Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello! Some of you may remember my earlier posting about a Ball Python that I found sitting in it's cage in the dumpster. Well, he is doing much better since I found him on 10/19. He shed his skin on 10/21. On 10/22 I fed him an adult mouse. On 10/25 I fed him another adult mouse. Now I have a question about my feeding technique. I buy a live mouse, and then pre-kill it and put it in a shopping bag. Then I put the python in the bag with the dead mouse. Now to get him to strike the mouse I have to move it around a little bit (which put's me kind of close to his mouth). I have a feeling he was always fed live mice before I found him. What is a good way to get your Ball to take pre-killed mice? What other advice is there for feeding a Ball Python?

This is what the set-up looks like after we cleaned it up and added lights:
I appreciate every and all responses, you guys are really helpful.

I use aquarium tongs. They are about two feet long and I can offer the warmed f/t rat in front of her. As someone else said about their ball, "She jumps for joy" and grabs that rat in a nanosecond.

I use a pair of long needle-nosed pliers, cleaned and with "heat shrink" tubing over the tips to cover up any potentially abrasive surfaces. Long medical style forceps are also used, and the ones with the "loop" tips can be ideal as they present no "points" that could conceivably injure the animal.

Two advantages to such a system:

1) Keeps your hands at a distance and safer from an errant strike (a mouse's normal body temperature is the same as ours, and snakes tend to target in on the heat for the final striking distance. With out hands out of the way, they have a better "lock" on the target)

2) The snake will learn to associate the tool with food, rather than associating your hand with food. This makes it less likely a hungry, eager snake may strike at your hand when you reach in for other purposes, such as cleaning the terrarium.

So far, my practice has been to hold the mouse with the pliers by the tail, close to the base of the tail, and dangle it a short distance in front of the snake, jiggling it slightly. Holding it by the tail, the mouse (or rat, if you're using rats) will be below the pliers, offering as much of an unobstructed target for the snake to strike at as possible.

Oops... typo. That sentence should be "with OUR hands out of the way", not "with OUT hands..."

I am quite sure mice body temperature is actually higher than a humans, around 100 F (humans are around 90F). However using tongs still would be the way to go.

When I first bought a frozen mouse for feeding to my BP a few weeks back, I did a Google search and checked some veterinary sites for normal mouse body temp. 98.6 F was listed as normal. Granted, the accuracy of information on the internet is only as good as whoever posted it, but I assumed a veterinarian knew what he was talking about.

stop feeding it mice, switch to rats the size of the largest girth of the snake. mice are not nutritious for your snake, compared to rats and also switching to rats as early as possible is the best thing to do ebcause thats what he will be eating when he is older. unless you want to buy 5-10 mice a week. also since you seem like a beginner, i would suggest going to www. s s n a k e s s . c o m (without the spaces) there are more helpful people there imo. but kingsnake is also good! ask this question on [bleep] and you will get 10-20 replies instead of 5. also dont ever feed him live food, do what other people said using tongs sort of hold it infront of the snake's face, if your bp doesn't take the rats the first try, dont worry eventually he will and dont offer him another mice ever, if he doesnt like rats right away (most BP's dont) then try scenting the rat with a mouse, just keep working him on rats until he takes one.

good luck!
Clarke