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I feed live mice/rat pups and small rats to a variety of my snakes. Some will not accept f/t now so I feed them live under a WATCHFUL eye, never leaving prey in the cage for more than 5 mins.

Live feeders need only respond

I feed a few of my picky eaters live, but I sit and watch them the whole time and I have a yard stick that I use to keep the rats from getting on or hurting the snake. I am working on switching them so I hope that I will not have to feed live for too much longer. I also hate dealing with what to do with the rats if they don't eat them.

I feed med. rats to 2 of my animals for the simple fact that I have tried everything and can not get them switched over.. (AND I HATE IT!!!) I keep a very watchful eye when they are feed as so they don't get into trouble!!
Everything else eats T/F like champs!! Any and all advice is needed and appreciated!! I have tried just about every trick in the book and some that are not in the book!!!

I feed live when needeed. Right now my w.hognose is eating live mouse pups.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

When your feeding 80-100 balls......it's tuff feeding frozen thawed. The process seems to take us 2 to 3 times longer than feeding live.

We feed almost exclusively live. The key is keeping the meals smaller..........rat pups and weaned rats are 95% of what we feed. I have never experienced a rat at this size attacking any size ball (only my experience....there may be an unique exception). Your larger snakes can feed more frequently at the smaller size meals.

I will attempt 100-120 gram rats with some of my large adult females.....but I supervise these feedings closely. Again, this has never been an issue. Balls this size just demolish 100 g rats...........I've seen eye balls pop literally!

One advantage we have is we produce a boat load of rats and mice. This allows us to have the appropriate live size we need at all times.

Jim
Python Passion Reptiles

All my snakes are fed live!
Rats
Gerbils
Mice
Deer Mice

I like pre killed for myself.
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
The home of the singing snakes!

anyone had any problems with the rats biting the snake? That is what I fear the most.

yes, I was feeding my bp a live mouse once, and the mouse almost bit right into her spine. If I hadn't pulled the mouse away, the snake probably would have been paralyzed or something. Plus if you look on the web for it, you will find a pic of what happens when you leave a mouse unattended in a snake cage.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

I know I have seen that picture. That is why I sit and watch the snake the whole time, but it still doesn't stop them from taking a bite out of the snake before you can stop them. I really need to get mine switched!!

I definitely have never seen this, however, I will say I worry much more about the mice vs. rats.

In breeding both mice and rats.......mice are much more likely to bite me, therefore I assume, more likely to bite a ball.

I never have a problem with rats pups and weaned rats......anything 20-50 gram size rats in my opinion are safe.

Jim
Python Passion Reptiles

I feed my picky male live gerbils. Doesn't mean I agree with feeding live when there is no significant reason to do so.
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Ball-Pythons.Net

I feed ALL of my ball pythons live food. As Jim said, most of them are fed 30-40 gram rats that can't even break my skin. The larger snakes are just fed with thier bins open and if they hit the rat in a bad spot, I will assist and make sure they dont get bit.
I've been feeding this way for over 5 years with 0 problems.
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www.NEWReptiles.com

I hate live feeding with a passion. Luckily right now everything is on FT rats (from pinkies to full-sized). I wish I could say it was an easy switch, but it wasn't without problems - or maybe I've just gotten more talented at making a FT do the "Look! I'm food! Really! Eat me!" dance. I have found that the paper-bag trick actually works sometimes for reluctant feeders, too. My most difficult conversions have been some neonates that I purchased that had been started with mouse fuzzies. It seemed that the juveniles were imprinted pretty well on the mice, and it was a better part of a month before I got them to eat FT rat fuzzies. They now take them readily (for the most part), but like I said the switch was tough. Maybe the size difference between a rat fuzzy and a mouse fuzzy bothered them, I don't know.

