Posted by:
amarilrose
at Wed Feb 21 12:10:04 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by amarilrose ]
ballfreak, I guess I'm not really sure what you are asking.
You say "they were eating live," do you mean live mice or rats? It matters because it will probably be harder to switch your snakes from live mice to dead rats, whether they are pre-killed or thawed. If you would have them available, I would suggest starting the switch with either live pre-weaned rats (younger-than-weaned) or with f/t adult mice. That is IF I am understanding you correctly in what they were eating before.
By talking about using your hemostat, are you saying that you would present a live rat on the hemostat, or a pre-killed or thawed rat? If you meant you would first present a live rat to attempt to switch your snakes over to rats, even on the hemostat, once the snake takes the rat, the rat can still hurt the snake if you are feeding live (if you were to use a weaned rat or larger).
When I feed my snakes, I've never been willing to leave a prey item with the snake overnight, whether it is live, pre-killed, or thawed. I minimize distractions when I present the prey (keep loud noises and foot traffic down to minimize vibrations, and keep the snake dark when necessary), and if the snake hasn't at least started eating in about 20 minutes, I figure it isn't going to happen, and remove the prey item. I've been hopeful before and tried leaving the prey item in for over an hour, but the snake really won't eat if it hasn't at least started to within those first 20 minutes.
If your snakes are used to live mice, as I was guessing earlier, you should probably wait until they are accepting mice again before you try to switch them to rats. If any of what you are wanting to do presents a drastic change from what they are used to, you should wait until they decide to start eating again before you make changes to what has already worked.
I'm not sure, but I hope this is helpful. 
~Rebecca
-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
[ Hide Replies ]
- feeding fresh killed rats?? - ballfreak, Tue Feb 20 20:58:24 2007
 RE: feeding fresh killed rats?? - amarilrose, Wed Feb 21 12:10:04 2007
|
