I'm afraid I may have a couple pet mice now....

[ChrisBowsman]

.... because my stupid ball python decided not to eat them. It's not really all that big of a deal for them to go awhile without eating, but I'm still left caring for two mice.

Sorry, just wanted to rant.

[iamlowsound]

Originally Posted by ChrisBowsman

.... because my stupid ball python decided not to eat them. It's not really all that big of a deal for them to go awhile without eating, but I'm still left caring for two mice.

Sorry, just wanted to rant.

Better than having them as pests in your house. Keep them in the cage, he will get hungry eventually.

lowsound

[PrimusNut]

Do it when she isn't looking. She might slap you, but it's worth it.

[Valerus]

Originally Posted by PrimusNut

Do it when she isn't looking. She might slap you, but it's worth it.

Do it!

[Fontaine]

well better pets then a brown mess on the floor.

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

Better than having them as pests in your house. Keep them in the cage, he will get hungry eventually.

lowsound

No. No. No. No. This is a bad call. Then everytime you open the cage he expects to be fed. Not a good thing when you want to just hold him. Put the mice in a bag and wack them against the wall so they're stunned and woozy before you give them to your snake. Domestic snakes just don't have the hunting skills of snakes in the wild. I had a albino burmese python that grew to about 9 feet before I donated it to a reptile shop. In the end we were feeding it full grown rabbits. If we didn't crack them against the wall before we dropped them on the floor next to the snake, Sidhartha would have never eaten.

[Dr Stankface]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

Put the mice in a bag and wack them against the wall so they're stunned and woozy before you give them to your snake.

That made me spit sweet tea all over my monitor! LOL!

[Fontaine]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

No. No. No. No. This is a bad call. Then everytime you open the cage he expects to be fed. Not a good thing when you want to just hold him. Put the mice in a bag and wack them against the wall so they're stunned and woozy before you give them to your snake. Domestic snakes just don't have the hunting skills of snakes in the wild. I had a albino burmese python that grew to about 9 feet before I donated it to a reptile shop. In the end we were feeding it full grown rabbits. If we didn't crack them against the wall before we dropped them on the floor next to the snake, Sidhartha would have never eaten.

maki, just so, so...violent

i like it....catch any of this on tape? er no?

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by Fontaine

maki, just so, so...violent

i like it....catch any of this on tape? er no?

This was when I was in college. Digital video was not really a feasible thing for college kids. Seriously though. They are food at this point. It's not violent. Your pet is the snake, not the rabbits. It's what you have to do to prep the food. We didn't have TV but every couple of weeks we'd feed our snake. We'd crack a beer and watch our snake feed on the rabbit. Pretty interesting.

[Fontaine]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

This was when I was in college. Digital video was not really a feasible thing for college kids. Seriously though. They are food at this point. It's not violent. Your pet is the snake, not the rabbits. It's what you have to do to prep the food. We didn't have TV but every couple of weeks we'd feed our snake. We'd crack a beer and watch our snake feed on the rabbit. Pretty interesting.

id just eat the rabbit myself

but then again thats not rare in newfoundland...and plus im in college therefore im starving to death...anyone got some spear change?

[ChrisBowsman]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

No. No. No. No. This is a bad call. Then everytime you open the cage he expects to be fed. Not a good thing when you want to just hold him. Put the mice in a bag and wack them against the wall so they're stunned and woozy before you give them to your snake. Domestic snakes just don't have the hunting skills of snakes in the wild. I had a albino burmese python that grew to about 9 feet before I donated it to a reptile shop. In the end we were feeding it full grown rabbits. If we didn't crack them against the wall before we dropped them on the floor next to the snake, Sidhartha would have never eaten.

I've fed this guy live mice since the get-go, and until now, he's nailed them no problem. I agree that it's kind of iffy when you get to stuff like rabbits, but because of the claws, not because of the snake's inability to kill.