I got into bp's a while ago coming from the burmese & retic side of things, so i'm used to just tossing something in the general vicinity of the snake and having it disappear before is hits the bottom of the cage. These bp's are a bit tougher to feed sometimes, although I have learned to relax when they don't eat for a few weeks. If someone wants to breed a *useful* morph, put the feeding response of a retic in a BP.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

I agreee with the more "useful morph" thing, because it is frusturating when they refuse food for no particular reason. ACCEPT for the fact that with a better feeding response perhaps comes a little nastier personality. Not true for all Retics and Burms, I have a Burm who has never once tried to strike and is the biggest sweetheart, but we know sometimes they can be nippy, some even downright nasty, even without a troubled past. I have a female Juvi BP who has the feeding response of a Retic, but I really don't appreciate getting tagged 2-3 times when I'm trying to clean her cage(like just last night), lol. She has not had a dreary past either and I've pretty much accepted the fact that she's just a nasty girl and wants to be left alone. I got her from a reputable breeder and she is CBB. Not trying to be a devil's advocate, just mentioning that breeding a better feeding response into Ball's would probably come at a certain price to their overall good nature. Just my two cents.

PS- BTW, I strictly feed FT. It takes a little more patience and time to feed, but takes away all the worry of "is it gonna bite this time and injure my snake?" I have my collection to the point where I don't even have to warm it up for em, they take it room temp. I still however have to do the "I'm food" dance with the rodents, lol.
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Cathy Hrusa
poetichusky@hotmail.com
Future Ball Python Breeder
~My Ever-growing herp Collection~
0.4 Normal Ball Pythons
1.0 Albino Green Burmese Python
0.1 Bearded Dragon
1.0 Red Eared Slider
0.1 FL Cooter
1.0 Sunburst X Blue Veiled Chameleon
0.0.2 Firebelly Toads
0.0.1 Pixie Frog

Makes more sense. We all got some that don't wanna touch anything without a pulse.

But I also know a lot of people completely ignore sound husbandry practices by feeding live without cause.
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Ball-Pythons.Net

Why would it be wrong to feed live, even if the animal will accept dead?

These animals are well equipt to deal with living prey items of appropriate size (they do it all the time in Africa). If it will eat without leaving the live prey item in the cage for extended periods of time, than there is nothing wrong with feeding live.

BTW: I feed F/T because it's easier for me, (I don't breed rats) but if I had the choice I would go with live.

My opinion,
Chad

np
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

I'm not a owner of any herps, just a domicile attendant.

My image Gallery

If my snake can't kill a rodent of appropriate size, it deserves to die, or at least get hurt.

I've seen alot of snakes get bit & it usually doesn't even leave a mark. How many snakes have you had get "hurt" by a rodent???

Chad

Why should your snake get hurt due to bad husbandry on your part? you even admit your snake has gotten bit, yet you still feed live why? In the wild yes, the snake shouldn't survive if it can't takes is own prey, but this ISNT the wild it is captivity. The snake is in an area like 1/100000 of its natural range. In captivity you are the snakes source of food, heat, light, water, humidity, etc. If you provide a food source which could possibly harm your snake and your snake gets harmed it is noone elses fault but yours. Even if you monitor the live feedings, are you really going to be able to take a mouse/rat away before it bites/scratches the snake? 99.9999% of the time you won't even notice the attack from the prey on the predator until it is to late.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

I'm not a owner of any herps, just a domicile attendant.

My image Gallery

I do not feed live, but see no danger in it at all. If you are stupid enough to leave a larger mouse or rat in with a snake that is not going to eat it, than lesson learned. These animals are perfectly capable of killing their food source, and if not, I would not want that "strain".

Read thru the posts. Alot of people feed live, and I gaurantee you their snakes are not missing eyes/tails from it. Also, If you are not providing your animals enough room to capture and kill a prey item, than you need to think about a larger cage.

Chad

I agree. Although I usually feed F/T... there's nothing wrong with feeding live. We sometimes get a little carried away in what constitutes 'good husbandry'. I mean, I'll go to great lengths to make my snake comfortable but if our sole concern was for the BPs then we wouldn't own them. It can be argued that creating the right environment for your snake involves letting it do what comes naturally. Naturally for these snakes involves some live & some dead prey.
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Kane

You're putting a snake in an unnatural situation where they prey can be aware of the predator and has no escape route. Sometimes they can put up quite a fight when they know they have to. In the wild, the prey would just escape or sit still and wait for the snake to go away. So if they turn on the snake in this situation, the snake gets confused. I've seen snakes stalk a young rat, but as soon as it crawls over to them/on them, they can get scared and not eat at all. That's just how ball pythons are - it doesn't mean they deserve to die.
There are a lot of things that kill animals naturally that we don't want happening to our pets...

