if I see a feeding response if no then I pull it out. After two weeks of this if no feeding I only offer food when I feed my other snakes. As far as this being stressful I don't feel it is anymore stressful then handling or having a snake in a high traffic area in your house. Yes alot of snakes go off food this time of year cause of breeding I metioned this earlier. Alot of the big breeders feed live prey. I have never had a small or med. rat ever bit through my skin maybe pinch it, especially not a mouse now a large or col. rat yes it could. Yes it can be dangerous if it is unsupervised and if you leave it in over night. But alot of snakes will not respond to a F/T and to get it started eatting I don't see what is wrong with trying live. As far as feeding in the cage I use newspaper so I don't have that problem. Everyone has their way of doing things I was just saying what works for me and some other breeders I know. If it isn't broke don't fix it. Sorry for not making myself clear on what I posted. :wink:
Well, as for our ball, the little guy is shedding. So, that might have something to do with it. When he's done shedding, we are going to try some live baby mice. Maybe the baby rats we were using were too big. I'd rather him eat a couple of smaller prey, than not eat at all, because we are unsure of what sixe to feed him.
Snakes can eat anything as big as the largest part of their girth sometimes a little bigger but it's better to go smaller then bigger. Especially for one that hasn't eatten also if they are sheding some snakes will refuse to feed that might have been your problem. Good Luck with the feeding.
Gotta say I've never, ever heard this and the nutrients that are supposedly lost must be nil because I've never seen anyone ever suggest supplementation when feeding F/T. Can you show me where you see feeding F/T is detremental to the snakes health? And if it's not detremental then why even make the point? I am glad you mentioned this because it is extremely important when you give out advice to be as clear as you can be. Another confusing bit of advice you have given is this so I'd like to know what exactly your view is since you have contradicted yourself. You say this: Then you say this: Then you say this: Finally you say this: Would you please make your views on this a little clearer? I'm not trying to rip on you I'm just trying to make sure everything you've said is clear for others.
Offering prey items daily ESPECIALLY for a snake that is in a new home or not eating for some other reason is asking for a lot of trouble. It could go so far as conditioning the snake to associate the smell of prey items with something negative and making the stress even worse.
Well, he actually ate the little pinky mouse. Now, I know this was way too small, to fill him up, so we will try maybe a small mouse next.
So, it was Thursday night that we left the pinkie mouse in overnight. I woke up early around 4:00 and it was still there, and I went back to bed. When my husband woke up, it was gone. So we bought a couple of small mice. They were about 1 inch long, not including the tail...just babies still. We left one in his cage last night, and I woke up about 5 this morning and it was still there. When my husband woke up at 6, it was gone. The snake was in his hide and my husband took him out and put him on the bedding outside his hide. He put the second mouse in the enclosure and the python took it right away. It was awesome to see him eat!!!!! Now, the question is....Should we offer him another mouse, or wait a week. Will he eat until he's full, or will he eat just because it's there? Because the mice are small, he would definately eat more than one. But in the last 36 hours he has eaten 2 small mice and a pinkie. Is that enough for now?
He should not be fed three prey items in 36 hours. Feed him appropriate sized prey every 7-10 days. As for f/t temperature, per my laser temp gun live mice have a core body temp of about 107 degrees F and you want to get as close to that temp as possible. Snakes (ball pythons in particular) feel extremely vulnerable while they're feeding because they're totally defenseless; while it's fun to watch them eat, they should be left alone and without disturbances of any kind. When I feed my snakes I'll even turn the TV or stereo off (sound = vibration) and leave the room while they eat.
I made a post earlier in the day yesterday about the response I made earlier in the week. Moderators do you all delete post cause when I finished posting it was their and later on that night it wasn't. I was just wondering what happened to the post? Thanks
Did you check all of the pages? I don't think anyone would have deleted it without saying something, unless it was really offensive. We were trying to go smaller, because he wasn't eating what we were offering him. I'm just happy he has eaten. Our ball didn't seem to care that we were watching, he went after it right away, because he was still hungry, I would imagine. So explain why they are defenseless....Do you mean while they are digesting? because if you mean while they are striking and constricting, he didn't look so defenseless to me, rather more on the offense.
They're defenseless while eating...their only defense responses are fleeing or striking, and if they've got a mouthful of rodent they can't do either which makes them vulnerable, whether the threat is real (predator) or perceived (you). Once my boa snatches the mouse from my hemostats I carefully put the lid on her feed bin and leave the room until she's done.
Sorry, but if we are feeding live, We will not be leaving the snake alone. We will be watching to make sure the python is safe. He doesn't mind it. He ate another mouse last night. So that would be 3 small mice and 1 pinkie mouse. We are just happy he is eating. We are going to leave him alone for about a week and then feed him again.
If you're feeding live, no, you shouldn't leave until he strikes and constricts...but snakes do not like us watching them actually eat. My ball only eats live prey and I leave him alone to eat only after the prey is dead.
Janice, Good to hear your snake is eating for you!!!! I think it's fine to just leave him alone for about a week. Baby steps!
I don't think she's planning on continuing to feed multiple prey items. I say this because of the previous posts in this thread where we specifically discussed this. She may decide not to feed live anymore...her call...but she did the right thing in this case, in my opinion. One suggestion though, after he seems to be eating well and regularly, I'd try to get him to start feeding in a feeding cage/bucket/rubbermaid so he doesn't get too usd to feeding in the cage. Some snakes are okay feeding in a cage all their lives, but some get snappy because they think every time they see your hand it's feeding time, so just as a precaution.
