Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all:

I am not an expert in herps, but I do try new things and such. I just found a new way that I can elicit feeding response in pitted snakes (like the pit vipers and ball pythons) who use heat as a way to find food.

I was frustrated with my ball pythons who would only eat live food. Everytime I want to feed f/t food, I have to give them a live food first and then place the f/t in the snake's mouth as the butt of the first prey is swallowed.

The other day I was taking out a dead food out of my BP's cage. She bit my middle finger knuckle. I realized that she smelled the food but was looking for something warm (like my knuckle) to bite on. So I started to heat up f/t food. Now she strikes at dead food! Turns out that the reason I had always needed to feed live food was that: live food is warm! So, she wasn't necessarily looking for live food--just warm food.

An easy way of heating up food is with hot water. However, this is only recommended if you have newspaper as substrate. Aspen will be too stuck onto wet food! (I learned to be very careful because MsTT warned about aspen..By the way, MsTT how have you been? You haven't posted in long time).

I now have all my snakes on Newspaper. My copperhead and my ballpython will strike at warmed wet f/t food. (The Pigmy rattle snake that I have will strike even cold food, thankfully).

Think about it: They are, after all, pit animals that use heat. It makes perfect sense that heated food will be better taken than cold food. I wonder why I didn't think of it sooner. It would've saved me a lot of frustration. I guess I am sharing this info, hoping that I can maybe save some frustration out there in the BP and in the Pit-viper community.

cheers.
http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=longtang&AID=830686

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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

Well usually I run frozen rodents under hot water until they are fully thawed out..... There is nothing new about the idea.....

>>Well usually I run frozen rodents under hot water until they are fully thawed out..... There is nothing new about the idea.....

True: But the thing I do differently now is that I don't let them cool down before I give to snake. In the past, I thaw and then dry them. By the time I get to the snake, the rodent had already become room temp.

Now I put the rodent in a bucket with hot water. It goes straight from hot water to the snake enclosure.

Small, yet, kind of pertinent detail. Just a minor improvement that I have found to make a difference.

Cheers.
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

I use a hairdryer sometimes, mostly for my pythons. Neither of my vipers cares.

It's basically a necessity to heat them above room temp for bushmasters. Even if the prey is warmer than room temp(above 82F) a bushmaster may ignore it. In general, I will heat prey items above 100F sometimes as high as 110F to elicit a strike from them.

Thawing rodents in hot water and feeding hot is nothing new, but its one of those tidbits that you assume everyone does. We tend to overlook the obvious.

MH

n/p

I'd be leary of giving hot food to your snakes. I've persnally never heard of a snake burning his/her mouth/esophogus on a hot food item. What is the thermostat on you hot water heater or furnace set at? If it is set over 100oF, and it probably is set between 130 and 160, I'd let them cool off a bit. Not that I'm saying that they will be the exact temp. as the thermostat, but why take chances?
creep

>>>>Well usually I run frozen rodents under hot water until they are fully thawed out..... There is nothing new about the idea.....
>>
>>True: But the thing I do differently now is that I don't let them cool down before I give to snake. In the past, I thaw and then dry them. By the time I get to the snake, the rodent had already become room temp.
>>
>>Now I put the rodent in a bucket with hot water. It goes straight from hot water to the snake enclosure.
>>
>>Small, yet, kind of pertinent detail. Just a minor improvement that I have found to make a difference.
>>
>>Cheers.
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>>Longtang. I like snakes and rats.
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"Seek first to understand, then to be understood"