If a snake can't kill it's prey, than there is something wrong with it in the first place.

Do not leave live prey that can harm them in their cages for extended periods of time. I've kept thousands of snakes and never had a problem with live (when I fed live).

Do these animals deserve to be in cages???

Chad

If a snake can't kill it's prey, than there is something wrong with it in the first place.

I was trying to say that most ball pythons are shy and can be turned off of feeding by little things. It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with it, except that it's a ball python.

Do not leave live prey that can harm them in their cages for extended periods of time. I've kept thousands of snakes and never had a problem with live (when I fed live).

Do these animals deserve to be in cages???

You're the one keeping thousands of snakes. If you think that it's wrong, then don't do it.

A bad bite can happen quicker than you can react, even when you are watching closely - I'm saying this from experience. Whatever works for you, fine. I personally would just like to reduce the risk of injury to my pets. As was mentioned earlier, parasites and disease are also natural; would you want any of your pets to experience this also? I'm not necessarily against what you're doing, just your reasoning behind it.

I've kept thousands of snakes over the years, not a one time (THAT WOULD SUCK). I don't want my snakes to get hurt, but I also would not want to produce from an animal too weak or stupid to capture and kill a prey item, that would be like producing a dog bred for show instead of performance, eventually they turn out to be worthless pieces of crap that are a far cry compared to what they once were.

Just some thoughts,
Chad

This supercedes the doberman/car/pied prices posts a while back. For sure.

Your snake does NOT deserve to get hurt by its live "prey" under any circumstance. I suggest you give your snake(s) away to someone who doesn't have a Gladiator-style attitude towards keeping animals as pets.

oh wow, I didn't even see that post!

So do you deserve to die because you can't chase down and kill (barehanded now!) a longhorn cow, wolf, or aren't fast enough to catch a rabbit or patient enough to catch a fish (barehanded, no tools, just what you have hand feet and teeth )

Now THAT was a remarkably ignorant responce,
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

Cuz I don't kiss your a$$e$????

Chad

Hold on, let me kiss your 100% hatch rate A$$.

Talk about stupid posts.

Chad

There is very little risk in offering live food items when the feeding is properly supervised. Also, offering sub-weaned rodents presents no risk to the snakes.

... speaking of reason... efficiency in feeding a large number of snakes is a good reason to feed live as long as risk to the snakes is negligible (pre-weaned rodents and/or properly supervised feeding sessions).

........
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www.NEWReptiles.com

what does properly supervised mean? does it mean you have your hand/tongs on the prey item? because if it doesn't how are you going to be able to take the rat/mouse away before it attacks your snake? how are you going to be able to know when it (if it does) will attack your snake?

also
"efficiency in feeding a large number of snakes is a good reason to feed live as long as risk to the snakes is negligible"-I would find it much less efficient feeding live than feeding FT/Prekill. Because feeding live you have to watch it for at least 5 minutes, while feeding freshkill/FT you can drop the rat/mouse in and check back in a few hours. Lets see, if you have 50 snake, 5 minutes times 50 snakes=250 minutes. Dropping a dead rat/mouse takes around 10 seconds per cage, lets see 10 seconds times 50 snakes=500 seconds or 8 minutes 20 seconds. Then another 10 minutes taking the dead rat/mouse out if they didn't accept it. Lets see 18 minutes 20 seconds total for offering the prey then taking out refused prey, or 4 hours 10 minutes for just offering prey. If you are a rodent breeder and have a small-medium number (10-20) then maybe it might be easier to feed live, but you also have to go throught the hassle of breeding rodents, cleaning rodent cages, feeding/watering rodents, all of which that time you could be doing something better (like playing with your snakes).
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

I'm not a owner of any herps, just a domicile attendant.

