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first rat

starsevol said:
And Plisskin,I agree with you here. Cruelty often comes from ignorance. I kind of flew off the handle and for that I apologize. I am just so wicked TIRED of the "YouTube idiots", ya know?
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I do know what you mean. It upsets me as well. I just feel that people are more likely to listen to advice above criticisms, and thus we're more likely to help the animals in the long run. :)
 
If someone posted on here about feeding live pigeons to their snake, then actually it turned out they were stunning them first by "bashing" them- I would go absolutely PSYCHO. When we love a species- any mistreatment of that species is a call to arms.
 
Plissken said:
I do know what you mean. It upsets me as well. I just feel that people are more likely to listen to advice above criticisms, and thus we're more likely to help the animals in the long run. :)
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Which is why its a good thing that not every member of this forum is a hot-tempered red-headed menopausal rat lover who has no clue about "cornholios".... :)
 
Nanci said:
If someone posted on here about feeding live pigeons to their snake, then actually it turned out they were stunning them first by "bashing" them- I would go absolutely PSYCHO. When we love a species- any mistreatment of that species is a call to arms.
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Nanci, have I told you lately that I think you're wonderful?

I mean I realize that rats are snake food, and if this guys snake requires live he has limited options. But that doesnt mean that it doesnt physically hurt me inside when I think of it.
 
you know ive been reading over all the comments posted since ive started this thread and it seems to me like all ive done is cause alot of arguments between fellow snake lovers and yes i,ll admit no im not the most experienced snake lover on here i know this im trying to learn as much as i can i did stun the rat before i gave it to my snake i was told to do that im sorry its wasnt the most human way but how was i to know they use co2 are those the little things they put in bb guns now ? i can get those at walmart i'll use those next time i really thought this whole forum was to help new corn fans to learn more not to criticize do you remember any of your teachers talking to you that way? and yes i do think of everyone on here as a teacher you all know much more about this than me so next time try to look at the whole situation for the other persons eyes and to everyone else out there who found this whole thing disturbing im sorry thats really not what i was trying to do and yes this whole youtube thing bothers me too.
 
ive not messured him but hes well over 5 ft hes quite large
 

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So, why _are_ you feeding stunned prey? Won't your snake take FT? How long have you had it? Have you tried FK? Have you tried FT, but blow-dried it so it's super hot and dry, just like FK??
 
lykinst said:
you know ive been reading over all the comments posted since ive started this thread and it seems to me like all ive done is cause alot of arguments between fellow snake lovers and yes i,ll admit no im not the most experienced snake lover on here i know this im trying to learn as much as i can i did stun the rat before i gave it to my snake i was told to do that im sorry its wasnt the most human way but how was i to know they use co2 are those the little things they put in bb guns now ? i can get those at walmart i'll use those next time i really thought this whole forum was to help new corn fans to learn more not to criticize do you remember any of your teachers talking to you that way? and yes i do think of everyone on here as a teacher you all know much more about this than me so next time try to look at the whole situation for the other persons eyes and to everyone else out there who found this whole thing disturbing im sorry thats really not what i was trying to do and yes this whole youtube thing bothers me too.
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I am sorry I jumped all over your case. As you can imagine, none of my cornsnakes eat rats. They do fine on mice. My oldest is almost 14 years old and weighs 1348 grams and has always eaten mice. Plus that rat WAS a bit large for your guy anyway.
Have you tried f/t? It really is better for the snake because all parasites are killed with the freezing and dead mice can't possibly hurt your snake! Plus its easier on your wallet as you can buy in bulk and thaw as you need to.
Sometimes snakes that don't like thawed food don't like it because its not warm enough, or isnt moving. It's really easy to thaw in hot water and then hold the mouse in hemostats and make it do the "zombie dance". Plus did you know thawed mice are easier to digest?
CO2 is a humane way to kill a rodent, but if your snake will only eat live, that won't work. Why not try to convert him over? Believe me, it CAN be done. I once knew a guy who kept mostly wild caught local snakes for educational purposes. They all converted to thawed food pretty easily, even his black racer named "One eyed Jack".
 
what does f/t mean? remember your talking to someone who is new at this i have tried the frozzen mice i put them in a glass of hot water and used a hair dryer to blow dry them i have a pair of feeding tongs i really have tried that but he just ignores them its only when i use LIVE mice or rats does he show any intrest at all how can i convert him over? everyone keeps telling me it can be done but HOW do i do it?
 
lykinst said:
what does f/t mean? remember your talking to someone who is new at this i have tried the frozzen mice i put them in a glass of hot water and used a hair dryer to blow dry them i have a pair of feeding tongs i really have tried that but he just ignores them its only when i use LIVE mice or rats does he show any intrest at all how can i convert him over? everyone keeps telling me it can be done but HOW do i do it?
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Oh this is the easy part! Most corns will take frozen easily! F/T means frozen/thawed. And you don't even nessisarily need to blow dry them. Just defrost in hot water and then use the tongs and wiggle the mouse near him. I actually make my big boy *about the size of yours* follow it on the tongs to the other side of his cage onto a surface with no aspen. He chases it just like it were live! *giggles at that image* But you do need to try and wiggle the dead mouse to make it seam alive for a little while anyway. This has worked for 4 of my snakes that were all eating live before coming to me. Good luck with him, you will save major dough buying frozen too....they are much cheaper than live!

