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I've caved in...

RedRaydin

RedRaydin

Jason DeFreitas
Ok... so last week, I went to the pet store to pick Raydin up dinner. Well, they didn't have any fuzzies. Had them call the other store and see if they had em'. Nope. I fed live up til' now and I didn't want to swicth to frozen because I didn't know how the snake would take the switch. But, the one store I was at had the next size up. Hoppers. Raydin has been one 2 live fuzzies for almost a month now. So I tried those. They seemed kind of big so I was hesitant. More importantly I remember reading all of the threads lately about bigger prey items harming snakes. So I decided I should at least help my buddy and pre kill the food. I read a thread about "stunning" on here by flicking the mouse in the back of the head a couple of times. I tried this and it worked perfectly. It is mean, and it sucked to look at the mouse pulling its legs up to its head and its face going frozen, but it temp stunned the mouse enough to the point where when I hung it over raydins head with the tongs it was quickly able to warp and begin to swallow the meal. I believe doing it this way will definately take the risk out of feeding live prey as the prey is so stunned or damaged already it cannot physically do nearly as much harm. Soon after Raydin wrapped it, it was dead anyway.

It just was hard to do the first time because I felt awful killing something else myself. But I guess it is something you can do to prevent injury in the snake. And as long as my snake is healthy I will do what it takes to keep it that way. Anyone else have a hard time doing this at first (those who feed pre-killed)?
 
I don't quite understand why you don't wish to feed frozen. Either the snake will eat it or it won't - it certainly won't do Raydin any harm :shrugs: If you don't like killing the mice, and you're clearly aware of the risks of feeding live, then why not at least give f/t a try?
 
I dunno... I may try it tonight for the feed.

Question, if I buy like 2 on the way home thawed or frozen or whatever. All I have to do is leave them out for a couple of hours before feeding right? How long normally? Cause I would be bringing them straight home after work.
 
My guys all eat frozen. When I bought Inez, I was a little worried because I knew she'd been raised on live. She did not care at all when I fed her FT.

If you're not sure if Raydin will eat the FT, do what I did when I was switching Maizey back from FK to FT- buy one of each, feed the FT. If Raydin eats it- fine, freeze the FK. If not, you have the FK as back up.

I thaw mine in warm then hot water. There are lots of ways to thaw, but the prey should be mouse body temp to feed- ~100F.

Nanci
 
I thaw my mice out in hot water, like Nanci. I just drop the mouse in the water and wait til it's nice and warm and fully thawed. That works great. Leaving them sitting out would get them thawed, but they wouldn't be so nice and warm. :) If you don't plan on feeding the moment you get in, I'd bung them in the freezer til you're ready for them.
 
Thanks nanci, awesome info. I will buy both and try it tonight and let you know what happens. I also didnt know the mouse temps were suppossed to be a 100 degrees. Luckily I have a thermometer to check the temp of the water. Good deal. Can't wait to see what happens now. Thanks a ton nanci.
 
If you have a thermometer- I'd actually go 101-102F.

I also have Maizey, adult corn, who ate FT fine, then had a six week hunger strike, then started eating again, but it had to be FK. I really, really wanted to get her switched back to FT, though, and so have been feeding FT, but blow drying them. So far she's eaten three or four like that. Greg thinks it's hilariously funny, but I learned it here!! I guess some day I'll get her switched back to just paper-towel dried mice...

Nanci
 
Haha, wow..I can't imagine blow drying a mouse..
They come all gross and blood is coming out of different areas when I thaw them out. It's bad enough just looking at it and thinking..How can my snake eat that? Oh well..Better than feeding live.
 
The ones I thaw are pristine white with nothing coming out anywhere. After I blow dry them, they are fluffy and pretty! Then I cut slits in their backs!

Nanci
 
I never have a problem with blood blowdrying mice, I've found them messier when thawed with water actually.

Be very careful if you stun again, there is absolutely no point in it when you can prekill. Stunned rodents can wake up out of it, and be even more prone to attack their threators. Pre-killing kills them, so there's no chance of them waking up, but they still have muscle jerks which attracts the snakes who only go for movement. I've never had a problem switching corns to frozen.
 
Nanci said:
The ones I thaw are pristine white with nothing coming out anywhere. After I blow dry them, they are fluffy and pretty! Then I cut slits in their backs!

Nanci
Click to expand...


Haha. Oh my...
I buy mine frozen from Petco. And sometimes they just look completely disgusting. With blood coming out of their nose and all that. And the water is always bloody after it's done thawing. But GJ loves it.
 
If you place the frozen mouse in a small zip lock bag, then put the bag in the water to thaw the mouse, you don't have to dry the mouse PLUS it creates a nice mousy aroma that I believe stimulates feeding.
 
Excellent point, but I'm trying to convince the snake that the mouse was killed seconds before I put it in with her, so it can't have matted-down, been-frozen fur.

