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frankadank
10-03-18, 04:53 PM
my female BP is not even 2 yet & is around 1100 grams. i weighed her a couple weeks ago and she was a little over 1000g just hard to have her stay in the tub while weighing. i currently feed her 3 adult mice every 10-12 days depending on availability. the mice are roughly 25-30grams, i know if you follow the “10-15%” rule of thumb that’s not enough, however she’s thriving in her environment and doesn’t show signs of lack of food. i’m starting to think maybe it’s time for 4 mice.. but personally i feel like that might be stressful. unless she enjoys killing, which she does! she’ll wait at the window until i throw them in, than after the 3rd she’ll go rest. before you try to convince me on switching to F/T that won’t happen. she went 4 months without eating while i tried and she was losing weight so the first live mouse i threw in she bounced on immedialty. also i tried rats but she doesn’t seem interested, that was when she was smaller so maybe since she’s bigger she might tackle a rat. she’s good weight and length at 2 years old almost 4FT & like i said 1100G about could be 1200 haven’t weighted in awhile. SO, what’s your guys opinion on multiple prey? i can tell you she doesn’t mind 3 i think it’s more fun for her cuz she’s a killing machine & loves stalking them little mice down. buuuut she’s getting to big for just 3 IMO. THANKS!

EL Ziggy
10-03-18, 08:02 PM
BPs, like most snakes, are opportunistic feeders. She'll eat as many mice as you give her until she's had her fill or more. That's not a healthy way to feed her though. I would suggest one appropriately sized prey item, like a small or medium rat, every 10-14 days at her age and size. I don't feed any of my snakes more than two prey items per feeding. There's never a need, that I know of, to feed a BP 3 or 4 prey items in a single feeding. It's not energy, time, or cost effective. Why feed 4 mice when one medium rat would do? I won't get into the benefits of feeding f/t over live. That's your choice. You seem to think that she won't eat rats or f/t. Given enough time and tough love I believe she'll do both like most snakes. Snakes can go a long time without food, and there may be some critters that will never eat what you want them to, but in my experience the hunger ALWAYS wins in the end. If you don't feed any animal for long enough, humans included, at some point they will eat whatever food is offered. I've had to wait out a few critters for a few months before they got the message but they all did and they're all eating now. And my one snake that hasn't eaten since July I'm not even worried about. His temps are good and he's not losing weight. I offer him food every 14 days. When he refuses the meal goes to the next critter in waiting. He's done this before and he'll do it again. I have never seen a healthy animal so stubborn/ stupid that it starved itself to death. There was one other thing I disagreed with in your post. She doesn't enjoy killing. She's only doing so to survive and takes no pleasure in it. Try to not ascribe human attributes to your snake.

Jim Smith
10-03-18, 09:15 PM
I agree with El Ziggy in his assessment of switching your BP to one small or medium sized rat. You will find that she will probably grow fast with that feeding program as well. From what it sounds like, you're feeding your snake live prey items. If that is true, you will find that there is a HUGE difference in the defence mechanisms of rats as compared to mice. One caution... where your BP can easily over power a mouse, if she grabs a rat wrong or doesn't constrict it correctly, rats can and will do serious damage to your snake. I would STRONGLY recommend that you try to switch your snake over to taking FT mice or rats instead of live feedings. Your snake, your call, but just think how you will feel if/when your snake gets injured, possibly fatally or blinded in an eye, etc. Just something to think about...

frankadank
10-03-18, 09:55 PM
appreciate both responses. ziggy i tried switching to f/t but like i stated sfter 4
months of no eating and me checking weight she started to lose weight and i was getting concerned so for the health of my snake i stopped starving her and the first live mouse i threw in she bounced on it. ya know some snakes just want what they would get in the wild, a live rodent. yes she’s captive bred so i don’t need the captive bred speech of it being able to survive in the wild. they’re built to take down live prey and i spectate every single feeding and ready for the worse. as to trying rats it has been about 6 months and now she is bigger i might try the switch again. you guys feed f/t that’s your style. i feed live that’s my style. as to rats with my other BP that takes them, i watch and whenever he attacks wherever the head of the rat is i than put a pencil in its mouth to protect my snake. i’m not uneducated and i care about my animal so i wouldn’t be reckless like you guys seem to be assuming. thanks!

EL Ziggy
10-03-18, 10:26 PM
No offense meant. I wasn't questioning your intellect or your love for your animals. Just because I disagree with you on something doesn't mean I'm condemning you. I'm not saying I'm right or you're wrong. What works for me may not work for you and that's cool. There are many ways to achieve positive results. Do what works best for you and your critters.

craigafrechette
10-04-18, 06:10 AM
OP, no need to get defensive. The replies above are both simply suggestions and nothing was said to put you down in any way or question you or how you care for your pets. Nobody is assuming you're reckless. Those are your words. But, we see all kinds of people come through these forums and some don't know any better, so we until we know a member a little bit, we assume they are asking because they don't know...

As for switching to F/T, it can be done. It's a matter of whether or not you want to. There are many members on this forum and others who are from the UK, where feeding live prey to captive pets is unheard of. They ALL eat F/T...

I've got a tricky feeder myself, so I get it. Every now and then he goes on a food strike for no reason. He'll just stop...and I offer live once and it jumpstarts his food drive. He takes F/T the next week. Just something to think about.
Waiting an animal out and offering after a shed is a great way to switch them over. At 1100 grams, your girl won't miss a few weeks of food, she'll be perfectly healthy going without for a few weeks...

Bottom line, your animals, your call. But the advice of switching to F/T is simply people wanting what's best for the animals.

frankadank
10-04-18, 12:23 PM
don’t see any form of being defensive in my response? sorry if it comes off that way, i strictly asked for no lectures about switching to F/T it’s a strictly multiple prey form and i state id like to not hear F/T. i understand but as you can see craig i’ve been a member even longer than you i didn’t just hop on to ask a question. i regularly give input and post! thanks tho, ziggy i know you weren’t thinking like that or questioning me you aren’t that type of person.

Andy_G
10-05-18, 08:07 AM
Some snakes will never switch to F/T, but please be aware that no amount of safeguards that you put in place, and no matter how closely you watch feedings, bites can eventually happen. Those who are far more knowledgeable than most people on this board have found that out the hard way, but it sounds like you're doing all that you can to prevent whatever you can and that's great. You may want to consider stunning or prekilling the prey if you haven't tried that already. When doing this, they are still warm and movement is still present, but they are generally unable to control their movements as they would be dead but nerves are still sending signals. I would definitely say that you should move the snake up to larger prey. All snakes of course grow at different rates, but a lot of yearling females are right around the 900-1200g mark if they are good feeders so they may be larger than yours, but that isn't necessarily meaning that your snake is underweight, but single prey items are generally a better choice for feedings, however. Also, please keep in mind that we are all here to share, learn, and educate, and sometimes it is hard to identify when someone is just trying to educate versus lecture.

craigafrechette
10-05-18, 02:51 PM
don’t see any form of being defensive in my response? sorry if it comes off that way, i strictly asked for no lectures about switching to F/T it’s a strictly multiple prey form and i state id like to not hear F/T. i understand but as you can see craig i’ve been a member even longer than you i didn’t just hop on to ask a question. i regularly give input and post! thanks tho, ziggy i know you weren’t thinking like that or questioning me you aren’t that type of person.

I'm just trying to help. And just because you joined before I did doesn't mean a thing, other than you joined first. Considering there is no prerequisite for joining, that's pretty irrelevant. I've been keeping snakes since 1999-2000ish, but I guess because I joined the forum in Dec of last year I don't know what I'm talking about....