Feeding

[Wish fire]

I have a 6 month old BP, I've been feeding him on live adult mice. And my friend told me that pre-killed small rats are more nutritieus and help them grow faster. what would you guys suggest I feed him on?:confused:

thanx
-wishfire-

[sapphire_moon]

rats, othewise you will be feeding your adult bp up to 10 mice a feeding, once a week.

They do seem to make bp's grow faster and I personally believe they are more nutritious.

My female bp has had 4 rats, and grown about 3-5 inches since she started eating rats!

so definitly start trying to feed f/t rats.

[Gary O]

IMO I would switch to rats as soon as a snake can handle them. Rats Pinkies are small and can be handled by many snakes.

You guys think Rats but on the growth. Wait till you see a burm switched to rabbits lol

[justinO]

rats for sure.... although it's hard to switch them to rats, and harder still to switch to frozen/thawed.....

she won't have to worry about bunnies, the most i would ever feed a bp is a jumbo rat, and that's only if they are HUGE.

wish fire, try live rat pups/crawlers & see if that works! as long as the eyes aren't open it shouldn't be able to hurt your snake.

PS. feeding live is bad, try to switch them asap..... you only need one mouse/rat with a strong will to live that can kill/injure your bp very badly! stunning/prekilled might work too.....

good luck!

[Wish fire]

thank you guys so much for all your help. :) I greatly apprecitate it

[annieb_mice]

Instead of feeding live all the time, try feeding a stunned rat that is still "twitching." I managed to switch my BP's to prekilled by feeding stunned, then gradually making sure they were ... "deader" as time went on.
Also... if you want to switch to rats... try rubbing some dirty mouse shavings over the rat just before you feed your snake, that way the rat has some scent of a mouse and the snake will be more inclined to eat it.
Good luck...
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[Wish fire]

When you say stunned... still twitching...can you buy them that way...er...do I have to kill it myself:dumb:

[Tim_Cranwill]

I don't think a pet store would sell a "mostly dead" twitching rodent. They'd be shut down within the hour! :D

Buy a live one and stun it. Put it in plastic bag and swing it against a nice hard surface. It can be a bit tough the first few times but think of it this way, the rodent is going to die in a couple minutes anyway...

Good luck. :)

[annieb_mice]

Yep... just what Tim said! LOL! Depending on whether you are dealing with a mouse or rat, grab it by the tail <if it's a mouse> then hit it HARD against a hard surface like a doorframe or something. With a rat it's better if you put it in a pillowcase first so they don't turn around and bite you. You'll have to swing a LOT harder with a rat to stun it.
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[Wish fire]

When it is stunned how long does it stay stunned before it drops dead? cause my parents want me to do it outside then bring it in and put it in his terrarium... will it be stunned long enough to do that?
thanx,
-wish fire-

[annieb_mice]

If you do it right.... a mouse can stay "twitching" for a few minutes. Personally I have a problem with doing this, but sometimes you have to do things like this for your pets. :P You should have enough time to whack the mouse outside, then bring it in and feed it.
Good luck
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[sapphire_moon]

or do it secretly in your room, because some mice/rats are just REALLY strong willed and will not die, but just "shake it off"! So make sure to hit it hard enough.

It would be real bad if you "stunned" a mouse only to have it "come back to life" while sitting in your snakes cage.

[annieb_mice]

<< or do it secretly in your room, because some mice/rats are just REALLY strong willed and will not die, but just "shake it off"! >>

*** You've met my rats I take it?!? LOL! I just gassed a small group of rats and put them in the freezer. When I went to check on them, one was still alive! This poor guy had survived at least 30 minutes in the "gas chamber" and then 5 hours in the freezer! All the other ones were dead, and he didn't move and this has never happened before, so I didn't think about "checking."
Well... after seeing this poor guy sitting there quite obviously still alive after all he had been through, I didn't have the heart to put him through that again. So now he's my computer rat.... and I named him... what else? Lucky! LOL!
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[Wish fire]

Lolz, I dont know how you guys do it. I put the rat in the pillow case and whacked it...when I put it in gravens cage it really got to me. lolz I was close to tears. and of course graven didnt want it...he was petrified of it.lolz so I'm saving it for another time. I have a whole new respect for you guys.
-wish fire-

[sapphire_moon]

It is SO not easy, I DID cry the first time I did it. :( it was a breeder male that we didn't need anymore because we combined the colonies to make one big one. Then the second time, I got a bleeder, absolutely everywhere, so I had to go clean it up afterwords.

[Vengeance]

I don't think I could ever whack. Just don't have the heart to whack the poor little rat against a table. When I start breeding them I'm defenitly going to gas chamber route.

[Wish fire]

well if you put it in the pillow case you cant see it. its not thaaaat bad. you just gotta tell your self its for a good cause lolz.

[sapphire_moon]

It is kind of pointless to gas one or 2 rats, so you will eventually have to whack.

Not only is it for a good cause, but it's the way life is.
Snake eats rats,

we eat cows, we just don't get to see them slaughtered, and most probably isn't even in a humane way. Where as the people of this forum that breed rats try their hardest to put the rats through as little pain as possible.

[Freakonaleash]

i prefer whacking too, it gets the job done very fast. i dont use a pillowcase though... hell ... thats for my head at night... i just use like a plastic wal mart bag.

[nita]

When I buy mice they are live and I have to kill them it took a while to be able to do it, I just put them down and with a pen behind their head, dislocate the spine. More dificult to do with gerbils so I'm guessing the same for rats. When I killed the Degu for my snake there was no way I could break its neck, I wacked it hard with a heavy screwdriver (the kind with all the different heads stored in it) twice. I thought it was dead but kept twitching. The snake I offered it to wouldnt' touch it. I gave him a mouse figuring get his response up, he ate the mouse but wouldn't touch the degu. Anyway I was still watching since the Degu was breathing and the thing gets up and starts walking around like nothing happened!!! I did end up killing it and freezing it but wow will to live. DH figures they smell like dogs not rodents but my Whiplash ate the degu last week. Rabbits we gas.

[mykee]

I don't use anything. When I have to kill rats, I usually have 30 or more to kill at once, I line the floor with plastic sheeting and pick the rats up like a football, not my the tail or ear or any other part; body in my palm, head on the right, tail over the left, and I just throw him on the ground. They twitch for a few secs. and then they die. Very quick, I'd like to think painless. I've been killing my own rats since I've been breeding tehm for myself, and that's been close to two years now, and I still get all choked up on "freezer day".

[sapphire_moon]

mykee if I tried to do that I would get chewed up. I don't handle my breeder/feeders at all. It's easier that way for me so I don't become attached.

[mykee]

Sapphire, in my opinion, you have to handle the feeders, or you'll get bit every damn time you put your hand in there for something or another. I've been lucky to only have ever been bit once, and that was from a rat who was new, and wasn't yet aware of the 'no biting' rule.

[sapphire_moon]

lol. I can't handle my feeder/breeders. If I do I will get attached and I will have to many pets! lol.

When I whack I just take it by the tail, and swing.