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Feeding dead mice

xchris
04-08-2008, 12:07 AM
I posted this question on the husbandry section but got no reply.

I bought a couple pinkies that just got some fuzz on them so i wouldnt consider them fuzzies but anyways, they were live because thats all this one pet store had and unfortunately my girlfriends snakes had just been fed without me knowing AND they regurged so i had a couple of these mice just sitting in a box and well one died but it died only a couple hours ago, i put it in a ziplock bag that a frozen fuzzy came in and put it in the freezer, i was wondering if it is safe to feed my snake? upon picking it up it was cold but was not hard.

also is there any chance of keeping the other pinkie/fuzzies alive? its been 2-3 days without food or water or anything, i almost feel bad for them by starving them instead of just being fed lol

Cam5
04-08-2008, 12:20 AM
My opinion only...
I would not feed an animal that died from unkown causes to anything I wanted to keep alive.
Starving the other is not the way to prekill food for your snake.

You want your snakes food to be as 'healthy' as possible prior to it becoming a meal. Otherwise your snake is not really getting his nutrition either.

Do you usuallt feed frozen/thawed or live or prekilled?
Are you saying you fed the snakes right after they were fed and they regureged? Or was there another factor in the regurge?

xchris
04-08-2008, 12:33 AM
this is what happened, i have 2 snakes and my girlfriend has 2 but in reality all 4 are my responsibility because i take care of them but my girlfriend handles her 2.

Anyways i had fed all 4 of the snakes and had noticed that her two snakes got very small pinkies compared to my 2 snakes and did not leave a noticeable lump so i fed them both another pinkie, my girlfriend (after 12 hours) decided to handle them both to show to a friend, about an hour or so after doing that they both regurged 1 pinkie.

^^^ these pinkies were all frozen and thawed and im sure i thawed them properly.

Now as for the dead mouse thing, i realize starving my pinkie/fuzzies is not a correct way to kill the mice but i hadnt planned on keeping them, i had gone in to a pet store for a friend to get him some feeder mice for his burmese python. Upon doing so i figured i would be nice and get him 2 pinkies for his milk snake and one for one of my bigger corns. Well upon going to his house we looked at his milk snake and it looked as if it had a substantial lump in his stomach and it turns out his father had fed all of his snakes before goin on a weekend trip to south carolina so we had feeder mice and pinkies with no snakes to eat them.

Im now stuck with 2 more pinkies/fuzzies in a box with no food or anything because theres nothing they could eat/drink so as soon as the one died i put i t in a bag and froze it, if you dont recommend i feed it then i wont. I just dont know what to do with these other two? i guess just wait till they die and throw them away? that sounds just awful, i understand i had planned on killing them but atleast it went to the benefit of someone, starving an animal i bought just to be thrown away just doesn't sit right with me. :cry:

Cam5
04-08-2008, 12:47 AM
I guess your kindness falls under the:
"No good deed goes unpunished"...:bang:

You could search culling mice and see what you get.:shrugs:
Then perhaps you could use them later (the ones that are still alive that is).
Can't they eat cereal etc?

xchris
04-08-2008, 12:50 AM
i can try it, they can run around but have not opened their eyes and still are slightly pink, i didnt think they could eat anything yet, just mommas food

xchris
04-08-2008, 01:07 AM
after writing this i felt really bad for the guys so i went and checked on them, i decided to put some rabbit food in there and they seem interested but they are so small i cant tell if they are eating anything so i grabbed some captain crunch and turned it into dust and i THINK they are eating it but its hard to tell, i also put a water bottle cap with water in it but i doubt they will drink that, one of them might just tip it over. we'll see what happens, i dont think i can give these guys as food anymore, im beginning to get attached, i cant keep them though i have too many animals but i know if i give them to someone or a pet store they will just be feeder mice, gah what a dilemma i put myself in :confused:

diamondlil
04-08-2008, 05:56 AM
If the mice are too small to wean, just 'flick' them on the back of the head and freeze them. Keeping them means a slow lingering death otherwise.

xchris
04-08-2008, 10:59 PM
Yea im pretty upset, i was down to one fuzzy just now and it looked half dead with his dead partner practically spooning him so i went outside and laid the dead one in a bush, i figured the dead mouse would attract something and it wouldnt be a total waste... the other one.... i felt bad for, i didnt wanna just leave it out there to freeze and continue starving to death so i umm... threw it against a tree and sure enough it had the same effect as a cervical dislocation.... i felt sooooo bad but theres just nothing i could have done, no option seemed to be the right one so i thought... how would i like to go out? would i rather starve and freeze or go out with one big hit and not feel a thing... so i picked the second option... i hope this doesnt offend anyone on the board, im an animal lover, i've had hamsters, two guinea pigs, and two rabbits, it was quite hard but atleast its over now :cry:

bitsy
04-09-2008, 08:55 AM
You did the right thing. They were too young to have survived without the mother. Your quick despatch was preferable to prolonging the suffering.

Jadie.Glitch
04-09-2008, 03:58 PM
I'm really sorry you had to go through that... I have a similar story to share. Our local petstore isn't the best (I'm sure alot of you can relate) and they didn't have any pinkie mice so they said that a pinkie rat would be the same thing. The snake we were going to feed it to was a bull snake that was rescued from my parking lot at work (they would have killed it at first sight if they had the chance... it's pretty horrible how they treat snakes so I put it into a box in my car and took it home. I would have just relocated it but it was obviously a baby that had never even eaten yet. I think it was a late hatch and it was REALLY cold outside so I think it was laying there in the parking lot about to die... at least that is how it looked.... anyway, we warmed it and watered it and now then we had to feed it... okay, on with the story) Anyways, the lady gave me the pinkie rat and said it would be the same. Yeah... she lied. That thing was WAY to big for the poor little snakey and when I realized that there was NO WAY he was going to eat it. Needless to say I panicked... Of course it was Friday night and I couldn't take it back or to a vet or anything so I just had to leave it. We didn't have a good heat source either so I took a sock, filled it with rice, and put it in the microwave for a little bit and let the rat sleep with that but it was obvious it was becoming dehydrated. It looked like a defenseless little baby and I felt so bad for it. I tried to force it to drink but I had nothing for it to eat. I had to wait until Monday and the petstore had an angry customer to deal with. They took the rat, put it back with the others and refunded me my money. I don't think it lived, which is the even more sad part. I love rats too, it broke my heart.

xchris
04-09-2008, 10:29 PM
yea i mean like im no sissy but when it comes to defenseless animals like that i just feel bad. as for the local pet store thing... i just got done doing a post that not all pet stores are horrible, where i work i dont just try to sell people things because well i dont make commission and i genuinely do care about the animals there.... except for maybe some certain hamsters that bite me just because my hand goes in to take out their carrots so they dont rot in there :angry01:

Jadie.Glitch
04-11-2008, 11:27 AM
Lol, yea I have always had a thing against hamsters for that same reason... They aren't as nice as other rodents.