Reptile & Amphibian Forums

He works at Agway and while loading a bale of hay into a customers car, he uncovered a mouse nest and brought it home.
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/mice1.jpg

They are about 2" in length total w/tail, eyes are still closed. He seems to think he can raise them as food for his Ball python.

Is this possible? How to feed them? Milk and a syringe?
He also bought a live white mouse that the store (Petco) said was pregnant in hopes it would somehow adopt these babies, the same white mouse that he normally feeds to the Ball.

Advice?
And yes, I'm pretty sure his mom is gonna be a bit upset when she gets home from work tonight...;>
-Jim

Wild mice carry internal & external parasites. Fun to raise up (done it), but I would never feed them to my snakes.

good point!

Do you know for sure they are mice? Sure they aren't rat pinks? You can try putting them with the pregnant mouse. She may or may not accept them. She may kill them, but they will not survive without some kind of maternal care. I don't think you can give them what they need...they are too small to feed them with a syringe.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

Susan
SSNAKES Reptiles

the babies and the white mouse have been together for over an hour without mishap, she seems to be ignoring them. They are all in a 10 gallon fish tank with wire mesh cover that the Ball used to be in, cleaned beforehand of course and there's new bedding, water & various foods (cheese, grains, some hay & she loves Iams dog food mini-chunks!).

If she hasnt had her litter yet she wont take care of them....

Remember most wild mice carry lice, fleas, ticks ect....

Freeze them and wait till you have a baby ball to feed them to. Thats the best advice I can give you

Sounds harsh but it will be a better death than starving or the white mouse eating them alive....

Hope this helps

Raul

>>If she hasnt had her litter yet she wont take care of them....
>>
>>Remember most wild mice carry lice, fleas, ticks ect....
>>
>>Freeze them and wait till you have a baby ball to feed them to. Thats the best advice I can give you
>>
>>Sounds harsh but it will be a better death than starving or the white mouse eating them alive....
>>
>>Hope this helps
>>
>>Raul

Yep..and freezing them should take care of any possible parasites.
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Charles Glaspie
http://www.myspace.com/coldthumb

Yeah, I'm not cruel (by nature) so depending on how they're doing tomorrow, it may be the freezer for them or see if a local breeder would take them.

My son did feed a 'wild grey mouse' he caught at work (Agway's) to his Ball a few months ago and there hasn't been any noticeable effects by the Ball (those snakes are FAST!) and ever since then he's been feeding her (he named her Helen instead of Monty, sad, sad, sad,...) Petco bought white mice.

She just had her 2nd shed about a week ago which has come off much better than the first (bathing the Ball was interesting) and is quite active and looks good.

Take them back to where he found them maybe mom will find them again. Otherwise it's best not to raise them for feeders.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

......get rid of wild mice

.....worms and all kinds of other things....

.....
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..JY

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