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What do you do with a feeder thats not eaten?

DrGraeme

DrGraeme

Chiropractor
My Corn snake and Calking are great eaters and always take whats offered, but I'm having a little trouble with my newly aquired Ball Python.

There are a lot of other threads that go into method of stimulating feeding which I'm looking into... but the question I have is if doesn't eat it... what can I do with it.

I don't have a feeder colony so I can't just put the fuzzy or pinky rat back with mom and dad (if live feeding), if it was an adult I would just give it food and water but these little guys are still on milk... and what do you with the F/T if he doesn't take? Can you re-freeze these guys? (if thats not good for us then probably not good for them right?)

Little confused at the moment so any advice would be great.
 
Do yourself a favor and toss it out.
Some people re-freeze with no ill effect... however, you run a very solid risk of passing parasites and diseases between one snake to the other by transferring items from one viv to the next, regardless of the exposure period.

Having gone through a collection-devastating ordeal with Crypto, I would advise very strict hygiene measures.
 
I don't feed live, but I flush uneaten food.

If it is alive and unable to survive, if it were me, I would just kill it as humanely as possible. If it is an adult, well.....I'm a softhearted idiot and don't feed live, but it would be a pet.
 
I second the cal-king, if he can eat it. If he can not eat it and if the rodent is alive, and has no fur then put it in a zip lock and toss it in the freezer. If it has fur then you can always thump kill it or break its neck then freeze it. (An animal with fur is more tolerate of freezing temps and will suffer when frozen, without fur they tend to not suffer and it takes a very short time for them to pass) Sounds cruel but it is better than starving to death.
 
I have a hognose for my garbage disposal. She will eat anything but fish, and any refused meals go to her.
 
I would try ot feed the ball pythin first and it the meal is uneaten, and live, give it to one of the other snakes. F/T meals, if uneaten, can't be re-frozen and shouldn't be given to another snake for if you are leaving it with the python over-night, which I recommend for problem feeders, it will no longer be any good and should be thrown out. Live prey that you don't want to feed to another snake can be killed and frozen and then used another day.
 
For my picky adult ball python. I do a prekilled and if she doesn't eat it in a few hours I usually freeze it!

I dont refreeze prey items. I don't usually leave anything over night except for pinkies or fuzzies but then they are tossed.

Most of my snakes if they haven't eaten it in a few hours they aren't going to eat it even if I leave it over night. So I give it to one of my adults to eat.
 
If I need to throw away any thawed prey, I just put them in a ziploc bag and toss 'em in the trash. Keeps the smell down.
 
I usually feed uneaten mice or rats to another snake. I never re-freeze, as it does degenerate the rodent to be frozen, then thawed, then frozen again. Honestly, I would just toss it or flush it if you're worried.
 
Depends on the snake and the food for me honestly. For my corns I start with the picky ones first and then move on to the "garbage disposal" snakes lol, but when it comes to my bigger snakes (boas/pythons) where I'm feeding large and jumbo rats that cost $5ish, I'll try and feed, but if they don't take it, I'll put it in it's own individual baggie and refreeze within an hour. Haven't had any issues doing so yet
 
Buzzard said:
I second the cal-king, if he can eat it. If he can not eat it and if the rodent is alive, and has no fur then put it in a zip lock and toss it in the freezer. If it has fur then you can always thump kill it or break its neck then freeze it. (An animal with fur is more tolerate of freezing temps and will suffer when frozen, without fur they tend to not suffer and it takes a very short time for them to pass) Sounds cruel but it is better than starving to death.
Click to expand...

Any mammal will suffer when frozen, regardless of weather or not they have hair yet. Cervical dislocation is the standard
method for killing rodents used in scientific testing, in the event CO is unavailable.
 
Thanks for the varied advice guys, I will not be re-freezing.
The only thing for me is that my BP is eating a bigger prey than the corn and king so its a little tricky to just hand off to the next one, but I see what you mean about finding a system that works for me, and going for the picky one first.
(BTW, I'm in the process of starting a small feeder colony so hopefully I shouldn't have too many of these problems in the future, it'll just take time to breed).

Slightly off the topic but as the feeders get bigger and older, whats the best way to "stun" / "incapacitate" the prey before I drop it in? (only been feeding pinkies so hasn't been an issue so far)
 
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