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Live Mice....

One of my rack units got a short last march and nearly caught fire and burned the house down...
thinking Kelsey was a male I housed her with Sniper temporarily...
she became eggbound and died but 3 of her babies lived...one is Katrina..my avatar right now...
I love those babies..all are striped motley type beasts
:)
 
Well, I wouldn't feed live rats to my corns or my rtb if I had one. Rats are dangerous animals. Mice are much less so. I need to read the horror stories involving supervised feedings of live mice to corns before I'm convinced. :shrugs:
 
Read the entire thread. Very interesting. Some of the boas in there were eaten by mice. It was not the usual feeding situation, but uneducated people thinking they were helping out. If you think large mice can't do damage, check out the whole thread.
 
MegF. said:
Read the entire thread. Very interesting. Some of the boas in there were eaten by mice. It was not the usual feeding situation, but uneducated people thinking they were helping out. If you think large mice can't do damage, check out the whole thread.
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I've fed hundreds and hundreds of live mice to corns in the past, many of which were big, nasty males. I supervised every kill, and I never left a live mouse bigger than a pinky for any unsupervised amount of time if the snakes weren't interested. On the scant number of occasions I saw a mouse bite a snake, it was while it was first being constricted. I never saw one draw blood (I'm not saying that they can't), and these bites were usually met with a swift crunch that ended all resistance.

I guess my advice is that if you don't have time to supervise the kill for every feeding, then you shouldn't feed corns live mice. And never feed live rats under any circumstances. It's all about risks vs. benefits, with convenience factored in too (I use mostly f/t, and it's pretty darned convenient). :)
 
mbdorfer said:
My method, never fails! :grin01:
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my method works better :)
hammer.gif
 
u want a story of a suprevised bite? ok ive got one for you:)

From the ball python forum..

ChrisVogel said:
I just want to add that when I started with ball pythons, I did the exact same thing. I always watched closely and made sure Loki grabbed the rat fine and didn't have any problems. Let me tell you that when it happens, it doesn't matter if you're standing right their or not. One rat that Loki grabbed immediately turned and bit Loki in the head. Just a millimeter from his eye. It put a very large hole in my snakes head, and I thought for sure it had killed him. I had to break the rats jaw to get it off my snake, and the wound tooks weeks to heal. Loki wouldn't eat for THREE MONTHS after that happened.

It may be rare for injuries to happen when feeding live, but they DO happen. So why take the chance? I switched to Frozen/thawed immediately after this and neve went back. I'm not going to risk the health of my snakes for any reason.
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Accidents will always happen. Hell, look at what my first ball python managed to do all by itself while I was on vacation out of state, blech.

I don't know about hundreds, but I've fed my fair share of live adult mice to corns and my BP, I've yet to see a bite. A snakes' instinct is a force to be reckoned with most times.

However, feeding an adult live rat to your snake is just plain retarded. Rats can be vicious critters when cornered, and they will fight back. Most domestically raised mice are naive, and as such they have lost quite a bit of their defensive nature when faced with death. Not all of them, but the majority.

Like Mike, I err on the side of 100% safety and I thump hopper-adult mice, pinks-fuzzies pose no danger. So I guess its a moot point for us. Its just about convenience for us, and my snakes do better on fresh food rather than frozen/thawed.
 
:-offtopic and probably a dumb question but doesn't your finger start really hurting after the first dozen or so mice?
So far the only thing I ever pre-killed were rats for larger snakes and I had to thump them on the floor(which did not always kill them). But I would hate to have to flick the 40-50 mice I go through a week, my finger would be black and blue! :eek1:
 
ultimuttone said:
:-offtopic and probably a dumb question but doesn't your finger start really hurting after the first dozen or so mice?
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Nope, that finger gets plenty of exercise, remember I'm originally from Jersey! :laugh01:
 
Nope. Mice skulls are really flexible, and its like flicking your forearm repeatedly.

For rats, I have a bona fide whacking stick.
 
Yes, but i find it completely impossible for someone to say their snake WONT eat f/t, 1. if they have never tried, or 2. they didnt try hard enough. I just dont get why people risk their snakes lives just to feed it live when for a fact, it can be switched over.
 
JenC said:
Yes, but i find it completely impossible for someone to say their snake WONT eat f/t, 1. if they have never tried, or 2. they didnt try hard enough. I just dont get why people risk their snakes lives just to feed it live when for a fact, it can be switched over.
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Maybe I should ship my blizzard female to you to get her switched over to f/t, since you're the expert in this area. ;) Since I started with corns (six years prior to your birth), I've seen a few that simply would not accept f/t under any circumstances. I wonder why so many of the breeders on this site have listed snakes for sale that only accept live prey when it's so easy to switch them?

If you think my blizzard female's life is at risk from her hoppers, you really need to see her in action. I assure you that neither she nor I have anything to worry about. :)

(Please don't mistake my tone for hostility Jen. :) )
 
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