Your one stop reptile community

Dbutton · #1 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 01:27 AM

First off you will notice that I didn't day "playing" tug of war. This is not a game and I don't suggest it for any but the most experienced keepers who have many years of experience with giant snakes.
ANd secondly I want you to know that I am not trying to show off with these pics. Without my tug of war this snake will drop the F/T prey and crawl away without eating it or even looking back. I don't feed live so I have to simulate live by first moving it around with a stick until she gets the idea to grap it and then I have to grab one of the free legs and wiggle it around so that she will curl up and constrict. This makes her think that she has "killed" the rabbit and then she eats just fine. My big albino doesn't care what it does when I throw a rabbit in with him. The less work involved with getting his food the better as far as he is concerned and he will jsut start eating it as soon as it lands. Daisy is another story. Enjoy the pics though. I do and don't enjoy this interaction with my snake. I am sure that you guys/gals here that have kept big snakes for as long as I have will understand what I mean. I sure hope she gets over this soon because she is growing by leaps and bounds and I dont' want to have to do this when she is 16ft. long (she is 12 now). But I have only had this girl for just under a year and we haven't gotten all the kinks worked out yet. At least she eats F/T now.
The first set was bunny 1 for tonight.
David

Dbutton · #2 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 01:29 AM

This is bunny 2 for the night. Unfortunatly all I could get were 2 smaller rabbits instead of the normal 1 large one. Makes the evening twice as interesting.

python04slayer · #3 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 06:38 AM

?!?!?!?!!?!
Why dont you try some long forcepts?

Dbutton · #4 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 06:55 AM

hmmm, maybe. But it just seems quicker for me to grab it and wiggle it while she holds the other end. I have also been asked why I dont feed with tongs, but I have not found any that I could dangle a 5lb to 12lb. rabbit from easily yet. Like I said in the post, I hope to have her past this soon. I really hate doing it anyways. I just thought that it would be interesting to some to see what lengths we have to go to sometimes to get our snakes to eat.

David

python04slayer · #5 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 07:02 AM

I know a guy who did that with a 20ft burm he had and it snapped his shoulder.

Im sure you could build some kind of feeder pole with some kind of clamps on it or something, Im not trying to say anything except thet looks way too unsafe for me.

sjt1985 · #6 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 07:42 AM

thats so mean feeding it infront of the other snake!

Dbutton · #7 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 07:51 AM

Don't worry, the other snake got his 12lb. rabbit shortly after the picture was taken. And I do use a golf clup to wiggle the rabbit around on the floor so that she will grab it. I won't hold it for her if that is what you are thinking I am doing. I just wait until she has it in her mouth and then I grab a leg and wiggle it like it is struggling so that she will wrap around it and think that she is killing it. I know better than to hold out a rabbit for them to grab. My hand is too warm and they will target it instead every time.

David

JuliusSqueezer · #8 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 08:17 AM

I've had to do that many many times. It can be pretty scarey. Max (My only dangerously large python) hit's his food like a freight train on crack and I am lucky not to have to wiggle once he has it wrapped. The 7 foot rescue Lab burm I had that died from chronic RI problems (likely BD) was like yours though. I had to keep it wiggling or he would drop it and crawl off even after he bit and wrapped. Max has spilled out of his cage a few times while attacking a rabbit before I could get the tongs back out and his door closed. I have had to pick him up while he is wrapped into a death grip and shove him back into his cage...that's scarey too. Thankfully, he has never let go and come after me...but I'm always on guard for that to happen. One time he missed the rabbit and struck the door frame to his cage so hard that he was nailed to the wood by his teeth and it took a LOT of work to get him unstuck.

rachel132002 · #9 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 11:26 AM

Dare i ask his size? My boa's a pain to feed as she loves to come out of whatever shes fed in and if you touch her the mouse is forgotten and the tongs or hands are the new food, bloody animals!

Dragon · #10 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 02:08 PM

Thank god we don't have to do that with our big boy. He just hit the 12 foot mark on his last shed.

Ain't he pretty?

python04slayer · #11 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 05:44 PM

Cool Burms you guys

Dragon · #12 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 09:52 PM

Don't worry DJ, you won't be waiting long, they get that big all too soon

Wrasse · #13 (**permalink**) 11-03-2004, 10:20 PM

Nice pics. Fun job.

Animal rescue groups and veterinary clinics use a hollow pole with a stainless cable running through it to restrain narky beasts.
The cable is fixed at one end then runs up through the pole and the other end is held at the handle. This enables you to make a loop to hold animals with. You could use something like this around the leg of a rabbit, then release the cable, which releases the leg, when you are done teasing.

Advertisement