mouse lovin' python....

[newtosnakes]

Ok guys and girls,

I tried to feed my new female stimson for the first time a couple of weeks ago. According to where I got her, she has always been on live feeds. Seeing as how I had never done this before, we made the trip to the shop, bought the poor old ill-fated mickey and bought him home. I finally bought up the courage to put the mouse in the cage (forget about the fact that I apologised to the mouse 100 times before putting it in the cage) and expected Sally (the 2 yr old Stimson python) to grab it straight away. After watching for a while and seeing Sally have no interest (it had been just over 2 weeks since her last feed) I figured maybe she was still a bit stressed out and removed the mouse. That night Sally shed which explained the lack of interest in feeding. I tried again a few days later and once again put the poor old mouse in the cage. This time she had a couple of dummy strikes at it, but then decided to run away from it. 1/2 hour later mouse was asleep in one corner while snake was curled up in the other. I have added photos to show you how close this mouse was allowed to get to Sally without her taking her.

Is this normal behaviour for those of you who feed live? I was considering offering a thawed next time I feed the male Stimson, but have been told by the breeder that she never eats thawed.

Any advise or hints would be greatly appreciated.

So far this mouse has had 3 reprieves from death (must be a cat in disguise with 9 lives :lol

Ok so I am having a few probs with the pic sizes, i will post the question and add pics when it is sorted.... cheers Mel

 

[newtosnakes]

Can a mod please delete that pic!!!

 

[MrBredli]

Did you disturb the snake (i.e. remove it from it's hide) when you were feeding it or was she already out?

 

[newtosnakes]

pic

 

[newtosnakes]

She was already out....

 

[africancichlidau]

Can a mod please delete that pic!!!

Done

 

[newtosnakes]

thanks afro!

Any advice people???

 

[basketcase]

- dont ever feed live... EVER

- check your temps

- leave the snake alone for a fortnight then offer thawed

 

[Dicco]

Have you even attempted to feed it thawed or fresh killed? Putting a live adult mouse in a confined space with a predetor is not the best thing to do...

 

[newtosnakes]

thanks dicco and basketcase. I will do as suggested and offer thawed next time i feed the male. I was only doing as suggested by previous owner by feeding live. All feeding attempts were monitored by the way. She was never left alone with the mouse in there. Anyway, will try fresh killed (hubby will have to do that part) and then if that fails try thawed.

 

[Dicco]

Problem is a mouse can cause damage before your able to separate it, no matter how closely you monitor.

 

[pugsly]

Very true Dicco, once there tagged if the mouth is open (on the mouse) it can bite down very hard and cause a lot of damage to the snake, well before you can even try to seperate. In saying that if thats all it was taking, then I would have tried it first too, but as stated try thawed asap..

 

[Koula]

*grumpy sigh* Makes me think of this poor bugger... :cry:

 

[peterjohnson64]

Wow, Swifty, that is a very important picture.

But hey, I don't think that it is a reflection on a keeper that they feed live prey to their animals when we are shown this pic. Mel was doing what she was told to do with her snake. Even Pugs admitted to thinking he would do the same. And I know I would have as well.

It is great that this piccie is shown and it needs to be shown more often to remind us of what live food can do to a tame animal. But it is not a reflection on people that ask a very serious question in order to ensure that their animals are well looked after.

Thanks Swifty

 

[Guest]

if he was to leave that mouse and snake together for awhile there just might start breeding.

 

[TrueBlue]

Id try fresh killed and just wriggle the fresh killed mouse in front of snake with tongs.
As has been said DONOT feed live, if the mouse/rat bites the snake in a sensitive area they will some times completley go off that food and an other food source will have to found.
Worst senareo,- youve seen the pic.

 

[basketcase]

theres no excuse for feeding live, if you cant get it to feed on thawed then there are other options, force feeding being the last resort.

this is the most important lesson newbies to snake keeping must learn.

thanks for posting that pic swiftrat

 

[newtosnakes]

OH MY GOD!!! Swiftrat that is just terrible. I thank you for showing that pic as there is now absolutely no way that I shall attempt to put live in with her again..... man, that just sux!!! I honestly had no idea that was even possible. As Pete said, i was only doing what was told to me from previous owner. Now i am wondering about how she has been fed all this time. Anyway, definitely going to try her on fresh killed when I feed Harry next. How do you guys humanely kill a mouse???

Thanks again for all your help

 

[chameleon]

although ive fed live rodents to my waters on occasion, id never feed a live mouse to a snake that size.
especially if i knew the snake wouldnt be sure about it.
get the mouse by the tail and gently whack it on the edge of the table..
the mouse will be stunned (still "twitching")..
that usually works.

ps swiftrat, that snake looks like it was mauled by a cat! is it still alive?

 

[Koula]

I think SB said the snake was a ball python in that pic... whoever kept it decided it'd be fun to chuck a rat in for it to eat, left it unsupervised, then came back to find the snake's brain punctured, and a large portion of the snakes skin gnawed away by the hungry rat. The snake did die.

Rats can be amazingly aggressive/nasty/psycho when they feel threatened. A decent sized rat can have slicing/piercing lower fangs up to an inch long, so it's not hard to imagine the damage rat teeth can do when puncturing a snake's brain, or slicing the flesh wide open. I had a pet rat that went nutso on me a few years back, I still have the scar on my middle finger where the rat made it right down to the bone and sliced it good. Mongrel thing.

As for mice, they can be the same as rats when cornered, they may have smaller teeth, but it only takes one set of rodent choppers to puncture the wrong area and it's curtains for Monty. The small teeth may only do minor damage, but then you have the risk of nasty bacterial infection kicking in and rotting half the snake's mouth or skin away.