Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been asking about how to get my new BP to eat for i think its 4 weeks now, and I bought 2 live and a f/t, I offered the f/t...no interest, pre-killed one of the live ones, nothing, the live one, running around the cage, got within striking distance and WHAM! bye bye little rat...I know its not the best way to feed, but I'm just excited he ate...I tried this before about 2 weeks ago, and nothing, the only difference, was i put green construction paper all the way around the cage, and I guess he feels more safe to eat...it also helps keep the temps regulated even with the paper on the outside of the cage...I am so happy...I finally did something right...he just struck with such voracity he knocked the rat unconsious(sp?)so I don't think it was that bad for the rat, just glad i heard no squeaking that would have tore me up

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A.J.
1.0.0- Amel Motley Corn- Valentine (R.I.P 5/20/05)
0.1.0- Snow Corn- Artica
1.0.0- Normal Corn- Ember
1.0.0- Ball Python- G.T.

Well that's good news ... and there's nothing wrong in feeding live. Yeah, it's not pleasant hearing a rat die, but you have to feed your animal and it's all a part of the circle of life.

I like to feed my ball pythons with small rats, and a few of my really big girls eat medium rats. I would prefer to feed 2 small than one large and take a chance of a snake getting hurt.

By the way, what are your temps in your tank?

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g...

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>>Well that's good news ... and there's nothing wrong in feeding live.

There sure can be. Take a look at the poor animal in my article. Bites can be severe and can become infected. I had a snake grab a rat by the mouth. Some how both opened their mouths at the same time. Picture a snake biting a rat and the rat biting the snake's mouth. That snake released the rat and went off-feed for over two months. Feeding FT or PK is best. That being said, most of my reptiles are fed live.
Should You Feed F/T or Live?

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Everyone here knows there can be problems with feeding live and I don’t think that’s the issue here. Everyone’s seen the pictures and heard the warnings, we all know feeding P/K or F/T is best, but when it comes down to it, most any keeper will feed live if/when it comes down to the health and wellbeing of the snake.

AJ, glad to hear he’s got something in his belly now. Good luck with him…

to get roasted from someone. That's why I stopped posting things that I find helpful on this forum a few years ago. Too many people want to slice and dice and it gets a bit much at times. I have bred and cared for hundreds of animals and I love helping people out.

I don't like to speak to people on this forum like it's my way or your an idiot. And I thought that AJ sounded like an intelligent person with a lot of common sense.

I tend to think that most people have common sense and are fairly intelligent and don't need to be constantly reminded of the dangers of feeding live.

I find it interesting that I was the one that was the target of the post against feeding live.

For as long as I can remember there have been people here that just want to jump on a thread about feeding live just to point out that animals can get hurt. Yeah, I know that, and I assume anyone that knows anything about animals knows that.

We have threads here telling people how to assimulate the natural state these animals live in over in Africa, and there are studies showing that they need to live that way, blah, blah, blah. Where is the line drawn and why can't people have varying opinions without being ridiculed on these forums.

I personally think Kingsnake forums are great and most people come here to enjoy their hobby and share it with others. But some take themselves far too seriously and think that without their input no one will be able to function properly and figure out how to care for their animals.

Where's the study on what happens to animals that exist on frozen foods only. Ever eat meat that has been frozen for too long? And we wrap our foods in the best wrappers. What about the frozen rodents that have been in a freezer for ages. Don't you think they lose their quality as well?

What about the hormones that surge through an animals body when they go through the thrill of the hunt? Are these an important part of the animals existence and growth? I don't know, but I would think they are necessary, and I would think living on frozen thawed forever would at the least be pretty boring for a live animal.

But that is just my humble opinion.

Thanks Billy's girl ... I know that you know where I am coming from and I mean no harm to anyone's animals.

Snakebytes

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gail

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If this was directed at me, I did not "roast" you at all - just clarifying for those who may not know. There are plenty out there the would read:

>>Well that's good news ... and there's nothing wrong in feeding live.

And think, cool, I'm perfectly safe feeding live and there's no reason to feed otherwise. And like I stated in my post, I feed mostly live.

