What do you do with uneaten mice?
Timothy A. Scanlan
I have never had this problem, but by reading alot of articles at this
newsgroup, it sounds to me that a very big concern among herp keepers
is the rejection of prey by the snake.
I was wondering what everyone does with the mouse when the snake
descides he's not hungry. I want to find out just in case im ever in
this situation.
tas...@ix.netcom.com
Peter Lindsey
LizBham
customer. I know one that quit do to picking up mites from a rat that was
returned.
Rod B. Mitchell
Depends, are you feeding live or prekilled? If live, well just go and get
credit for one live mouse where you bought it at. If feeding prekilled (you
should), then just put it in a zip loc bag and throw it in the freeze till next
feeding. Then thaw it out and try again. To make sure that the mouse is
thawed, press your finger into the gut and see if it is cold still or not.
Rod
rbm...@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu
http://www.ilstu.edu/~rbmitch/
Snakemaker
mbr...@icaen.uiowa.edu
Maybe you could coax the snake to eat by eating one yourself,
ya know kinda like a baby and parent...
;-)
-m
Nathan Tenny
I try to feed the pickiest eaters first; the less discriminating eating
machines, further down the line, get everyone else's leftovers. At the very
end is a Cal king who would probably eat styrofoam if I carved it into the
shape of a rodent.
NT
--
Nathan Tenny
Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA You should avoid yourself.
nte...@qualcomm.com -/usr/games/insult
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ntenny/
Paul J Hollander
Rod B. Mitchell <rbm...@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
>Depends, are you feeding live or prekilled? If live, well just go and get
>credit for one live mouse where you bought it at. If feeding prekilled (you
>should), then just put it in a zip loc bag and throw it in the freeze till next
>feeding. Then thaw it out and try again. To make sure that the mouse is
>thawed, press your finger into the gut and see if it is cold still or not.
And if still not eaten, give it to the dog or cat. Or treat as any
other piece of meat unfit for consumption. Bury it in the garden, or
add it to the chicken bones and coffee grounds in the garbage.
Paul Hollander phol...@iastate.edu
Behold the tortoise: he makes no progress unless he sticks his neck out.
Colin Wilson
>Depends, are you feeding live or prekilled? If live, well just go and get
>credit for one live mouse where you bought it at. If feeding prekilled (you
>should), then just put it in a zip loc bag and throw it in the freeze till next
>feeding. Then thaw it out and try again. To make sure that the mouse is
>thawed, press your finger into the gut and see if it is cold still or not.
Don't thaw/refreeze though. Once it's been thawed, throw it out if uneaten.
Colin
Nathan Tenny
>If you try flushing them, remember that they swim well against the
>"tide". It takes 3 or 4 tries to get them to go down......
Ack! You don't really flush them *live*, do you??? Even feeder rodents
deserve better treatment than *that*. For Pete's sake stun them first, at
least.
NT
--
Nathan Tenny
Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA Resistance is not futile?
nte...@qualcomm.com -Hugh
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ntenny/
Karen J. Cravens
tas...@ix.netcom.com(Timothy A. Scanlan ) wrote:
> Hello,
>I have never had this problem, but by reading alot of articles at this
>newsgroup, it sounds to me that a very big concern among herp keepers
>is the rejection of prey by the snake.
>I was wondering what everyone does with the mouse when the snake
>descides he's not hungry. I want to find out just in case im ever in
>this situation.
We feed live (by choice of the snake's owner; no sermons please) and
when the snake decides he isn't hungry (and when he hasn't killed
the mouse promptly before making that decision) we put the critter
in the smaller tank with pine shavings, a water bottle, and food,
and put it on the floor to torment the dog and cats. :}
The problem lies in getting too attached to them before the snake
gets hungry again.
