Reptile & Amphibian Forums

before i get my 1st ball i was wondering which method is better and why?

take some time to switch them over. Live prey can bite/scratch your BP, and injure or even kill it.
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Randy
www.ball-pythons.net

Part of which method is better is going to depend on your individual snake. Imported snakes are more "iffy" on taking frozen or pre-killed food than captive breds. Also, since the natural food for wild Ball Pythons is typically gerbils, some wild caught specimens don't recognize mice as "food". If you make sure to purchase a captive bred snake that has been fed pre-killed food already (make sure you buy a specimen that is already eating), then using frozen food is ideal for many reasons.

1) Food doesn't attempt to chew its way out of bag between store and home.

2) Food doesn't attempt to chew on snake if snake doesn't eat it right away.

3) Food can be returned to freezer for a later feeding attempt if snake isn't interested right now.

4) Pre-buying a long-term supply of food doesn't require setting up long term care for living rodents, nor do frozen rodents usually produce a distinct odor in the house.

5) Not likely that other family members will become attached and sympathetic to the "poor, cute little mouse" when the mouse is tactfully secluded inside a brown paper bag in the freezer.

6) No problem with snake owner suddenly getting pangs of sympathy when it comes time to whack the mouse before feeding it to the snake (which is a very good idea if you use live food).

My ball python, which I've had for about 3 weeks now, took his second feeding this evening. His first was a frozen "fuzzy" 2 weeks ago, which seemed like a rather small feeding. Talking with the folks at the reptile shop, I decided to try him on a larger mouse this time. I had planned on trying a "hopper", but they did not have any of those frozen in stock, so I went with a small adult mouse. I use a kitchen "candy" thermometer to track the temperature of the water that I thaw the mouse in. I use the hot water straight from the tap, which in our house is around 120 degrees F. I place the mouse in a sealed Zip-loc bag, and leave the mouse in the hot water until the thermometer shows a temperature just below 100 degrees (normal mouse body temp is 98.6 F). If the snake does not show interest in a reasonable amount of time, simply remove the mouse and return it to the freezer. Provided it hasn't sat out thawed for too long, it won't hurt it to be refrozen and rethawed at a later date.

I use a pair of long nosed needle nosed pliers to present the mouse to the snake. Some people use medical style forceps. The first time I fed him, I simply dropped the fuzzy into the terrarium and he took right to it. This time, I held the mouse by the tail and jiggled it slightly, and he responded by striking at the mouse and constricting around it. After holding it thus for a few minutes, he worked his way around to the head and began swallowing it.

If you haven't already, pick up a good book on the Ball Python and read it thoroughly before buying. Going shopping with lots of research behind you is always a good thing.

Gerbils are not the 'natural food' for wild BP's.

If my statement is incorrect on wild BP's feeding on gerbils, I apologize. I based my statement on information I read in "The Ball Python Manual" by Philippe de Vosjoli, Roger Klingenberg, and David and Tracy Barker, from page 25:

"Virtually every imported adult ball python sold in the pet trade is a problem snake when it comes to feeding. You must take into account many factors when you have difficulty in persuading a ball python to start feeding. The first thing to consider is the ball python's feeding habits in the wild. Wild ball pythons are almost exclusively rodent eaters, feeding on several species of native African rodents, including various rats, gerbils, and gerboas. Wild ball pythons are primarily active at night and are considered to be active predators, investigating holes and rodent burrows for possible prey. They do not readily feed on mice or on the same species of rat that we normally offer to snakes, simply because these species are not found in their native habitats. Thus they have to be 'converted' to new prey with significantly different scents before they will begin feeding in captivity."

Based on the list of credentials that the authors of this book have, and that it was well recommended to me by other snake keepers, I assumed that the authors knew what they were talking about.

No, you're right, but the way you stated it, I thought that you thought BP's ONLY eat gerbils. BP's in the wild will eat any rodent that they can get, not exclusively gerbils, rats are just as available. In captivity, it is fairly easy to convert any ball to rats, which incidentally, is the accepted food for balls. With regards to WC balls, if they're not a morph, they are WAY more trouble than they're worth, and by purchasing one from a BP 'farmer' as it were, you are aiding in the WC trade. ANY CB ball will happily eat mice or rats. No problems at all. Why bother with the gerbils?

I probably didn't state it clearly enough. My mention of the gerbils in the first reply was mostly to point out the problem of getting WC snakes to eat the readily available foods we have here (not that gerbils aren't readily available in most places, save California where they're considered an 'agricultural pest". As the book authors pointed out, WC snakes are going to tend to prefer the foods they're familiar with from the wild, and our domestically raised rats and mice aren't much like the wild rodents the snakes are accustomed to.

I agree with you completely on the concept of wild caught versus captive bred, especially with a species like the ball python, which breeds so readily in captivity, making captive bred specimens affordable and easy to find. With all the potential problems of a wild caught specimen, why invite the problems if you don't need to? As you mentioned, if it's a rare/unusual specimen, that's one thing, but for the common color and the "proven" morphs, captive bred is so much better for all concerned.