feeding baby ball

[pitviper10]

what do you wack it with??

[fogertyfan]

Here is a good way....place the mouse stomach down on a table. Hold the head with one thumb and with the other hand take the tail and pull up and "snap" the mouse so to speak. This will break its neck and usually he wont lose enough body heat or scent so you can fool the snake. i have done this once and it worked...although it is kinda harsh...i guess.

[Kathy Shaw]

I have had the best luck feeding hatchlings live hopper mice. The action attracts the BP(fuzzies are not active enough to attract them). I DO NOT LEAVE LIVE PREY ALONE WITH MY SNAKES!!!
I have never had a hopper injure a snake. Having fed hundreds of bps I have only had one that refused to eat live prey(to the point its health was in question) and had to be assisted.
ASAP I switch them over to rat pups so they can get a bigger meal with less danger of being bit.

Most ball pythons will fast at some point. I hate wasting life. If they do not eat frozen prey you MUST throw it away. You cannot refreeze them without risk of spoilage or bactirea.
And I have a problem with keeping rodents in my food freezer.... so to feed frozen would mean investing in a freezer for them.
You also have no idea what the health of the rodent was before it was frozen. With live you can see if it is healthy.

All my snakes are eaters, the ones I consider bad eaters are healthy and not skinny they just dont grow fast. Thousands of feedings and only one rodent bite and it was not a big deal.

If a hatchling goes more then a few weeks with out eating I would offer live hoppers. The smaller the snake the less time it can survive without food.

If you really want to feed frozen make sure they are eating well and in good weight then switch them over to dead food.

[nita]

As long as you are buying frozen from a reliable source there is no problem with how healthy it was. With my baby BP's I found that hoppers were too rambunctious and scared the hatchling and it wouldn't eat. Gave it fuzzy, more like crawlers and they ate. After a couple meals like that they new exactly what to do with a hopper. All depends on the snake.

We do have a snake freezer, not that I care but hubby was totally disgusted to find a bag of rats next to his chocolate ice cream