Silver
(A dog I used to have liked to play with our pet mice; she'd bring
them her tennis ball and try to give it to them (we had to
intercept it or she'd have dropped it right on them). Our current
dog is completely convinced the mouse is food, and attempts to lick
or bite it through the cage, and drools and begs if we have the
mouse out. Both border collie mixes, supposedly more inclined to
herd animals than to hunt them. Go figure.)
--........................................................................
People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have, for example,
freedom of thought; instead they demand freedom of speech as a
compensation. -- Soren Kierkegaard
Rebecca Sobol
I try to feed the pickiest eaters first; the less discriminating eating
machines, further down the line, get everyone else's leftovers. At the very
end is a Cal king who would probably eat styrofoam if I carved it into the
shape of a rodent.
NT
--
Nathan Tenny
Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA You should avoid yourself.
nte...@qualcomm.com -/usr/games/insult
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ntenny/
That's pretty much my method too. For example I can pretty much count
on having my ball python refuse at least every other meal offered. So I
wait until I'm pretty sure I have a hungry rainbow boa around before offering
food to the ball. That way when he doesn't eat I can give the rat to the
hungry rainbow. A few rats have made it from ball python to rainbow boa
to burmese python where they usually disapper. Mostly these are
frozen/thawed rats since I don't like to refreeze. If the rat is freshly
killed and the snake hasn't shown any interest in an hour or so, then the
rat can be frozen for later.
Rebecca Sobol
so...@ofps.ucar.edu
http://www.atd.ucar.edu/rdp/ris/ris_herp.html
Chris Watts
>
> Depends, are you feeding live or prekilled? If live, well just go and get
> credit for one live mouse where you bought it at.
Most pet stores will take back livestock. Most of us have a cheapo wire cage
that we keep our extras in until the snake is ready to eat. If you don't want
a stinky rat in your bedroom, shop wisely!
A bigger problem for me is the Los Angeles minimum purchase of poultry-all
poultry under a certain age must be bought in lots of six. Presumably this is
so kids don't buy just one cute chick, and then have it die of loneliness two
days later.
Unfortunately, my boa will only eat four chicks at a time, so I end up with TWO
chicks that die of loneliness. Really effective law, huh?
Wade
>
> Hello,
> I have never had this problem, but by reading alot of articles at this
> newsgroup, it sounds to me that a very big concern among herp keepers
> is the rejection of prey by the snake.
> I was wondering what everyone does with the mouse when the snake
> descides he's not hungry. I want to find out just in case im ever in
> this situation.
You take them by the tail, swing them around and hit their heads
on the corner of somthing. If your good it only takes once. The harder
you swing the less you torment them and the quicker it is over. Then
zip-lock them and freez them. Just make shure your visiting grandmother
doesn't raid the freezer and think their a new fangle type of hot dog.
Soak them in warm water and thaw thouroughly, dry them and place
them in the cage next week.
Also saves money to breed them yourself. Then you can simply
put them back into the tank if uneaten.
Wade
Gary Harris
> Hello,
>I have never had this problem, but by reading alot of articles at this
>newsgroup, it sounds to me that a very big concern among herp keepers
>is the rejection of prey by the snake.
>I was wondering what everyone does with the mouse when the snake
>descides he's not hungry. I want to find out just in case im ever in
>this situation.
>tas...@ix.netcom.com
If it is a 'fresh' mouse (IE: alive or never frozen) I'll freeze it.
OR if it is a thawed mouse, I give it to another snake (with 25
snakes, someone is BOUND to want a mouse, if all else fails, my RT Boa
Princess ALWAYS eats, even when she's got cloudy eyes).
Gary
Karen J. Cravens
kuhl...@aol.com (Kuhlinayn) wrote:
>In article <NSDAxwIe...@southwind.net>, rave...@southwind.net
>(Karen J. Cravens) writes:
>Especially the day I was changing the water and such and got sidetracked
>and heard a crash, only to look ans see a 1/2 grown cat in a 10 gal. tank
>with four mice scared S**tless:)
Heh... been there, done that, except it was a 16-pound cat in a
10-gallon tank, and the mouse was in the snake's cage not being
eaten again. Snake seems healthy; we're assuming he's just decided
it's winter. (He's not quite a year old, so this is his first
winter.)
