First off DO NOT FEED LIVE PREY!!!! The reason I say this is because live prey can cause your snake some serious injury, and you some serious vet bills after a bite. Now that this has been said, Feed your snake either prekilled or frozen/thawed prey. A real plus with the frozen/thawed is that no parasites can live thru the freezing method. Another NO NO is feeding the snake in its tank, for 2 reasons: (1) Your snake will think its feeding time everytime the cage is opened and this can lead to you getting bit. (2) Your snake can ingest some of his/her substrate while eating it's meal.
Now on to the feeding. The main rule to follow on size of prey is never feed anything larger than the widest part of the snakes body.. Starting with pinkies and fuzzies, feed every 5-7 days, hoppers and adult mice, 7-10 days and finally to rats or rabbits, remembering the girth rule. You can either feed 1 large rat every week or 2 rats at 1 feeding every 2 weeks
Now some ideas for the problem feeders that wont eat. Try putting your snake in its feed box and put him/her in a low traffic area of the house. Cover the feed box with a towel or a blanket and leave for about an hour (making sure you have air holes in your feed box). Then toss in the prey and cover back up. Leave for an hour or 2. If this doesnt work try the braining method. Use a pin and stick it thru the skull of the prey into the brain until it a liquid starts oozing out and offer your snake that. If your snake goes 4 weeks without eating its time to make a vet appointment.
Here is the method i use to convert my snakes from live to frozen prey. Start off with getting 2 prey much smaller than what you would normally feed. Give the first 1 live or stunned, when the first meal is down kill the 2nd and offer right away. Then with every feeding after this increase the time between the live/stunned and prekilled. If your killing the 2nd and waiting 45 minutes before offering and your snake is still eating it, on the next feeding go back to the usual sized prey and offer a frozen/thawed and they should eat it.. This metthod has worked for me with great success
Mark Wahl
Administrator @ Redtailboa.net
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