My image Gallery

Properly supervised.... The purpose of supervision in feeding live food items to snakes is to prevent or minimize injury to the snake. Therefore, the keeper stands by to observe the snake while the snake kills the rodent. If the snake achieves a hold upon the rodent that does not allow for the rodent to bite the snake, then no intervention by the keeper is necessary. If the rodent is held by the snake in such a way by the snake that the snake may be bitten, then a foreign object (tongs, or the end of a pencil in my case) may be placed into the mouth of the rodent. The foreign object will be gnawed upon by the rodent until the rodent succumbs to the snake's constriction thereby preventing injury to the snake. This is all, of course, common sense.

Your argument in favor of feeding pre-killed food items to a very large group of ball pythons (for sake of efficiency) sounds compelling. However, it indicates that you do not possess a very large group of ball pythons and/or you have never had the opportunity to actually test the ideas that you have presented. Once again, it sounds good, but quite simply it is incorrect.

can you please explain to me how feeding 50 snakes live prey and standing over them watching the snake kill its prey is more efficient than feeding 50 snakes FT prey?
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

I'm not a owner of any herps, just a domicile attendant.

My image Gallery

It is not efficient for me to toss 60 dead rats into 60 cages and then throw away 45-55 dead rats that were refused. This is a waste of my money and my time (Time spent feeding and cleaning the 45-55 rodents I just threw away)Even if I didn't breed my own rodents it would be a waste of the time I spent to earn the money I spent to purchase the 45-55 rodents I just threw away.

Now multiply that waste by the number of weeks most BPs are on fast every week~ that is an INCREDIBLE waste!

Don't suggest I stop offering food in Winter~ you wouldn't would you? Some of them WILL eat.

Don't suggest I only thaw 30 rats and move them from cage to cage until they are eaten. That is bad husbandry~ AND a waste of my time as I move all those dead rats from cage to cage~ dancing each one and hoping for a strike.

If you can't tell~ I've tried F/T. My corns are still on F/T as they readily accept them. A few of my BP's are on F/T~ Most are not.
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

Your basic assumptions are incorrect.

If each snake had to go through separate supervised feedings, then it would probably take longer. However, most of the snakes being fed are not necessarily large adults but are hatchlings or yearlings which may be fed sub-weaned rodents... these feedings do not require supervision. Also, anything but very large ball pythons may be fed small weanling rats that are not capable of causing any injury to speak of to the snake.

More often than not, a ball python will not accept a f/t rodent that is simply left in the enclosure. They must normally be warmed and then presented with tongs. This normally takes several minutes.... ALSO, 4 of my 10 young adult ball pythons WILL NOT TOUCH F/T OR PRE-KILLED FOOD ITEMS despite numerous efforts to switch them over.

The feeding response is normally much faster when live food is offered.

Consider the fact that virtually ALL large scale breeders of ball pythons also produce their own rodents... ever wonder why? You may be tempted to believe that it is for cost efficiency... however, I invite you to contact a few of them. You will find that the primary reason is to minimize the duration of feeding sessions.

np
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

I'm not a owner of any herps, just a domicile attendant.

My image Gallery

Nothing more to add.
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www.NEWReptiles.com

..

Just because they eat live in the wild, just because you haven't seen your snakes harmed, and just because the danger is slim, doesn't mean it is ok to do without just cause.

First of all, accidents do happen. The time it takes for a mouse/rat/gerbil to bite into your snake's skin is far quicker then you can imagine. I don't care how closely you monitor live feedings, crap happens. Whatever can go wrong will.

And just because it happens in the wild doesn't make it acceptable. I'm completely sure they don't also live on newspaper in the wild, or in 7 inch tall rubbermaids, or even have heat lamps. I suppose since ticks, internal parasites, and mites are also part of their wild life we should also immitate that too. I mean, 99% of wild pythons have them with minimal harm done, right? Maybe we should try and immitate all aspects of their wild life.

Mind you, I'm not attacking anyone (this group includes me) who feed live because it is what must be done. But the people who just ignore the warnings and do it anyway, there is no good reason to do it that can't be countered with 3 reasons not to.