Also weird :-offtopic remark. In your siggie you say you have 0.1 candycane...but then you call your snake a boy. 1.0 would be a boy, 0.1 is a girl. :) That one took me asking before I realised it myself!
 
wll, depends on the snake really. Two of my boys like their dead mice to NOT be moving at all, too scary I guess. But Amel boy goes for the hunt with gusto!

Some snakes need to be switched slowly, live>stunned>fresh-killed>frozen-thawed. Usually corn's don't need that much effort from what I've read. And don't give up too soon, if your snake doesn't look interested in the first minute leave him alone for some quality time in a feeding tub, in a dark quiet room. My two take forever to eat, I usually just leave them for 20 minutes or so. And if they didn't eat by then, it goes to Amel Boy. If you're having trouble you can always make a new post in the husbandry section, or search for previous threads with the same topic.
 
lykinst,
You have a killer looking snake and I'll tell you what. You have a killer attitude! Your willingness to listen and learn after you were "verbally" bashed into concrete ,like a rat yourself, speaks volumes.

If you live on a perfect island, someone built a bridge to get you there. Don't burn down the bridge and act like you got there alone. Instead help build a bridge for someone else.
A wise man once told me this.
 
well thanx i could have takin the low road and talked bad to others like they did me but... im here to learn as much as i can from the people who know there stuff now dont get me wrong it did hurt and i was really depressed when i read everything that people had said almost wanted to get rid of him thinking i just cant do this BUT i know i love my snake and i only want whats best for him so i went out dropped a few bucks bought some books and im studying up on my stuff and now thanx to some of the people on here (you know who you are) and these books i really think im alot more educated on what the hell im doing now
 
Austin M said:
lykinst,
You have a killer looking snake and I'll tell you what. You have a killer attitude! Your willingness to listen and learn after you were "verbally" bashed into concrete ,like a rat yourself, speaks volumes.

If you live on a perfect island, someone built a bridge to get you there. Don't burn down the bridge and act like you got there alone. Instead help build a bridge for someone else.
A wise man once told me this.
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I'm in complete agreement! lykinst shows the signs of becoming a terrific asset to this site!
 
thank you susan i have always found That the best way to learn anything about anything is to find an expert the people on here have real hands on experiance and thats really the only way to learn anthing i do truly hope that when i have a problem i can always come here or when something neat happens i can share it with all of you lets face it pages like this one are here for the well being of our pets and without places like this where people like me can go to ask questions and do the research we need there will be snakes of all kinds out there dying because of lack of education on the handlers part so the next time you see some one on here who is doing something thats wrong dont jump all over them because in reality it maybe you who kills that snake.
 
and just as a footnote i have switched over to aspen bedding AND i went to petsmart and got a seven pack of frozen mice he hasnt takin any yet but he did stike at one yestarday so we will keep working on it i'll keep all of you up to date on cheerios progress ( yes i finally named him:dancer:)
 
Good luck with converting your snake. I have 2 subadults that are proving virtually impossible to convert to f/t. In this country you can't buy live feeders, so I have to breed my own mice. Trying to convert them and only having erratic supplies of live mice of the right size (I can't grow huge supplies in my bedroom) has resulted in very slow growth for my snakes. Both will now take freshly killed, twitching mice. I use cervical dislocation to kill the mice, using a pencil held firmly over the base of the neck whilst giving a sharp tug on the base of the mouses' tail.
For all the people who say 'converting to f/t is easy', I only wish it was. Neither Calamity or Butch will take appropriately sized f/t mice regularly enough to grow and thrive. Both have lost weight when I tried offering only f/t because I didn't have live of the right size.
The other 18 snakes all take f/t with no hesitation, while these two would quite plainly rather starve. http://cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58920&highlight=converting
I'm now faced with the choice of continuing to try converting and them failing to thrive, or my current situation of building up more breeding sets of mice so I can supply their preferred food. Very hot, blow dried f/t, rolled in stinky mouse bedding has worked very occaisionally, but not regularly enough for these snakes to grow at a normal rate. Just converting from live hoppers to f/t small adults took months of erratic feeding. I'm not trying to upset anyone who keeps (insert pet of choice here), but if live (insert pet of choice here) was the only way to feed this pair, I'd try it.
 
I can't believe your corn ate that rat! I tried to give my corn pinky rats once and he was just totally disinterested. Then I read around a little bit and found out how much the weight varies from mouse to rat. It's incredible. I never knew there was such a difference![/FONT]
 
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