feeding/substrate curiousity

[Hypancistrus]

Tara and I buck the trend here by feeding all of our snakes in their vivs, on their aspen substrate. A lot of very large breeders that use Aspen feed every week on substrate (BHB anyone?) and have never had issues. Couple that with the fact that snakes in the wild eat every day on particulate substrates.... it's a very minor risk.

We defrost our rodents in hot water and dry them thoroughly, and then offer them to the snakes on tongs. For the few that won't take from tongs, we have a hide or something else smooth in their cage that we leave the rodent on.

 

[restes]

Maybe a little off-topic but have you folks ever considered dethawing/warming in plastic bags? I am only using pinkies still but it seems logical to keep the mouse in a plastic bag of some sort and just submerge that in warm water.
I have not yet done this anything besides hairless pinks so does it work out for those with hair? Just curious where the wet-thawing method came from.

 

[ARiley144]

Tara and I buck the trend here by feeding all of our snakes in their vivs, on their aspen substrate. A lot of very large breeders that use Aspen feed every week on substrate (BHB anyone?) and have never had issues. Couple that with the fact that snakes in the wild eat every day on particulate substrates.... it's a very minor risk.

We defrost our rodents in hot water and dry them thoroughly, and then offer them to the snakes on tongs. For the few that won't take from tongs, we have a hide or something else smooth in their cage that we leave the rodent on.

Ok thank-you, his old owner was a breeder and to keep Toothless from getting confused or stressed I just fed him the way the previous owner said he fed him. So mouse went on a lid in viv. However yep he hauled it off into his hide and mouse juices got all over the mouse thus making it wet and the aspen stick to it. But at least he wiped all the aspen off his mouth when he was done Anyhoo he had a MONSTEROUS poo last night...so so far no problems.

Maybe a little off-topic but have you folks ever considered dethawing/warming in plastic bags? I am only using pinkies still but it seems logical to keep the mouse in a plastic bag of some sort and just submerge that in warm water.
I have not yet done this anything besides hairless pinks so does it work out for those with hair? Just curious where the wet-thawing method came from.

I have used the very method you speak of for the pinkie mice. I won't use it for the adult mice though. The common consensous that I've heard is that frozen mice that are bought from the store have a stronger and different odor from mice that are in the wild and some snakes won't eat them because they are 'stinky' to the snake. So a lot of ppl wash said mouse in dawn dish soap to remove odor if snake won't eat it, (btw they also do this to pinkies for babies that aren't eating and then they rescent the pinkie with something that smells more appetizing) so the wet thaw process is not just thawing the mouse but also soaking the 'stink' out of it. Think of it as a mouse bath.

 

[toxiclight]

Maybe a little off-topic but have you folks ever considered dethawing/warming in plastic bags? I am only using pinkies still but it seems logical to keep the mouse in a plastic bag of some sort and just submerge that in warm water.

I do actually use baggies on the bigger prey...anything with hair. I don't worry too much about the pinks, but it's easier for me to pull the mice from the freezer the night before, and I put them in a plastic bag to thaw overnight. I warm them to...warm to touch...still in the plastic bag the next morning.

As for the in the viv/in a feeding bin...we use feeding bins for all of ours, mostly for ease of feeding. We take care of cleaning/changing water and whatever other cleaning needs taken care of while the snakes are in their feeding bins munching down.