Reptile & Amphibian Forums

today i fed my albino and he grabbed the rat from the back half of his body and thank god the rats mouth was away from my snake but as my snake was constricting the rat his foot scratched open one scale next to my snakes eye! i mean one scale away and the scale is slightly lifted but she is ok! i know some people are gonna bash me for feeding live but my snake wants nothing else but live. im just really thankful shes ok!

hmm... this is why i feed F/T...

mmmm! If you read my post you would know she doesn't eat f/t! Mmmm

my albino is the same nothing but live

98% of my other snakes eat frozen and he is the last one I would care to have eating live but nothing I can do.

I try to watch like a hawk when he eats, I am ready to jump in and put something(ruler or my gloved hand) between the rat and him when he doesn't get it right.
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Misty Sprouse Ball Pythons

never once has a wild ball eaten a frozen thawed Norway rat while setting in a termite mound in Ghana (etc).........and they live and breed anyways......

live is what they prefer.......

people prefer frozen in here..........not the snakes
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I definitely agree with you. Natural food is LIVE.

I do often stun live prey so it is not so vigorous as to scare the snake...and then I feed off tongs and bounce it a bit to make it appear live. It works.

Baby Ball Pythons must have live fuzzy mice. They need something warm, fuzzy and moving to feed in the beginning.

Susan
SSNAKES Reptiles

I don't know about that because half of my babies took f/t rat pups right off the ground no problem. The others took f/t on the 3rd feeding. I only have 5 left out of 30 that are only feeding on live rat pups. No mice here thank God!

I have a female I got back in 2001 from Petco. I'm lucky if she eats at all. I've tried every trick out there and can't even get her to take pre-killed ANYTHING. She's been bit a few times but it can't be helped. I even tried to wait her out thinking she'd get hungry enough but after 6 months I caved. The best I can do is stand on the side armed with betadine and thick gloves, so I know how you feel.
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Everyone has eaten and everyone has been eaten.

I had a something like that happen this week with my female Dumeril boa she got bit bad right behind her left eye bloody mess she is doing fine now but will have some scaring she won't eat anythig but live.

just make sure that you keep the wond clean, I normally us neosporine, it works great!!!

Keep it on hand just in case,
matt

i had a BP that would only eat live for about 2 years... after a lot of work and patience though i convinced him that fresh killed are just as good. I could not just leave the fresh killed in his cage though, i had to dangle and move it around in front of him...
just a though that could keep your snake a little safer

have some patience and give it a shot.
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chris
abilene, tx.

I have some that only take live and find it a little nerv wracking. I know natural food is live and most do fine, but I would guess there are exceptions, at any rate I'm glad your snake only had a close call and still has both eyes.
CM