Tisiphone2012
10-05-13, 06:15 PM
So I feed my ball pythons live rats, I don't like doing this but so far I have not been able to get them to switch. When I feed live, I do the following: I make sure the snake is alert and then I put in the rat, I leave the lid off of the tub and keep a very close eye on the goings on, if the rat isn't grabbed within a few minutes I take it out and try again later. All my feedings are supervised. With this being said I would like to switch to feeding pre-killed. I have tried f/t and they won't even look at it. A friend said that it smells different b/c it has been frozen and then thawed out changing it's molecules. So then I tried bringing the rat home and killing it (the only legal way in AZ is to place something at the base of the head and grabbing the base of the tail and yanking severing the spinal cord from the head) and then leaving it in the cage with the ball python overnight, but I would wake up to a horrible smell in the morning and find the rat still in the cage. I've tried wiggling a dead rat and everything I could think of but no dice. I haven't had any accidents so far with my balls but I don't like taking the chance, especially with my bumblebee. My spider doesn't display a head wobble that I have ever noticed and she is dead on when she grabs the rat, but my bumblebee has a slight head wobble and when she strikes her head goes slightly to the side. Right now the live with her isn't a problem since she is on small fuzzy rats but I'm thinking long term when she gets to larger more dangerous rats. I don't want my babies to get hurt, so I was wondering if any of you have any tips on trying to convert to pre-killed. I'm open to any and all suggestions because I'm all out of ideas. Thanks!