Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my ball yesterday and the guy at the petshop told me to come every friday to buy the food, which of course is mice. So i was wondering, i heard that feeding them dead mice is best because the prey wont fight back i want to know if i can feed her frozen mice. Or if i have to buy live ones a easy quick way to kill em or if i should just give her live ones. She is still a baby, and ill try to get a pic of her up(if anyone knows how please tell me )anyother advice for her care would be wonderful, shes my first pyhton and i dont wanna mess up. thx

Depends
My daughters normal captive bred ball is also young, 2-3 months or so, and she is eating 3 fuzzies
she is resistant to eating the frozen ones, unless it is put in her coil after she has caught a live one
we are still trying to train her to take frozen, for the safety factor
Try reaing the past pages of this forum, there are QUITE a few Posts about feeding, frozen verses live, etc
I think (hope) it is just a matter of convincing her that this is FOOD, then she will take it
So far she seems to think it is wierd, unless she is constricting something
then I just slide it into a loose loop, and she squeezes it, and swallows it just after the first one
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Elizabeth (ecb)

'Goodness gracious'
my grandma used to say
'the worlds a scarey place now
things were different in my day'
what horrors will be commonplace,
when my hair starts to grey?
-Kevin Gilbert-

>>Depends
>>My daughters normal captive bred ball is also young, 2-3 months or so, and she is eating 3 fuzzies
>>she is resistant to eating the frozen ones, unless it is put in her coil after she has caught a live one
>>we are still trying to train her to take frozen, for the safety factor
>>Try reaing the past pages of this forum, there are QUITE a few Posts about feeding, frozen verses live, etc
>>I think (hope) it is just a matter of convincing her that this is FOOD, then she will take it
>>So far she seems to think it is wierd, unless she is constricting something
>>then I just slide it into a loose loop, and she squeezes it, and swallows it just after the first one
>>-----
>>Elizabeth (ecb)
>>
>>'Goodness gracious'
>> my grandma used to say
>>'the worlds a scarey place now
>> things were different in my day'
>>what horrors will be commonplace,
>> when my hair starts to grey?
>> -Kevin Gilbert-

That is an interesting technique!. I like new techniques. I read every feeding post and try to learn something new.

So just find a loose coil and put the mouse in there? When do you do it? At what period of time do you slide the f/t one in there? For example, do you do it as the snake is still sqeezing the life out of the first one? Or do you wait until the first mouse is half way swallowed? Or do you wait until the first mouse is completely gone before you put the f/t into the coil?

You may want to read pro-exotics FAQ and see their way of converting to f/t. It sounds as though it may have similarities to your technique. The pro-exotic technique is using a live one as a primer. After the live one is swallowed, place a f/t next to the snake. After you do this for 5 sessions with good results, then you just go straight to F/T.

Anyways, tell me more about your technique. It sounds like an interesting variation and I would like to learn more about it.

thank you in advance.
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

I did this by accident, I was trying to tailgate the FT in after the Live
She pushed it out of the way by grabbing it with her body, so as long as she had a hold of it, I was not going to fight her for it
the head was near the other, and she just swallowed it as if it was just an extension of the other
maybe she is a blonde (then she would fit into our house just fine) and just did not know mice are not 2" long with 2 heads, who knows?
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Elizabeth (ecb)

'Goodness gracious'
my grandma used to say
'the worlds a scarey place now
things were different in my day'
what horrors will be commonplace,
when my hair starts to grey?
-Kevin Gilbert-

Feeding your ball python f/t (frozen/thawed) mice is fine. Make sure the mouse is completely thawed before you offer it to your snake. Dead mice are preferable to live mice as live mice can bite/injure your snake.
This should be a link to a the post I followed to learn how to post pics...
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=130309,130362
I would suggest reading through this forum to get tons of advice and tips on caring for ball pythons, there are also tons of caresheets on ball pythons all throughout the net if you search around a bit. Welcome to the BP forum and keep posting any questions you have. Good luck.
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Steve
2.0 Corn Snakes
2.0 Ball Pythons
0.1 Veiled Chameleon
1.1 Leopard Geckos
1.1 Rudis Chameleons
0.1 Giant Day Gecko
0.0.3 Red Ear Sliders
0.0.2 Sulcata Tortoises
1.0 Central American Banded Gecko

Just figured I'd toss my 2 cents in here. If the ball python you got was a baby then you're going to have a little trouble at first. I'd always, ALWAYS reccomend feeding prekilled, frozen mice. I got a few near death baby balls in, and while I could save all of them given the shape they were in, I could save 1 of 3, which was nice considering the other 20 that were given out to other people all died... I felt pretty good about save'ng the 1... anywho. Feed a size down in mice and feed a little more often at first... if they'll take a fuzzy twice a week, then feed a pinkie everyother day. What I have had work for me was I'd soak the pinkies in hot water to thaw them out (even though some people say the when you soak them they loose their scent and the snakes won't eat them, this hasn't proven true for me). Soak them in the water untill they are completely thawed, and then make sure they are nice and warm... feed the snake use'ng tongs. Don't wiggle the mouse around like crazy, that will just scare the snake, how would you feel if your burger flew around at your face? Just hold it about 2-3" away from the face of the snake. Unfortunantly I figured this out after those two snakes died, but I've had 95% success since then.

Anywho, the moral to that story was, feed prekilled...

Don't use heat rocks.
Get a hide box.
Keep the humidity @75% or so.
Oh, and if that snake has large patches of solid white on it, send it to me ASAP to that I can... um, help take care of it...

I buy live, and pre-kill. Sometimes my snakes get F/T, (if that's all they have at the store, and I don't want to drive to another...if I kill it, and they refuse to eat I'll freeze for next time, etc) but usually I feed fresh killed. Pinkies,and fuzzies I just tap with something hard at the base of the skull. For mice and rats, I use cervical dislocation. Hold the rodent by the tail, and place something firm against the neck (ruler edge, pencil, whatever) and pull back or up on the tail until the neck breaks. You can do it pretty quickly, and this may sound gross, but I get a good feeding response from my snakes because the prey is still twitching. (ew) Given the option, I know I would prefer fresh food over frozen....
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1.1 Ball Python
0.0.1 corn snake
1.0 Bearded Dragon
0.0.2 fish
1.2 cats
3.1 kids
1.0 husband