It's like playing with fire. Maybe not happen for some time to come, but your snake will get bit. Suppose it's taking a rat, and bites it in the center of the body, leaving it's head free during constriction. It'll sure cause damage before it dies. Is it worth it?
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Ball-Pythons.Net

Well this may sound corny but it works....Though it would be a pain to use this method with a large collection...I have 8 ball pythons as of now all sub-adults...Some eat mice, some eat small rats, some eat pre-killed, but a majority will only take live...With all but one it isn't a problem because they will strike and coil within 10 min. after I put the rodent in there bins....I have one that won't eat immediately if she decides to eat at all that night (she's a wc burgundy, go figure)...Anyway I have seen the pictures of what rodents have done to snakes left unattended so I figure if the rodent has something to eat it will chew on that instead of your ball python....So all I do is toss a baby carrot in the corner of the snake bin away from the hide box and water dish....Not only does this keep the rodent off your snake, but it keeps him in plain view and out of any crevices he can hide in......Sounds stupid but it works....I feed her yesterday and the mouse was in there for 6 hrs., when I went and checked on her at about 2am to see if she ate...The mouse was gone and so was half of the carrot.

I like your train of thought...I'll consider employing your tatic this weekend.

This is a good idea, however feeding a live fully weaned rat or older should ALWAYS be supervised. I've been forced to intercede on behalf of my snakes on many occasions while I've supervised feeding sessions. If the snake gets a bad hold on the rat and leaves part of his body exposed to the rats teeth... well, the rat doesn't hesitate to bite the hell out of the snake. I stand ready with a pencil in hand and stick it in the rat's mouth when such a thing occurs. He spends about 15-20 seconds gnawing on the end of the pencil before he's not capable of biting any more.... that's 15-20 seconds that he would not have been biting my snake.... take heed and caution!

Everyone has their own opinion and everyone has what works best for them.

I feed mine all live because the place I get them is right near work. There are many other reasons, but I don't know if you are all interested.

For Adult Mice/Any Rats, I use seperate, low feeder bins holding the tails of the mice/rats so the rodents are just above ground (hands are completely shield by the tub and lid). The snake moves in and has a static (but very wiggly) target. For hoppers for my BRB I just drop in the feeding tubs.

Not once in that last 6 months has any of my snakes taken longer than a minute to strike.

I watch all feedings to ensure no problems.

I attribute the success to a well working pattern. On feeding day I allow the rodents to run around the feeder bins for a while on their own while I seperately handle all of my snakes. I put the mice in back in one bin and put each snake one by one in the feeding bins. I then feed each snake one by one. I wash my hands 10 times or more during the feeding process to ensure no smell on my hands. It takes me an hour to complete the process... which is fun for me since I get good interaction with my pets.
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-Iman
1.1 Sugar Gliders (Gizmo and Nema)
2.0 Ball Pythons (Spot and Speck)
0.1 Colombian BCI (Belle)
1.0 Colombian Rainbow (Rex)
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow (Just arrived!!!)

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Stimulate debates, stifle arguments.
Please be nice always.



Imans House of Herps

Yup all but one gets live FOOD and one gets F/K !
I watch`em till after the grab and its over then,if the snake gets a nip I`ll treat it and move on. Their wild animals born with SURVIVAL INSTINCTS whether CB/CBB or WC they can survive far better then 90% of the people feeding them.

To each their own

I have four balls that so far will only accept live food items. They are all 2-3 years of age.

np

It depends on the size snake (don't take that the wrong way! I don't mean it as a 'duh!' moment!). They're capable of eating something about 1 or 1 1/2 their width comfortably, I think. I have a 650g female that'll take rats that are about the length of a dollar bill with no problem. I think the official "Rodent Pro" size chart would show them as somewhere around the "medium" size.

I like Rodent Pro - I always get good, *consistent* ratsicles (or "Swanson Rats" as my girlfriend calls them) from them.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

I was just asking because everyone keeps talking about feeding their snakes like rat pups (and feeding more often) so they couldn't "fight" back. Just wondered what size snake they were referring to cause some of my snakes would "laugh" at that size of meal. Just trying to figure these statements out.

Let's face it......bps are the world's worst eaters......picky as he!!........and during feeding season......they may eat every other day and then not touch food for a couple weeks.......winter fast could last 2 wks or 6 mos........not defrosting mice or rats just to throw them away because they're not hungry........and they're not like kids that whine "I'm hungry".......so how do you know.

