Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok i thought it would be easir if i paralized it but kept it alive...so the body temp stay up and it doeant put up a fight/// how do i paralize it without killin it?
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CKA

What I do is whack it just enough to knock the prey out in a lunch bag and then put it in the feeding cage I use. I do have to warn you that more often than not they will regain awareness quicker than you think so always be ready to remove it if your snake isn't hungry. I learned how hard to whack em by trial and error after killing a few. Might just be luck but I am pretty consistant with it. Now if you mean paralyze it perm, I can't help you. I would think that would be more trouble than possible gain and then what would you do with it if your snake doesn't take it the first time? I have a rat snake that will eat anything so if I kill my BP's dinner I know the other snake will take it. My BP is only taking live and what I call live KO'd.

Does it really matter???

Allow the animal to feed as it would in the wild. There is knowbody in Ghana pre-killing animals for a ball to eat and what really do you gain in killing it yourself????

If you are afraid the rat may injure the ball, then reduce the size of the food. If it is still an issue for you and you are worried about potential scars or damage on the animal, then buy a dog.

Typically, it is hard for alot of people to aquire live rats and that is where frozen thawed have came into play. It is more of a convenience than a necessity and if you monitor your feeding then there is nothing to worry about.

I honestly see absolutely no reason in pre killing anything for a ball as you take away one of its natural characteristics of killing for a meal. In what way does it benefit the snake??

Naturally just my thoughts but live rats work great for me.

Jeff Morrison
5StarrMorphs
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I agree with the general population...........feed live.
It's the only form of recreation and excersize your charge gets It's the way nature intended it to be.If you don't have access to pre-killed and you don't wanna kill them yourself just go live. Drop it in, leave it for half an hour to an hour. If it's not gone by then put it back in it's enclosure till next week. Yeah, ya gotta feed em, but what the heck. Just be sure you keep an eye on things and no harm will come to the snake. And if it's really hungry the mouse/rat won't have a chance .

Quig

"I honestly see absolutely no reason in pre killing anything for a ball as you take away one of its natural characteristics of killing for a meal. In what way does it benefit the snake?? "

Benefits I am aware of:

-reduces chances of injury to BP. Sure, even if you keep an eye on the rat, it still might get a couple of good bites in before you have a chance to break it up. Sometimes snakes don't catch the food in the right spot, and the rodent has room to swing around. Why risk it at all?

-reduces suffering to prey. It's more humane.

-if thawed, you eliminate some parasites.

GUYS you keep telling me how i should give him live like it is in the wild...well hes not...hes in a cage...sure i want to simulate it...but i think ill stick to F/T....
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CKA

I don’t know if giving the reason”that’s what they do in the wild” for feeding live is a good one. Many animals loose their lives in pursuit of a meal. It’s the way of nature…in the wild. You don’t turn your dog loose to go take down some Elk, you give him dog food. And what’s up with cat food in flavors like Tuna and beef liver? I doubt a cat could get either one by it’s self. Putting all kidding aside, I have some snakes that do well eating live and some that grab that sucker all wrong and get bloodied up. What do I do then, I feed F/T when I can and when they don’t go for it, I feed live supervised (a couple young rats to my Ball).

P.S. What do you guys think about feeding Balls gerbles?

its supposed to be tempting for a snake that wont eat....gerbils that is...

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CKA

MY hunger strike is over! My ball (1 ½ yr. old) was not CB but was very small when I got her. She has been on F/T all her life and I had one heck of a time getting her on rats, but one day after my move she stopped eating. Well, she’s eating again. She goes crazy for LIVE. I prefer F/T for the lack of parasites, safety, and convenience. Heck what can I do, she’s good at killing them and she shows a real liking for it! Oh well…

thump it off the cage.
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Greg Holland
GM HERPS
www.gmherps.com
gmherps@sbcglobal.net

Ok paralizing a rodent so that your snake doesn't have to hunt it down or whatever the reason - aside from being just plain cruel to the rodent - it's a bad idea - an injured animal will fight twice as hard as one with all its faculties. Either feed it live or feed it pre killed or frozen thawed. If you prekill and are quick enough you can get a couple of really good enticing twitches out of the rodent but it's not going to wake up and fight back.

I personally know of two incidents (and another was just posted here a couple of weeks ago) involving stunning the rodent before feeding and in all three cases the snakes ended up eating the animal alive and the rodent woke up and tried to claw it's way out. I have one girl that I got through a rescue that has been rehabbing from a wicked rat bite to her chin - everything was going well but the rats final struggle was just enough for those incisors to go right through the snakes chin, so much so that the vet had to remove the rodent from the snake. Luckily she's a ok now she has a mass under her chin but we've gotten her back to eating well - yes she takes f/t and won't even consider anything moving around her cage.

Accidents happen when feeding live and even to the most careful keeper - that is why I prefer switching to f/t for the safety of my animals. But I do realize that it is a preference only and some animals will only eat live. Feed whatever you prefer - feeding prekilled food does not take away any of the snakes natural instincts - my most aggressive feeders eat f/t ! Oh yeah - and if hunting down it's prey is your snakes only form of excercise then, well, I feel sorry for your snake.

Just my two cents.
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Tosha

"One of these days i am going to wake up..look around...and realize my place looks more like "Ace Venturas"s than my own." Coldthumb

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul "JP"
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 lizard rescued from vicious feline

Sorry Tosha, the bit about the excersize was ment as humor. Mine get outside whenever the weather permits.

Quig

LOL - I figured as much but hey - had to throw that in cause you know in a lot of cases people really do think thats a viable arguement!
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Tosha

"One of these days i am going to wake up..look around...and realize my place looks more like "Ace Venturas"s than my own." Coldthumb

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul "JP"
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 lizard rescued from vicious feline

Understood

I personally know of two incidents (and another was just posted here a couple of weeks ago) involving stunning the rodent before feeding and in all three cases the snakes ended up eating the animal alive and the rodent woke up and tried to claw it's way out.

That's scary!!
Looks like it's either live or F/T for me.
Thanks for that info!
Ken
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0.5 Normal Ball Pythons (Norma, Nova, Nala, Nimeesha, Nyoka)
1.1 Argentine B/W Tegus (Draco and Drucilla)
0.1 Columbian B/W Tegu (Diablo)
1.0 Black Throat Monitor (Razor)
1.0 Desert Tortoise (Tubbs) from Tortoise Rescue
1.0 Boxer (Shadow)
0.1 Feline (CK)
1.0 Memory of my Redtail Boa (Mo) which passed away after 28 years

I only feed f/t to all of my snakes and have no problem. It's funny to watch the 2 bp's take their prey...they still think they have to "kill" it first. They coil up around the already dead mouse/rat and do the instinctive "kill." Sometime I'll tug gently on the rat's tail (with tongs!) and the snake will coil up tighter to keep the prey from getting away!