Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My cousin has asked me to babysit his pythons while he is serving oversea. I don't know the first thing about pythons. I just wonder if mice/rat is the only food options? Can I get away with feeding them fish (live or dead) or even quail?

I think one of the snake is green tree python and the other one might be a mix between boa and python. Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

Green tree pythons are very finniky eaters. I wouldn't feed that one anything except what he is feeding it, or else it may not go back to what he was feeding. No pythons will eat fish (to my knowledge), and I just wouldn't feed birds because it will be hard to get them feeding on mice/rats again.

Give a GTP a quail and then a mouse, it's like going from a UDSA Grade A Ribeye to chopped steak.

I don't really think it's even possible for there to be a boa/python intergrade - the species are too different. Maybe i'm wrong? It would be interesting to see...

I'd keep them on what they're eating. You won't want to give him that GTP back!
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0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat
1.0 Black Rat
0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty
1.0 Green Tree Python
0.1 Texas Bairds Rat

The educated are the few. The uneducated are the masses.

Feed them rats, preferably. Feed them mice if they won't eat rats. That's about it. Can you take a pic of the "hybrid" so we can tell what it is?

-Imp

I'll throw my hat in with the likely impossibility of a Boa X Python hybrid. As one lays eggs and the other is livebearing, even if you artificially inseminated to get by the hemepenal differences you are talking about too far a gap to cross.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Okay...I am wrong. My husband said that the snake is Recticulated Python. I am just not very comfortable feeding them mice. I will do better with birds. Any other non mice/rat suggestions?

get your husband to feed them the rats. simple solution.
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0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat
1.0 Black Rat
0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty
1.0 Green Tree Python
0.1 Texas Bairds Rat

The educated are the few. The uneducated are the masses.

lol. That is not going to happen. My husband cried and buried a house mice in our backyard that the trap accidently killed years ago. I don't think he will be able to handle feeding live mice to my cousin's snakes.

I suppose I will just have to spoil these babies by feeding them quails. I don't mind.

The snake's opinion notwithstanding, their owner may not appreciate you spoiling them rotten.
Many snakes will acept frozen and then thawed and warmed mice and rats. Freezer meezers and ratsicles are offered at some pet stores. Put the frozen critter in a plastic baggie, put the baggie in hot water till the critter is thoroughly warm inside and out. No microwave. Then offer it with a long set of tongs.
Even frozen rodents are kind of cute, but at least you won't have to look them in the eye...
Talk to your cousin about switching them from live to f/t before he goes. Threaten to spoil them rotten with quail if he doesn't.
Good luck!
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0.1 chickens (Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.1 Normal phase California Kingsnake (Sophia)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

agreed with previous, the owner may not appreciate it...I know I sure wouldn't if I came home and discovered feeding my snakes was a lot more difficult than ever because someone just couldn't bear to feed them rodents (and probably more expensive). frozen/thawed should work fine and you don't ever have to see them running around, and you don't have to kill them or see them die. and if you can't deal with it, tell your friend to find another person to care for the snakes and you will probably all be better off. I'm not trying to sound mean here but if you can't deal with the biology of it then there is probably someone else who can.

Ultimately it is the snake's health, not your feelings that should be the priority here.

Rats and mice are not nice animals (though Rats can make great pets when their domestic).

Feeding changes can affect feeding preferences. You may well be doing a diservice to your cousin when he comes back to find you have hooked his snake on a diffeent (expensive) food. You might want to seriously consider asking if your cousin knows someone that is less squeamish to care for his snake.

Besides that, Quails are much nicer than rats.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

this kinda sounds fishy. Green tree pythons are a somewhat more expensive snake. I wouldn't trust my cousin (who knows nothing about snakes) to watch over them and leave him with no instructions. If it is true, your best bet would be to tell your cousin you are not able to watch his snakes. I'm sure he could find someone else.