Silver
--........................................................................
Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not
pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one.
-- Lord Chesterfield
Karen J. Cravens
Mike Fry <mik...@skypoint.com> wrote:
>Karen J. Cravens wrote:
>
>> We feed live (by choice of the snake's owner; no sermons please)
>
That wouldn't be a nonverbal sermon, now, would it? :}
Silver
--........................................................................
What I have learned I no longer know. The little that I still know,
I have guessed. -- Nicholas Chamfort
Kuhlinayn
>We feed live (by choice of the snake's owner; no sermons please) and
>when the snake decides he isn't hungry (and when he hasn't killed
>the mouse promptly before making that decision) we put the critter
>in the smaller tank with pine shavings, a water bottle, and food,
>and put it on the floor to torment the dog and cats. :}
>
>The problem lies in getting too attached to them before the snake
>gets hungry again.
I wound up with this situation when I bought 4 hoppers for my Corn snake.
He refused to eat and died a couple days later and left me with 4 mice.
For the last 2 weeks I have had them in Chlorophyl Coated Pine Shavings
with tubes to hide in and a water bowl and a dish that I put thier pellets
in. Our cat has just been fascinated with them. She will sit for hours
and watch the tank, paw at it and climb n it. I got 2 new corns who ate
the mice today and she has now resumed her interest in the snake tank
since the mice tank is empty:) She was funny to watch though:)
Especially the day I was changing the water and such and got sidetracked
and heard a crash, only to look ans see a 1/2 grown cat in a 10 gal. tank
with four mice scared S**tless:)
Todd
REAR FANG
I just remind my snake of all the starving snakes in the third world...
And then I just make him sit there at the table until he finishes every
last bit of it.
He can sit there all night for all I care.
If he doesn't eat the mouse after that I ground him for a month.
If that doesn't work it's off to snake reform school.
Bill Myers
> Hello,
>I have never had this problem, but by reading alot of articles
>at this newsgroup, it sounds to me that a very big concern
>among herp keepers is the rejection of prey by the snake.
>I was wondering what everyone does with the mouse when the
>snake descides he's not hungry. I want to find out just in
>case im ever in this situation.
>tas...@ix.netcom.com
I breed my own feeders, so if it's not killed or injured, it
goes back in the cage. If it is injured, I finish it off and try
to feed it to another critter. If it's killed, I'll try to feed
it to another. If no one eats it, I may freeze it or may just
dispose of it. Food is never frozen more than once.
I don't throw very many away, we have a small zoo close that
operates on donations and they are always needing reptile
feeders.
Take Care
Paul Gibson
writes:
the savanna monitor and tegu. If any mice are left in the AM, the
lizards get fed. If too many are left over, the boa and pine snake get
seconds.
Paul Gibson
P...@ix.netcom.com
Bev Hamill
For example I can pretty much count
>on having my ball python refuse at least every other meal offered. So I
>wait until I'm pretty sure I have a hungry rainbow boa around before offering
>food to the ball. That way when he doesn't eat I can give the rat to the
>hungry rainbow. A few rats have made it from ball python to rainbow boa
>to burmese python where they usually disapper.
Isn't this a remarkably effective way of ensuring the spread of any
diseases/parasites from one snake to another down the line? Unless.
of course, your snakes are completely 100% healthy and parasite-free
(aren't they all?)
Julie Sieberg
: so...@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Rebecca Sobol) wrote:
: Isn't this a remarkably effective way of ensuring the spread of any
: diseases/parasites from one snake to another down the line? Unless.
