How fast can a baby ball eat

[My/first/Snake]

O.k. so, I dropped a (supposed to be hopper) It didn't hop, seemed like a regular mouse to me, in with my baby ball. So I know it was starting to get hungry, was on the prowl the last two nights. But I heard some commotion in the back of the tank (blind spot), but a few minutes later I saw the mouse again. Some more time went on, then another commotion. Waiting, looking, no sign of the mouse. It was maybe only 15 to 20 minutes since I saw it last. There is a possible mouse sized lump, but hard to tell, hes all curled back up and comfy looking again. Could he have woofed it down that fast? :Wow:

[stephanbakir]

Avoid feeding live. PLEASE, try frozen/thawed. You risk killing your snake otherwise.
And yes, he can eat it in sub 20 seconds.

[My/first/Snake]

Seconds? really? So walk me through the frozen mouse feeding process. How do you go about defrosting (set it out for a couple hours?) Then how do you get a bashful snake to take interest? I know you already advised me on the frozen, but the breeder said to do it this way to get it to eat. (I guess it was used to being live fed) If it doesn't take it, can you refreeze it or put it in the fridge?

[My/first/Snake]

give me the gruesome details, and I promise I will give it a shot.

[stephanbakir]

Taken the frozen prey item and thaw it on the counter, or in water. I prefer counter.
Grab it by the tail using hemostats and wiggle it in front of him. (sometimes heating its head with a blow dryer helps (DONT let it get hot)
You can refreeze them.

[Coffee Black]

Just leave it out a bit. A hopper should thaw fairly quickly at room temp and even faster in warm water. Do not use hot water and DO NOT microwave . Use tongs or long tweezers ( grill tongs will work if you don't have hemostats or big tweezers.) And tease the snake with it. If your bp isn't a pain then he/she should take it immediately. If the snake IS a pain then there are other tricks.

[My/first/Snake]

O.K. safety first, I would feel horrible if something were to happen to my snake. Thanks, I will get go some frozen on Tuesday.

[My/first/Snake]

So far, hes already proving to be difficult. So how long should I wait before I should pick him up after he was fed?

[stephanbakir]

2 days is the preferred time. I wouldn't touch them sooner.

[My/first/Snake]

O.k. 2 days it is, good to get that first feed in him. We will have to work on the social aspect, gonna make it hard to fed him hiding in the way back like he does. Got my work cut out for me with this one. Oh well, good night guys. AL

[Lankyrob]

Good advice on feeding f/t but if you MUST feed live then you should do it in totally controlled situations where you can intervene immediately that the prey turns on the snake - much better if you can get it to eat f/t tho. My method of doing the prey dance is to hold the prey by the scruff of its neck - you can then get it to dance with its feet on the floor whic the snake will pick up the vibrations as well as the heat (i warm the skull of the prey against a hot radiator)

[stephanbakir]

Also, make sure you can SEE the prey item at all times if its alive, but please please try to switch to f/t

[kellcore]

Now i have always fed live and dont believe in feeding f/t mainly because of rot and if not properly thawed can be worse than just feeding live.

But what are your reasons to feeding f/t?

And please never walk away when feeding live and dont feed live in the same cage they stay in please move them to a cage that is just for feeding when dealing with live you can create aggressive snakes. And feeding live can be very dangerous if you walk away. I made that mistake with my very first snake as a kid and left the mouse in for days it ended up eating my snakes back up.

[Lankyrob]

Now i have always fed live and dont believe in feeding f/t mainly because of rot and if not properly thawed can be worse than just feeding live.

But what are your reasons to feeding f/t?

And please never walk away when feeding live and dont feed live in the same cage they stay in please move them to a cage that is just for feeding when dealing with live you can create aggressive snakes. And feeding live can be very dangerous if you walk away. I made that mistake with my very first snake as a kid and left the mouse in for days it ended up eating my snakes back up.

THe biggest threat to our snakes is us introducing it to scenarios where it is danger for no reason. There are no GOOD reasons for feeding live that i can think of. F/t prey is perfectly safe as long as you are sensible when defrosting it - basically treat it as you would your own food and the snake will be fine. Snakes being attacked by live prey is a totally unnecessary scenario.

[whoaxmary]

Ball Pythons are expecially timid. Rats are expecially crazy.

I don't suggest feeding live unless you have to - I've only done it once recently just to make sure a new addition would eat in general since I knew he ate live before I rescued him.

There is nothing wrong with feed thawed food as long as you're not cooking it, and it is not still froozen. As LAnky said - be senseable. I just pick my rats up and feel them to make sure they're thawed. A little wringle and squeeze.

Move your python somewhere else, I normally use a large cardboard box. Then I either dangle the rat, if that doesn't work right away, I drag in around in circles not to close to my Ball python, or she gets scared and pulls back (whadda baby; imagin if the rat came running at her to take a chunck? She'd more than likely ball up and let it eat her- look at google it has happened.). Normally by then she's interested enough and I can just leave her be in a moment. Sometimes she 'played with ehr food' rekiling it and thrashing it around. When this happens it takes her up to an hour to eat; but the eating process in general is under a minute.

[Rog]

I have a picky ball that I feed live mice to. He could handle a rat, but refuses my many attempts at rat or ft feeding. He was not in good health when I got him, so did not want to hold back food. I have Ben trying to switch him back with no luck. So I believe there are some cases where live is needed, but I would recommend atleast feeding him in a separate enclosure to lessen the chance of him getting hurt.

[My/first/Snake]

Yeah, ya know, the toughest thing I find about the forum, is that for every bit of advice I have gotten, at least someone has given the opposite. Fed live, don't fed live, fed in its habitat (for stubborn eaters), no, fed in a separate container. Seems like in the end you have to flip a coin? I truly get the point about live feeding, would want my snake hurt, but want him to eat also. I couldn't even get him to eat a fuzzy. Sure did like the mouse though, didn't stay in the cage for long! I appreciate every ones advice, I truly do, seems in the end there are many good answers to sift through.

[My/first/Snake]

That is probably as sound advice as I have heard, I am gonna have to play it by ear....gonna try frozen (thawed) then if worse comes to worse, live in separate box. Either way, now that hes been in house a couple weeks, we will have to feel him out. See what I can get a way with. Gonna try feeding out of terrarium. I guess we will see. Wish me luck!

[stephanbakir]

Lots of people had different opinions, you research the answers you get and choose whats right for you.

[Lankyrob]

Trouble is we are dealing with living thinking animals and not a computer program, there is no one size fits all answer cos every snake is different.

[SnakeyJay]

F/t all the way.. Keeping them as pets isnt natural, we provide the food so why should they have to risk injury every week.. Plus, who wants to pay for vets bills needlessly. Just my op

[whoaxmary]

Trouble is we are dealing with living thinking animals and not a computer program, there is no one size fits all answer cos every snake is different.

Very nicely said~ ^_^
In the end it's up to you to decide what's best for your snake and for you. Each side has it's points; good and bad. All you can do is what you have, gather as much information and opinions as you can and figure it out on your own. As long as it's in the snakes best interest you can't go wrong?
Personally, I'm still heart broken from feeding live the other day and it's made me hessitate with my plans to start a rattery because I don't know if I'd be able to actually treat them as food and not keep them all as pets... lmao. :P I'm too big of an animal person I suppose. x.x