Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thanks to those who have helped answer any questions I have had.

What do most people do about buying and killing mice? I will be getting just 1 snake and I want to know the best way to go about the feeding process. I've heard about the freezing and thawing. I have also just heard to whack a live mouse on a table and then feed the snake. What are peoples preferences on these methods? I think I would rather just buy the mouse, whack it and then put it on the menu that way. I don't know about the whole "keeping dead mice in my freezer" thing. Thanks for any responses.

ROFL

Here you are saying you have no problem 'Wacking' the mice, but OH, NO... you aren't going into my freezer....

Sry, I just thought that was funny....

Serious note would be, that 'wacking' can get a little 'dirty'...

Just buy already frozen mice from your pet store? Then you don't have to kill them at all. It's cheaper that way. It is here anyways.

When I kill my own mice, I freeze them for a few days before offering because freezing kills off parasites that the mouse may be carrying that could be transmitted to your snake.

I find it easier to just buy a bagful of already frozen mice & rats every couple months. That way, there's always food on hand for them and I don't have to run to the pet store for every feeding. It's not gross keeping them in your freezer. They'll be packaged in a colored plastic or brown bag so your guests never see what's in there.
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...So many snakes, so little time...
Don't litter ~ Please spay and neuter your cats and dogs!

If you're putting the mice in your freezer they'd better be dead first. It takes days for a furred rodent to die in a freezer. I go the frozen route as much as I can, personally.

I use FT cause I dont have the heart 2 kill a mouse and I always buy the mice in a somewhat sealing container

If I had to choose between frozen or fresh food, I'd go with fresh, and that's what I feed my snakes. I buy live, and whack 'em. Well, I used to whack 'em, but now I'm getting some small rats, and they can be really hard to whack effectively, if you know what I mean.......So, I snap their necks. Also, if they refuse the meal, I can then freeze it and re-feed again at a later date.
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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

I perfer the f/t also cause it kills any parasites on them. Internal parasites are horrible.

Do you guys whack there heads and just put them into the enclosure for your snake? And what way do you snap there necks with your thumbs? I dont know how hard it is never tried.

Usually i just take a ruler and slap them on the upper spine/neck area and it effectively paralyzes them and they die soon thereafter. But I began to think i may be hurting the "food" more than is necessary so i tried what is described as a more "humane" way earler today. You place a pencil or in my case the trusty ole ruler behinf their neck and pull the tail and it should seperate their vertebrate and kill them. However today this was not such the case when i did this i heard an awfull scream and realized that i had inedvertantly ripped a portion of the rats tail off, it still bveing alive. After this endeavor im going to stick with the slap on the neck method.
Joe

I worked at a lab for a while and learned that the most humane way of killing a mouse or rat is using CO2 gas. No mess, besides a little bit of poo maybe. No bloody spots on the front porch. No rat that just won't die. No hurt snakes.

We are now breeding hamsters to feed our snakes. They have a litter every 2 weeks... it is great. Hamsters can be mean little buggers though so we have decided to set up our own gas chambers.
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All my Children: 0.2 female humans (1 is 10 and the other is a 6 month old hatchling), 1 Saint Bernard, 2 maine coons, 15 leopard geckos, 1 pacman frog, 1 oscar, 1 jack dempsey, 1.1 ball pythons, and "Lilith" the black meowing kitty

If you are afraid of any mess from 'whacking' them, just place them in a brown paper bag and bang the bag against something. I just switched to rats, though, so I either need to learn the neck break method, or make a little gas chamber with a cooler and some dry ice.

This one time, I had a mouse in a bag, and when I whacked to against the counter, he busted out of the bag and landed on my kitchen floor like 10 feet away. My dog had the strangest look on it's face when this dead mouse just 'fell from the sky'.

Vic