Looks can be VERY decieving :D

[Bruce]

Belinda

Good on ya Belinda for standing up for yourself,
Simon, is it not the aim of this website to help beginners and others to find out what they can about reptiles, the how's and why's of the hobby? Maybe next time you could suggest to Belinda where she may be able to find some helpful information rahter than jumping down her throat!
We all have different ideas on these topics, and as long as people learn with time things will be fine!
Hope this is within the acceptable guidelines for comments Admin.

 

[Stevethepom]

why have a public forum if you cant publicly express your opinion?

 

[NCHERPS]

My initial reaction to Belinda placing her young snake in with a mouse and it's young offspring was one of shock and horror! But luckily no harm was done.

But, you have to remember that Belinda is still young and new to the hobby(hope I don't sound condescending here), she has a lot to learn, and was trying to do the right thing by trying to get her snake to eat.
I am sure that she now knows that with hindsight, it was probably not the best thing to have done, and won't attempt it again.

We all do silly things from time to time, and the important thing is that she has learnt from it, and has shared it with us on here.


Neil

 

[Lunar_Psycho]

Just out of curiosity, did the mother mouse live? or did you have to kill her yourself? Depending on how long he had her in his coils, she could have been internally damaged quite a bit.

 

[Morelia_man]

personally if i did that (not that i would) i wouldn't post it on the forums because you were always gonna get a response like this. but your kool belinda and we all learn from our mistakes... just don't do it again

 

[Slateman]

Steve It is fine to put your opinion to APS fprum. But I am trying to make sure that people express they opinion with out hurting the other members. Mystic did post his opinion and I have to commend him for his latest style how he is communicate.
Just trying to avoid fights. One person have go on another and things start to go hot. On the end they hate each othyer and we have bitter public forum.
Happened here many times before, and I will try to calm things down early when possible.
Talking about public forum Steve, I heard that you are going to visit space girl Beca this holidays, mabe to live ther for good. Hope that you behave right. Say hello to earth mother.

 

[ad]

Hi Belinda,
You continue to amaze, but really there is no big deal I don't think. Actually, I have done similiar, I have taken my childreni for a walk showing them gecko's - you should see the gecko move when he works out whats looking at him! Theyve never struck though. I just wanted to see reactions. The gecko would bugger off real quick before the snake realized there was even a food source there.

On the mouse, My jungles can be fussy feeders so i fed live and it was a fairly big mouse for the snake. The snake did its job and went bang and coiled the mouse, I waited until I thought it was over (the mouse looked dead and had stopped wriggling) and did something else for a couple of minutes, when I looked back in the snake had dropped the mouse and the mouse was running around the enclosure apparantly none worse for the experience. I just assumed she would have been damaged internally from the constriction so straight away put the mouse with a snake that ended any suffering. The jungle went hungry.

It makes sense your snake went the largest prey, In the real world the mouse would have protected her nest, He would be vulnerable if he ate a smaller one first and he knew that. This way he would have taken out the larger, had a big meal, and then cleaned up all the young.
Cheers
Ad.

 

[wattso]

What a shame the snake and mouse couldnt be freinds eh Belle? lol ,
just curious ,what did happen to the mouse? nevermind, you learn something new everyday, hope the snake didnt get bitten. good luck luck with your new gecko's. merry xmas.

 

[saikrett]

don't laugh wattso, My jungle was pretty much best friends with a small fuzzy for about 4 months. HE WOULDN'T EAT THE THING!!!!

 

[wattso]

lmao............oops sorry! I take it things changed eh Saikrett?

 

[saikrett]

yeah, She's a great feeder

 

[Fuscus]

Bel did a silly thing, she knows it and will hopefully learn from it. Personally I would have let it have the mouse, particulary if it is a non-feeder, rather than discourage the snake from feeding (and I proberly wouldn't tell enyone either).
But luna has brought up an interesting point, in that there seems to be (at least with his snakes) a minimum prey size. Does anyone else have this experence and any hypothisis as to why eg can't constrict a small prey item?

 

[NCHERPS]

Fuscus,
They have to be able to throw a coil or two around the prey to be able to constrict it, if the prey is too small it can't constrict, but I have had snakes grab small prey and just pin it down to the floor and put pressure on it until it stopped moving.
Quite obviously in Belinda's case the snake thought it would go for the larger prey item as it would have naturally gone for it by instinct, one because by nature, if you eat a bigger item you won't have to feed again for a while, and as snakes are oppertunists, Belinda's snake took this chance.
Secondly, if it wasn't in it for the food, it would have tracked the larger animal just because it was the biggest threat to it's safety, I would tend to think that in this case the snake may have just struck and let go, so this is what makes me believe that the snake actually wanted to eat the rodent, may have been a case of it's eyes too big for it's belly, but you know what snakes are capable of downing, so I reckon it has a taste for the larger prey.

Neil

 

[Belinda]

but you know what snakes are capable of downing, so I reckon it has a taste for the larger prey.

Do you think I should move him onto bigger prey? He is currently on pinkies...Upto Fuzzies maybe?

 

[Guest]

how long is it? if its like 60 cm long give it weaner mice

 

[Belinda]

...What are weaner mice?

Im gonna try it on a new born rat today...See how it goes.

 

[NCHERPS]

Belinda,
Definately move it up a size, fluff's would be good, or slightly larger.

Neil

 

[Guest]

mice that have been weaned from there mothers at about 4 weeks old meaning they can survive on there own

 

[Belinda]

I just got the shock of my life...

I chucked a baby rat into the snake cage and left them alone for about half an hour. I checked a few mins ago and the snake had eaten the rat! its like 10X as big as what he normally eats...Would it be ok to feed him a baby rat every week? Or put him onto the fuzzie mice?

 

[Guest]

i reakon put him on weaner mice