Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been working on getting my 5ft sd gopher to switch from live mice to frozen small rats. He is perfectly cpable of killing and eating rats and that is what he is on now the problem is that he wont take prekilled yet. I tried feeding him his last live rat today. I stunned the rat by shaking it in the box and when i put it in the cage it appeared stunned. But when my snake grabbed it it still had enough life in it to bite my snake. I observed this and quickly siezed the rat from my snake before it got bad. I killed the rat by thumping it on the head with my fingers. My snake retreated into his hide and later came out to examine the rat. He hasnt ate it yet and i havent been able to look at his wounds. I know they cant be severe because i was on top of the rat faster than a border guard chasing a imagrant with a marajana plant. But i am very concered. Please help fast.

--> Evan

I'm a little confused, you had time to grab the rat, kill it and put it back in the cage and then watch the snake. But you didn't have a few seconds to pull out the snake and see how bad it's wounds might be. O'well. If it has superficial wounds you can treat them with a topical antibiotic. Anything worse needs Vet. care. As for getting it on frozen, don't feed it for a couple of weeks and then try a frozen rat. If that doesn't work (as long as it is healthy) wait another week and try again. If the snake has no health issues, it will most likely eat frozen when it gets hungry enough. Of coarse you need to use common sense with this approach and keep an eye on its weight.
Tim

the reason i couldnt check it right away was cause it was really pissed and it didnt look bad enough for me to worsen things my stessing it. But i got a looka and there are no marks or cuts but it didnt finish the rat. oh well. ill just have to be moer stubborn this next time with a frozen one. Ok well thanx for the help and sorry for the confusion.

-->Evan