,..... about the prey being warm. The pythons use their heat sensors for acuracy in their strike too. So when a 98 degree hand is offering a 70 degree rat,.. watch out! I can't even count how many times I have been nailed over the years until I finally figured that out. It seemed so obvious in retrospect that I truly felt so stupid. But they will zero in on your heat during a feeding response. I have had burms miss the food that was right in front of their face and shoot up an extra foot or more to get my hand. At first I just thought they were being hasty in their responses and were just clumsy retards, lol. Little did I realize then as my hand screamed in pain and the blood gushed that it was I that was the retard.
>>When it comes to giving your girl her rat, be it frozen thawed or prekilled, try to make sure she grabs it on or at least very near to the head. The reason for this is that it is much more likely that they will successfully eat it if they can simply go right from wrapping it,.. to just eating it. If they have to let it go to search for the mouth this can turn in to them refusing it due to whatever reason. As Marcia pointed out, the head of the rat should be very warm. When I thaw food I always do it in hot water. If the water is cold by the time the food is thawed I will usually replace it with very warm water for at least a few minutes to allow for an adequate heat transfer but not long enough to promote any biodegrade/decomposition. I think that people frequently underestimate just how much the pythons use and depend on their thermo-detection, heat sensing equipment to ensure that they are eating fresh food. Most of my snakes would take it even cold, being so accustomed to prekilled food,.. but if any of them ever do refuse it, I'd say it is due to the lack of a "hot prey" reading. There have been times that a burm would act hungry, but refuse the offered cold thing, and I would hold the nose of the rat or rabbit to a light bulb for a few seconds and then offer it again and WHAM! So now I just always offer them warm.
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>>>>My first question is how long are mice good for in a freezer, months, years. The reason I ask this is because I bought a ton of mice for my boa and burm but now they are on rats and I have a small ball that I would like to start giving those to.
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>>>>2nd question, well my burm has eaten pre-killed everytime now, she finally has the burm feeding response, I walk in the room and the head finally comes out as if there is somthing to eat. She is finally getting bigger. My question is last night I tried the switch, to frozen and she bit and wrapped it, I was happy with that but when I came back in the room she had just left it there. Now that she has the hang of this whole hit and wrap thing, when is the next time I should try to feed her a frozen, I was feeding her every 4 days to catch up. Or should I go back to pre killed for awhile longer.
>>>>Thank you in advance
>>>>Jeff
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>>It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]
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It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]
She was a stubborn one. My baby granite constricted and killed a live fuzzy rat the other day and then left it. The next day I saw she was about to shed so I'm going to try afterward but she's eating well on thawed already I just happened to have live fuzzies from a pet store to encourage the stubborn baby male to eat. Anyway back to your question. See if she's about to go into shed and wait for the shed then try again. Otherwise try the thawed again in a week-make sure you warm it, especially the head- you can also try to dangle it on hemostats or tongs for her to strike at before you offer pre-killed again. If she refuses a second time I suggest continuing with the pre-killed until she gains more weight and just try thawed at regular intervals.