>> I have bred and cared for hundreds of animals and I love helping people out.

And I see no reason to stop.

>>
>>I don't like to speak to people on this forum like it's my way or your an idiot. And I thought that AJ sounded like an intelligent person with a lot of common sense.

I really hope you didn't get that from my message because I certainly don't believe you are a less than knowledgable person. Nor do I think I have a handle on everything.

>>I find it interesting that I was the one that was the target of the post against feeding live.

This post? I don't see where you were targeted. I think you might be a bit too sensitive here.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

What do you use for hiding spots? Snakes like to have multiple low hiding spots that they can curl up inside. Something pretty much form fitting is great. My baby ball python is still in the 'I'm afraid to go outside my hide spots too often' phase, and he will even grab the F/T mouse from outside the entrance to his hidespot, then drag it in with him and attempt to consume the mouse in hiding (usually he has to come out though, because he can't get the mouse arranged in an 'easy-to-eat' fashion.

Good luck and keep trying! What's the background on this snake anyways?

I have a hide that is just big enough for him to pull the rat into, but he curls up inside so he can't see the entrance so no matter what i have to remove the hide for him to eat, i got nervous when the rat went in the hide and nothing happened, so i quickly pulled out the rat and the hide then as soon as he saw the rat was close enough it was dinner time
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A.J.
1.0.0- Amel Motley Corn- Valentine (R.I.P 5/20/05)
0.1.0- Snow Corn- Artica
1.0.0- Normal Corn- Ember
1.0.0- Ball Python- G.T.

I bought an adult het albino that only ate mice!!! After 6 weeks of experimenting I found he only ate if the mice went into his hide box, I then place a pre-killed at the entrance to the bax and he ate it...hopefully next will be a pre-killed rat there as well because 6 ex-breeder sized live mice are hard to find in pet stores.
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1.0 het albino ball
1.0 norm ball
0.2 norm ball
0.1 snow corn
1.0 butter corn
1.0 norm corn
1.0 southwestern rat
1.0 striped Cali king
1.0 western hog

Visual Morphs?....I love the normal looks. You can't improve on nature, you can only produce "interesting deviations".

Granted with a small collection feeding frozen would be the way to go and for those with nothing better to do I guess frozen for a large collection would be ok to. However, with my super busy life, I have no time to feed frozen to my 50 bp's and almost all of mine get live. A few will eat pre-killed and everything eating large rats or larger only get offered pre-killed or multiple live med rats. I have never had a BP get hurt by a rat and I know alot of other large breeders feed live almost exclusively. You must remember, in the wild they don't have a 7-11 to go and get defrosted rats, most are live that they have to kill and that is what the rodents we feed our animals are bred for in the first place. So basically, as long as you are watching your snake and aren't trying to feed too large of meals you should have no problems with feeding live, just never leave a meal unattended for any amount of time.
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Josh Hutto
JKReptiles

2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

That makes me feel better to hear that live is a commonality, the way i was understanding it, was that it was frowned upon, that p/k and f/t was the only way to go if possible
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A.J.
1.0.0- Amel Motley Corn- Valentine (R.I.P 5/20/05)
0.1.0- Snow Corn- Artica
1.0.0- Normal Corn- Ember
1.0.0- Ball Python- G.T.

I got sick of making dead rats do the happy dance... Feed live, it works better..

~johnny

>>I got sick of making dead rats do the happy dance... Feed live, it works better..
>>
>>~johnny

lol The Happy Dance gota love it.
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1.2.0 ball python (aragorn, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 100% het pied (frodo)
1.0.0 columbian boa (squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
0.0.2 whites tree frog (trevor, kirmet)
0.0.5 pacific green tree frogs
3.2.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy
"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"

Thanks to everyone that responded, made me feel so much better about it...here is a pic of him...he does have a hide, just took it out cause i couldn't get a good pic otherwise

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A.J.
1.0.0- Amel Motley Corn- Valentine (R.I.P 5/20/05)
0.1.0- Snow Corn- Artica
1.0.0- Normal Corn- Ember
1.0.0- Ball Python- G.T.