Live and only live.........plus I don't have to live with the guilt of killing the rodent.

np

balls hate dead crap
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"I still hate snakes"
...........................KNOW

Only had one problem doing this, and it was totally my fault. Still kicking myself for my mistake.

I thought the snake had eaten the live rat, the cage and water dish were clean, so I just replaced it's cage back in a rack. Don't know how I missed it, but when I came to try and feed the next time, I found a bloody snake and a live rat. (Fortunatly, the snake healed nicely).

With a dead rat, I could have done the same stupid thing, but I only would have had a very bad smell in few days instead of an injured snake.

Never have I had a problem feeding live other than this, and I continue to feed live until today. I think the risk is really very minimal, if you take out the stupid human mistake factor. (But I am even more careful when putting cages back into my rack after feeding.)

Rodney

I fed my BP a live mouse recently just to see it. She hit the mouse pretty quickly so the mouse never had much of a chance. Going back to F/T... just wanted to do it once to see what it was like.
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Kane

I never feed live. I have gotten bitten by a live rat, and it HURT like HELL. Bled like hell too! I would not put my snakes in such a predicament. OW, the memory still haunts me at that rat bite on my finger!
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You started this thread to get people worked up didn't you?

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Kane

Maybe hot rocks should be your next discussion...
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Kane

I haven't seen anyone talk about live/restrained or stunned. Obviously live/restrained would still be jumping and moving about, which should get a strike, and stunned would be moving around as well.
Feed live, fine. I also agree with feeding live if you have large number of bp's. It is understandable. I JUST got my male (4.5ft) to take a sm f/t rat after 9 months of refusing (a few leftover fuzzie mice, were thrown his way, but I don't even count these as they didn't even make a lump going down. and he only had like....2 lol) Even the live food!

Had to get my other female bp to eat 2 live mice (freakin vicious things) before she took f/t rats (4 of them now!).

But to just throw the mouse/rat in there and leave it, now that is not a smart thing to do. Even if you leave something in there for it to chew on. It to has instincts and will be instintualy afraid of the snake (should be anyways). Fight or flight, and if the snake is cornored, one good bite to the back of the head and you have a dead snake.

Not only that but most rubbermaids have lips on it. Do you really want to come back 6hrs later to find not only mouse gone, but the bp as well, because the mouse chewed a hole.

Even if you put something in the cage, like a turned over butter bowl, with a hole in the top for the snake to "escape" the live mouse. Mice can jump almost 2-3ft STRAIGHT UP into the air, what is stopping it from jumping into the top of the butter bowl and trapping the snake and killing it, or severly hurting it before the snake can eat/kill it.

Feeding live "because it's cool" or "because they do it in the wild" is just plain stupid.

Always supervise, and for larger/older mice/rats try restrained. It only takes the blink of an eye for your the mouse to rip out an eye. It may not happen now, or years from now, but it can and possibly will happen.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

Ive only had for 2mnths and he is taking F/T as long as I poke it and make it move a bit..I dont like feeding live its just too much of a risk especially after seeing pics of a badly bitten snake, ekk...

I feed live mice to my ball python. He's a yearling and weighs about 480 grams. When I feed, I watch carefully in case the mouse is becoming too agressive towards the snake. I also know my snakes feeding response. If hungry, he'll strike within 30-45 seconds. If not hungry, he will just ignore the mouse. I don't leave the mouse in for more than 5 minutes, and I always watch to make sure the snake is not injured. I think the important thing is to know your snakes feeding response. If my snakes doesn't eat, then I put the mouse in a small rubbermaid box with litter, water bottle, and food and wait a few days. This set-up is relatively inexpensive for temporary housing of mice.

Wow, this has been some kind of a thread.

I just want to make sure no one out there is feeding your adult BP live rats leaving them unattended overnight in a 10 gallon tank that is heated only by hot rocks with a humidity level of 10% and bright lights all around with the stereo next to the tank playing Black Sabbath's Heaven & Hell at high volumes.

Just thought I should check.

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Kane

with the stereo next to the tank playing Black Sabbath's Heaven & Hell at high volumes.

This is bad????????

Thanks so much for telling me, I'll have to skip so sweet leaf is on repeat......
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www.NEWReptiles.com

What BP wouldn't love Sweet Leaf?
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Kane