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Step 6Feeding.
Feeding is an important thing, I'm also going to cover water here too.
First I'm going to cover water, there is some debate over if giving tap water is ok or if you should give distilled water or if you should use bottled water. personally I give squirm tap water that has been left to stand for 24 hours, I spoke to the people at the reptile rescue centre up the road about this, and one of the kind ladys there (who was a reptile vet at London zoo for 25 years) said that tap water is fine and She has never had any problems with using it.
feeding, ok so generally the best thing to do is to take the mice out of the freezer and allow them to stand until they are fully thawed out, using warm water can make them lose the scent that makes the snake go after them (watch cats, mine never seem to interested but you never know.) feed the snake in a seperate area to the normal living environment, two main reasons for this, if you are using a wood chipping substrate or similar, if the snake swallows this it may very well die as a result, secondly if you do, it will begin to assiate your hand with food and could strike you. Squirm does sometimes try to strike me when he's in his feeding box.
Have a seperate area for feeding, make sure it is quiet when you do this, because snakes feel very vulnerable when eating, so a noisy environment may put them off eating, make sure it is a clean environment wit hnothing loose they could acidently swallowed, a cheap plastic box from tesco/wallmart/asda somewhere like that will work wonderfully.
hold the prey item with tweezers, and dangle in frount of snake, it will after a while gain interest at this point put it infront of the snake, some may strike and coil around it to constrict it (have to make sure it really is dead) then eat. sometimes snakes won't be interested in eating, around shedding time for instance, so if you snake is shedding then (it will be darker in colour, look like it has been dipped in milk almost, have what some people call "blue eye") it may not want to eat, here are some other reasons
not hungry (obvious) - skip a feeding if this seems likely
over handling - handle less for a couple of days and try again
food or snake too cold - allow the snake to warm up first, or allow the food to reach room temp for an hour or so
changes in feeding environment - can be disturbing to a well routined snake, happened with squirm
food has lost scent - new mouse
if it does not apear to be the above take it to the vet
a few other things that may be helpful if the snake hasn't been eating for a period of time is tease feeding (this really seems to work) use the food to rub along the length of the body and tap the snake with it (not near the head) if you get some interest let the snake sniff it but not go for it, when you really have their interest let them take the food.
squirm eating, he is much younger in this video, hence why he seems smaller than the other photos, the music is really corny (no pun intended.) its a long video but It shows you good practice.
First I'm going to cover water, there is some debate over if giving tap water is ok or if you should give distilled water or if you should use bottled water. personally I give squirm tap water that has been left to stand for 24 hours, I spoke to the people at the reptile rescue centre up the road about this, and one of the kind ladys there (who was a reptile vet at London zoo for 25 years) said that tap water is fine and She has never had any problems with using it.
feeding, ok so generally the best thing to do is to take the mice out of the freezer and allow them to stand until they are fully thawed out, using warm water can make them lose the scent that makes the snake go after them (watch cats, mine never seem to interested but you never know.) feed the snake in a seperate area to the normal living environment, two main reasons for this, if you are using a wood chipping substrate or similar, if the snake swallows this it may very well die as a result, secondly if you do, it will begin to assiate your hand with food and could strike you. Squirm does sometimes try to strike me when he's in his feeding box.
Have a seperate area for feeding, make sure it is quiet when you do this, because snakes feel very vulnerable when eating, so a noisy environment may put them off eating, make sure it is a clean environment wit hnothing loose they could acidently swallowed, a cheap plastic box from tesco/wallmart/asda somewhere like that will work wonderfully.
hold the prey item with tweezers, and dangle in frount of snake, it will after a while gain interest at this point put it infront of the snake, some may strike and coil around it to constrict it (have to make sure it really is dead) then eat. sometimes snakes won't be interested in eating, around shedding time for instance, so if you snake is shedding then (it will be darker in colour, look like it has been dipped in milk almost, have what some people call "blue eye") it may not want to eat, here are some other reasons
not hungry (obvious) - skip a feeding if this seems likely
over handling - handle less for a couple of days and try again
food or snake too cold - allow the snake to warm up first, or allow the food to reach room temp for an hour or so
changes in feeding environment - can be disturbing to a well routined snake, happened with squirm
food has lost scent - new mouse
if it does not apear to be the above take it to the vet
a few other things that may be helpful if the snake hasn't been eating for a period of time is tease feeding (this really seems to work) use the food to rub along the length of the body and tap the snake with it (not near the head) if you get some interest let the snake sniff it but not go for it, when you really have their interest let them take the food.
squirm eating, he is much younger in this video, hence why he seems smaller than the other photos, the music is really corny (no pun intended.) its a long video but It shows you good practice.
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