HaggasCheff
New member
Chopped Mouse
Your rationale that the snake will still get a full meal over a longer period is probably sound, Wa$ted, but you still need to consider whether ragged bones sticking out would cause any problems on the way through your snakes.
BMM has aleady said he could not reccommend something he would not do himself.
I suppose that if cutting the mice were your only choice, you should probably cut them across the width and feed the head section one week, you'd have to hand feed or use tongs so the snake would take it nose first, then feed the tail section the next week. You'd probably have to cut off the tail, then break the legs so the would fold forward as the mouse half went down butt first. Again, you've gotta line up the feeding and have a lot of control over getting the snake not to "breech feed" and take half down sideways, thus exposing potentially dangerous bone ends to the esophagous. Snakes use pretty strong muscle contractions to move the prey down to the stomach. All their important organs are packed in there pretty close. I'd hate to see you feed a mouse half, it get sideways and puncture snake internally. And you have to store that other half for another week. Will the cut end get freezer burnt as you re-freeze it? Will re-freezing push blood and innards out the cut end? You know how frozen liquids expand.
I think that if you cut the mouse longways, it would be very messy, you'd probably loose a lot of mouse innards during the feeding.
I know Komodo dragons and gators and crocs tear their food up, crunching bones and all that, but they are not small colubrids. Snakes are designed to swallow prey head first for a reason.
Perhaps you could look into sausage casings as a way to wrap and protect from bones? Now we're back to the never feed my snake beef or pork products debate again.
I don't know Wa$ted. It seems awfully dicey and like a lot of trouble to me. One sometimes hears of a big python that has swallowed a goat or whatever and has horns poking through it's side. This seems like the same thing, only on a smaller scale. If it were me, I'd really try to get smaller prey. I don't think you should try to feed cut up mice.
But hey, if you do it, let us know how it goes!
Your rationale that the snake will still get a full meal over a longer period is probably sound, Wa$ted, but you still need to consider whether ragged bones sticking out would cause any problems on the way through your snakes.
BMM has aleady said he could not reccommend something he would not do himself.
I suppose that if cutting the mice were your only choice, you should probably cut them across the width and feed the head section one week, you'd have to hand feed or use tongs so the snake would take it nose first, then feed the tail section the next week. You'd probably have to cut off the tail, then break the legs so the would fold forward as the mouse half went down butt first. Again, you've gotta line up the feeding and have a lot of control over getting the snake not to "breech feed" and take half down sideways, thus exposing potentially dangerous bone ends to the esophagous. Snakes use pretty strong muscle contractions to move the prey down to the stomach. All their important organs are packed in there pretty close. I'd hate to see you feed a mouse half, it get sideways and puncture snake internally. And you have to store that other half for another week. Will the cut end get freezer burnt as you re-freeze it? Will re-freezing push blood and innards out the cut end? You know how frozen liquids expand.
I think that if you cut the mouse longways, it would be very messy, you'd probably loose a lot of mouse innards during the feeding.
I know Komodo dragons and gators and crocs tear their food up, crunching bones and all that, but they are not small colubrids. Snakes are designed to swallow prey head first for a reason.
Perhaps you could look into sausage casings as a way to wrap and protect from bones? Now we're back to the never feed my snake beef or pork products debate again.
I don't know Wa$ted. It seems awfully dicey and like a lot of trouble to me. One sometimes hears of a big python that has swallowed a goat or whatever and has horns poking through it's side. This seems like the same thing, only on a smaller scale. If it were me, I'd really try to get smaller prey. I don't think you should try to feed cut up mice.
But hey, if you do it, let us know how it goes!