Live,fresh killed, or frozen for your Burmese and Ball pytho

jakesnake · #1 (**permalink**) 05-01-2002, 12:38 AM

Hi Im new here. This is a really nice forum [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] I was wondering what everyone feeds their snakes. I have a 4ft Burmese and a 3ft Ball python. The Ball gives me problems feeding somtimes. He won't eat anything but live mice. The Burm will eat anything [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Really though I had a rat actually fight back when my Burm grabbed it. So now I want to feed it fresh killed. A friend of mine killed the rat a few days ago for me, i dropped it in front of my Burm and she grabbed it no problem. How do you kill a rat humanely? I didn't actually see him kill it. It looked like it was sleeping is all. I don't want a rat ripping my snake up. I have heard of this happening and it scares me. I can just about get my Ball to eat on a regular basis. I offered him a fresh killed mouse, he ignored it. I gave him a live one he ate it. Sometimes he goes a few weeks without eating, then starts eating normally again? It's strange.Thanks for any input.
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morti · #2 (**permalink**) 05-01-2002, 12:41 AM

Hi Jake! I think that you will find without exception that everyone here will suggest frozen/thawed as the best way to feed your snakes. There will be a lot of people with more time to elaborate more here in a bit, but in the meantime...

Welcome to Redtailboa.net!

-Morti.
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bensnacks · #3 (**permalink**) 05-01-2002, 01:01 AM

G'day Jake ,welcome to the sight!
I reckon your ball will take those pre-killed
mice once he gets hungry enough! .Don't try &
give him one every day give him a few days rest
in between.
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Countryboy · #4 (**permalink**) 05-01-2002, 02:59 AM

It is a lot easier to just buy frozen rodents. There are a couple ways to kill a mouse or Rat. The one I use is I hold it by it's tail in a plastic bag and smack it against a 25lb dumbell it's always works on the first swing, you should use the bag because you will have blood splatters everywhere. You can also put some sort of bar behind the head of the Mouse/Rat and pull on it's tail you will feel the verves and the vertibrae seperate and the mouse will be dead a lot of people don't use this on rats because there tails have been known to pop off then you have a ticked off rat and no way to grab it. The most humane way is to make a gas chamber using a co2 paintball cannister and a rubbermaid box. Hope this helps if I left something out someone will be along to give more detail i'm sure. And Welcome to Redtailboa.net
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trinitywolf · #5 (**permalink**) 05-01-2002, 03:11 AM

Everyone here is giving you good advice. You should change your snakes over to at least fresh killed immediatly. With a little patience they will come around. Snakes are animals of oportunity. If they find a dead meal in the wild, they will eat it. Your snakes may be used to eating live prey, so they might pass up a few meals...but eventually they will eat. Once you get them switched to fresh killed switching them to frozen/thawed will be no problem! This is advantageous for both you and your snake b/c the freezing process will kill any internal parasites that the rodent may have, so that they are not passed to your snake. The freezing also means that you can keep them readily acailable to feed your snakes. They are also immensly cheaper than live rats.

I hope this helps ya! Others will be around to give their opinion on this as well. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[edited to fix some of my horrible spelling] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

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