: of course, your snakes are completely 100% healthy and parasite-free
If the snake has done nothing but stare at the food item, the food item
will not have been able to pick up diseases. As for parasites, I certainly
wouldn't put a mouse in a mite-ridden cage and then into a mite-free
cage, but then again I would never feed my snakes in their cages. I
don't think the risk of spreading parasites in this case would be any
more than the risk associated with keeping all my snake cages in the same
room.
Julie
Rebecca Sobol
(REAR FANG) writes:
Ummm. Reform school. That's the one I haven't tried. I told my picky
ball python about all the starving snakes in the 3rd world. Reminded him
that he could be in Africa with no Norway rats anywhere around. I let him
sit all night with the dead rat, and then grounded him for a month when
he still didn't eat. Alternately, I told him if he ate he could stay home
and not go to next educational show, too. I guess it's time for reform
school.
Rebecca Sobol
so...@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Rebecca Sobol) wrote:
For example I can pretty much count
>on having my ball python refuse at least every other meal offered. So I
>wait until I'm pretty sure I have a hungry rainbow boa around before offering
>food to the ball. That way when he doesn't eat I can give the rat to the
>hungry rainbow. A few rats have made it from ball python to rainbow boa
>to burmese python where they usually disapper.
Isn't this a remarkably effective way of ensuring the spread of any
diseases/parasites from one snake to another down the line? Unless.
of course, your snakes are completely 100% healthy and parasite-free
(aren't they all?)
It could be, but if one snake has not touched the rat then the rat probably
has not picked up anything. I would not take a rat from the cage of
a quarantined snake and feed it to any other snake. However my snakes are
healthy and parasite-free and have been living in the same room for a long
time. My snake population is small and relatively constant so I don't have
new snakes spreading anything to the others and my cages are cleaned
frequently. I haven't seen a snake mite in over 9 years (insert sound of
knocking on wood) nor have I had problems with other parasites. It doesn't
happen often, and it's happening less and less as I get better and better
at judging when my ball python will eat and when he won't. All my rainbows
live in the same cage, so if any of them were going to pass along any
diseases they would have by now, so offering a rat to one rainbow that
another has refused isn't really an issue. I guess the biggest danger would
be to the garbage can, aka burmese python, and he hasn't ever had a problem
with it.
Snakemaker
so...@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Rebecca Sobol) writes:
>
>Ummm. Reform school. That's the one I haven't tried. I told my picky
>ball python about all the starving snakes in the 3rd world. Reminded him
>that he could be in Africa with no Norway rats anywhere around.
Maybe he is predjudice and thinks gerbils and hamsters are better than
Norwegians.
Rebecca Sobol
(Snakemaker) writes:
Nah, even the dead ones scare him. When he eats at all I put a dead rat
into his cage very quietly, and leave the room for a couple of hours. Only
then is it safe to eat.
car...@phoenix.net
In article <4dmdb0$6...@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>, <tas...@ix.netcom.com> writes:
> Path:
gryphon.phoenix.net!news.sprintlink.net!nntp.coast.net!howland.reston.ans.net!i
x.netcom.com!netnews
> From: tas...@ix.netcom.com(Timothy A. Scanlan )
> Newsgroups: rec.pets.herp
> Subject: What do you do with uneaten mice?
> Date: 18 Jan 1996 21:16:16 GMT
> Organization: Netcom
> Lines: 8
> Message-ID: <4dmdb0$6...@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>
> NNTP-Posting-Host: ix-phi5-26.ix.netcom.com
> X-NETCOM-Date: Thu Jan 18 1:16:16 PM PST 1996
> Hello,
> I have never had this problem, but by reading alot of articles at this
> newsgroup, it sounds to me that a very big concern among herp keepers
> is the rejection of prey by the snake.
> I was wondering what everyone does with the mouse when the snake
> descides he's not hungry. I want to find out just in case im ever in
> this situation.
> tas...@ix.netcom.com
>
This is a tasty way of recycling those cute little rodents and very enjoyable
while watching a movie or the like. Don't forget to add the vanilla extract!
Lisa Eaton-adams
so good. Lisa
