So apparently I could

[HisssssyFit]

*Sighs heavily*

So with heavy heart I made my way to the pet shop on Monday, even though feeding is on Tuesday because well it was a public holiday down here on Tuesday and the petshop would be closed.

I selected my mouse and put him in the cricket keeper that I don't keep crickets in but have found that its a good mouse transporter myself. Mousey came home was upgraded to a normal critter keeper, fed, watered and fell asleep. Being woken every so often when I went to give him a pat or just look at him

The next day, very bright, but not very early (I woke up at around 11 am), I went fed the parrot, took the RB out, wondered idly whether or not its eyes were cloudy, thinking *But wait you just shed two weeks ago, you couldn't possibly be going into shed again could you?* and then put him back and took mousey outside, took him out, held him, looked at soon to be spouse and whimpered, being manly man he said give it to me, to which I replied NO. I tried the pen behind the head and pull tail trick that was mentioned by the nice looking guy in the lab coat *sorry can't remember you name*. At this the soon to be spouse who was by now by my side started to complain that I was using his pen This did not work as mousey (1) did not hold on tightly and (2) decided to tuck his head back not giving me access to his neck. I decided there was just nothing for it I held mousey by his tail and swung...apparently not hard enough as his paws went to his head as if to say *ouch MY HEAD!!!*, I didn't wait I swung again harder and mousey's eyes closed and his body did what only could be described as a St. Vittus dance, he was then carried twitching to the RB who looked at it with scant interest and just went about his business...after about two minutes we decided it was a lost cause and poor mousey went into a ziplock bag and into the freezer.

I spent the rest of the day in and out disbelief that I had finally plucked up the nerve to kill a mouse and the *insert expletive here* snake refused to EAT!!!!

[dfreeman1313]

Oh my...sorry to hear about that!

One word of advice if you want to ever try it again......when you decide to do the cervical dislocation thing...you have to be decisive. Put the mouse down, pull the tail a little, he hangs on, put the pen behind the skull, press down just so you can pin the neck, with a sharp jerk pull the tail.....dead mouse. Everything is one continuous fluid motion.

Anyway.....sorry to hear about the ordeal then him not eating!!!! Some children just don't appreciate what we do for them! LOL

[HisssssyFit]

Oh there you are labcoat guy

Yes the ungrateful wretch, just like a child lol

I'm sure I'll try the cervical dislocation method again, I didn't quite like swinging him or cracking his head on anything. Now to adventures in feeding F/T

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.

[Heidi]

I"m sorry you had such an ordeal. But....you did it. It must be something in the air though because my little girl, though obviously in hunting mode, didn't eat this week. And, it was previously frozen so in the trash it had to go. I told her she would have to scrub toilets for a chore to help cover the cost of the waisted rat. She just flicked her tongue at me and I think snickered. Little boogers have no idea.

[JuliusSqueezer]

2 factors here to make note of.

1) You can't always expect them to eat right away. Offer the food right away by wiggling it. Some will take it and some won't but all is not lost in the first 20 seconds. Leave the dead mouse with the snake for a few hours and check back later.

2) rats and mice taste and smell different and many boas have a preference. It's wise to switch to rats as soon as you can or start with them to begin with. There is a rat size for nearly every boa.

[Jem_Scout]

All of my snakes eat different....One Boa will grab it so fast that the rat is barely IN the cage before he goes for it! The others will take their gay old time and smell it and check the rat from head to tail and just look at it for 15 minutes to an hour, then just slowly swallow it. I have a corn that won't eat unless I put the rat right at the "door" of his hide. And a Ball Python that insists on having complete dark and quiet in the house and the rat left in his cage with him over night. You just have to figure out what YOUR snake likes and go from there. Don't be so quick to throw out the mouse/rat, just try a different method. Good luck!

[HisssssyFit]

No not giving up, but his eyes did look ever so slightly cloudy so we didn't want to push it. I'll try him again this afternoon when I get home to see if he'll accept it and yes I'll leave it in there for a bit for him to be able to make up his sweet mind. Its just that the first two feedings the mice were snapped up in such quick time we didn't have enough time to blink.

[dfreeman1313]

Originally Posted by HisssssyFit

Oh there you are labcoat guy

Labcoatguy! Hmmmm....maybe I should change my name! LOL

I'm telling ya....cervical dislocation is easy once you get the hang of it. If I had a pencil large enough, I could kill an elephant!