My python eating a live mouse.

[Gerbil 01]

Just a little cam video of my python eating. It's a big file (10 meg), and that's after speeding up the video 2-3 times the normal speed (20 mins... compressed down to about 6 mins), with the exception of the strike. A little Static-X added for your listening pleasure. Hopefully you're not squemish and eating while you watch it.

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/436777/jose-and-mouse.wmv

[Weasel]

A snakes' gotta eat. :tongue:

[casandra]

i heard its safer for a contained snake to eat dead mice, because of the biting and scratching from the mice..but they have been eating live mice for millions of years.

[Gerbil 01]

i heard its safer for a contained snake to eat dead mice, because of the biting and scratching from the mice..but they have been eating live mice for millions of years.

Contrary to popular belief... it's safer for the snake to eat live mice. Causes less health problems.

A snake raised on dead mice, generally will develope symptoms of malnourishment, mainly because of the nutritional value of a dead mouse vs live, and the psychological effect it has on the snake. Dead mice need to be injected with "vitamins and proteins" in order to sustain those same nutritional levels found in live mice. Also, a snake that eats dead meals, often looses touch with it's instinct. They strike, squeeze for a short period, then try to eat... usually confusing which end is the head, which should be eaten first. Pulling a half swallowed mouse out of a snake isn't a pleasant experience.

Live rodent feedings need to be monitored, from the initial kill, until the head is in the back of the throat. If the mouse is free to do some physical harm to the snake... you simply thump it in the head, knocking it unconscious, or killing it. With bigger rats... you generally will want to break their jaw prior to introducing them to the snake.

I myself have never fed my snake a dead animal... even when it was barely 13 inches long. It's always fed in a seperate container other than it's home, except on rare occassions. That helps him to not associate a hand reaching into his home, as a source of food... constituting an attack. The rare feeding is to let the snake "stretch out" and hunt the mouse in a larger space, to help it keep it's natural predatory instinct.

[casandra]

when i had a baby corn snake, i fed him thawed out pinkies..when he got older i'm not sure what they fed him, becaue he wasn't technically mine..i was caring for him for my biology professor until he got big. :)

thanks for the information, i am officially informed. :)

[Gerbil 01]

I'd like to get a corn... but I promised myself the next enclosure I bought was going to be a 75 gallon tank to keep my python in. Then, my cichlid(s) will be moved from a 10 gallon, to the 46 that the snake's in now. Then when that 10 gallon's free... I'll probably get another snake. Who knows... may get a cranky boa.

[psychoDiablo]

wonderful.

dedmouse.

[Ker_Bear]

snakes are awesome. I've always liked watching them feed.

[SketchImpressions]

was wondering when you would finaly post this. good choice of music to acompany the vid.

[Gerbil 01]

snakes are awesome. I've always liked watching them feed.

Sadistic, yet entertaining. I've given the mice names once in a blue moon... of people I can't stand. Like a mouse vodoo doll or something. I have yet to see anyone fall to the ground and sufficate though.

was wondering when you would finaly post this. good choice of music to acompany the vid.

Been busy, and didn't have a container to feed him in. Needed something with a lid instead of the usual card board box, so I could thoroughly clean his tank out, without having to watch him like a hawk. Plus people kept buggin me enough... so I caved.