Nanci

PS, my other snakes are all normal.
 
Well, just thought I'd let you guys know I read all your posts. I bought a pack of six frozen mice. Thawed one in the ziploc bag thingy it came in so I could keep the scent nice and fresh. I took it out when it reached temp and wiggled it over Raydins head. At first Raydin snapped and bit the head but when I let go with the tongs raydin let go as well. It moved around the mouse for position then ate it no prob. I was worried at first but it seems like the frozen to thawed combo is gonna work just fine now. Thanks for all the help and ideas in getting Raydin switched. The other good part is now I only have to go to the pet store once every three weeks instead of every week as I keep six at a time in the freezer. Good deal. Just thought that I'd let you guys know everything went well. Talk to you later.
 
DaemoNox said:
I never have a problem with blood blowdrying mice, I've found them messier when thawed with water actually.

Be very careful if you stun again, there is absolutely no point in it when you can prekill. Stunned rodents can wake up out of it, and be even more prone to attack their threators. Pre-killing kills them, so there's no chance of them waking up, but they still have muscle jerks which attracts the snakes who only go for movement. I've never had a problem switching corns to frozen.
Click to expand...
Quick question for ya'...

How do I go about humanely killing 1 fuzzy/hopper/whatever before feeding it? I mean what is the "nicest" way to do it?

My MBK will NOT take f/t. Currently she is only eating 2 pinkies every 5 days, so live isn't a problem. But if I leave her with a live pinky, she will eat it. If I leave her with a f/t, she ignores them for hours and never eats them. And I can't do the "pinkly dance", because she falt refuses to eat if she can see outside her enclosure. I need to wrap her feeding tub in a towel before she even attempts to feed.

Hopefully, by the time she is ready for fuzzies, I will have her taking f/t. But at the moment, even slitting, braining, washing, and drying doesn't interest her. It's live or nothing...I assume fresh killed will be OK, though...still "kicking" a lil' bit...
 
bill38112 said:
If you place the frozen mouse in a small zip lock bag, then put the bag in the water to thaw the mouse, you don't have to dry the mouse PLUS it creates a nice mousy aroma that I believe stimulates feeding.
Click to expand...

Is exactly what I do. I"m deathly afraid of mice and rats(even f/t) and that's the only way I can handle the critters for my snakes. I have the pet store put them in individual bags so I can just drop on in the water and thaw it, then drop the thawed monster into a paperbag and then put the snake in with it. Works like a charm every time.
 
tyflier said:
Quick question for ya'...

How do I go about humanely killing 1 fuzzy/hopper/whatever before feeding it? I mean what is the "nicest" way to do it?

My MBK will NOT take f/t. Currently she is only eating 2 pinkies every 5 days, so live isn't a problem. But if I leave her with a live pinky, she will eat it. If I leave her with a f/t, she ignores them for hours and never eats them. And I can't do the "pinkly dance", because she falt refuses to eat if she can see outside her enclosure. I need to wrap her feeding tub in a towel before she even attempts to feed.

Hopefully, by the time she is ready for fuzzies, I will have her taking f/t. But at the moment, even slitting, braining, washing, and drying doesn't interest her. It's live or nothing...I assume fresh killed will be OK, though...still "kicking" a lil' bit...
Click to expand...
*GRAPHIC WARNING*
This is a snake forum, and all of us snake owners KNOW that our snakes are carnivores, but I know that there might be some that are a bit squeemish when it comes to killing mice.

Now to answer the question. If you are killing a fuzzy that is small (just bigger than a pinky) your best bet is to get on a hard floor and throw the mouse down with quite a bit of force. Not too much (you don't want the thing to explode.) This sounds horrible, but it works quite well at killing the mouse very quickly. As mentioned previously, there will be some twitching, but that is just the nerves firing off.
My preffered method only works if the mouse is a bit bigger. A big fuzzy is usually big enough for this to work. It could be very messy if you try it with a smaller one though.
With big fuzzies to adult mice and rats, you can easily break the rodents neck quickly. Hold the rodent by the tail and with your other hand grab the rodent on the neck right behind the base of the skull with your thumb and forefinger. With the smaller rodents (pretty much all mice) I prefer to pinch and roll. You squeeze the neck and roll your thumb and forefinger. It's pretty much the same motion as snapping your fingers. If you do it properly, you can feel the breaking of the spine.
 
With small peach fuzzies, I use the 'flick' I flick the back of the head hard about 3 or 4 times in quick succession, holding the mouse in my left hand. It kills them straight away, but they twitch for a little while after (Only way to get Lil to convert from live pinks)
With bigger mice I find a very sharp blow to the back of the head to stun then breaking the neck with a set of forceps works for me. I read about someone having the tail de-glove or break off when they pulled on it so I haven't tried that method of cervical dislocation
 
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