If you feed a captive snake live from birth, he's going to have all the hunting skills he needs. All he has to do is sit and wait for the prey to walk in front of him.

Ball pythons are notorious for going weeks or months without eating for no reason, especially in the winter time. It's really nothing out of the ordinary, just the first time it's happened here (the snake is less than a year). I'm gonna give him another 4 days or so, then try again. If I kill or stun the mice first, it's likely that the snake still won't eat them, and I'll be left with a couple dead mice.

[neurotictim]

Proud owner of 3 ball pythons and 3 carpet pythons (of varying pedigrees, so to speak) and can tell you from experience, balls are finicky. I like the "gerbil scent" stuff you can buy at local pet stores... Makes the mice/rats smell like gerbil, which is apparently the difference between say, hot dogs and steak to us.

My Calypso went almost a year without eating, back in 2002-2003. Now she's getting ready to have her first clutch. My g/f switched her to having an "eating tank" where she goes when she gets fed, so there's no issue with snippiness... Might work for you. It's just a 20L tank where we put her, and then the food. She knows when she's going in that tank that it's dinner time.

Oh, and they're all on live food. The reason people kill the mice or rats or whatever is to prevent them from harming the snake.

[Bryan316]

Violent? This is SOOOO not violent. This is a cakewalk, folks.


You want violent, try giving apple slices to a malamute!

[Lorenzini]

Wasn't this a thread nickthebassist or someone similar made a long time ago?
I don't remember.

[Jeremy Crockett]

Originally Posted by neurotictim

...The reason people kill the mice or rats or whatever is to prevent them from harming the snake.

True story: One of the Science teachers when I was in High School had an ill-tempered lab rat that he decided to feed to the class python. Well, the damn thing killed the snake!

In the end, the rat wound up "sleeping" under a large rock.

[neurotictim]

We feed all of our snakes live, breathing mice and rats. The real trick is to pay attention. If you're the kind of person that would throw a live mouse or rat in with your snake and walk off, you shouldn't have a snake. Better to feed pre-killed, if you don't have the 10 minutes it takes to determine whether your snake will eat or not.

But they are born with the "hunting instinct" and none of mine have trouble, unless they're getting ready to shed and have the caps over their eyes.

[Ericman197]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

No. No. No. No. This is a bad call. Then everytime you open the cage he expects to be fed. Not a good thing when you want to just hold him. Put the mice in a bag and wack them against the wall so they're stunned and woozy before you give them to your snake. Domestic snakes just don't have the hunting skills of snakes in the wild. I had a albino burmese python that grew to about 9 feet before I donated it to a reptile shop. In the end we were feeding it full grown rabbits. If we didn't crack them against the wall before we dropped them on the floor next to the snake, Sidhartha would have never eaten.

Interesting, I would expect that to kill them. I've heard of people euthanizing guinea pigs by double ziplocking them and chucking them full speed at a concrete/brick wall. I guess it depends on how hard you throw them. I'll have to buy some pets and try this out myself.

[Diggler]

I used to have an extensive collection of snakes and had to do this all the time.

Take the mouse by the tail. In a circular looping motion, smack its head off of the edge of the table. This will stun him. Then take a pencil, put it right behind its skull, and roll/push forward. Cervical dislocation, instant death.

Don't ever leave them in with the snake unsupervised while live. They will eventually chew or even kill the snake.

Freeze the mice in a ziplok for later. Thaw them when you need to feed him; right before you feed him put the dead mouse in really really really warm water. I'm not saying "hot" because you don't want to cook it and change the scent or make the hair slip off and cause a mess, but you want to heat it as hot as you can without doing that. Pythons feed by heat and the hotter the prey, the more excited they get (generally speaking).

Don't put the dead mouse in the microwave because they can burst. Alternatively, put it in the microwave and post video.

[IAmTheDood]

where do you all get your live rats to feed to the snakes? .. always wondered where you kept them and how many you bought?