Our new and all-time pet (snakes, cat, mice - being eaten!)

LaFoto · May 8, 2007

Yesterday night, my cousin came round (and is staying for right now), and among other things brought two of his baby snakes for Sabine and the new terrarium that he had also already built for her (and brought round when he came for her Confirmation Day), and now I want to share two new pics that I managed to take of one of them with you:

1.

2.

Nice, eh?
Today they ate a mouse each - and I was not at home when they did, grrr! But they ate, which is good.

sfaribault · May 8, 2007

I am not a snake person but I like the lighting on the second shot.

JaimeGibb · May 8, 2007

Thjose are actually really aesome shots!!!! Excuse my typos, I just got my nails done and can't freaking type.

doenoe · May 8, 2007

AWESOME!!!!!
be carefull though, people say that snakes are like Pringles....once you pop, you cant stop

What species are they?
Nice pics

JahLynJie · May 8, 2007

doenoe said:
AWESOME!!!!!
be carefull though, people say that snakes are like Pringles....once you pop, you cant stop What species are they?
Nice pics

Ah 'tis true. With reptiles in general.
I started out two years ago with one gecko and now have three geckos, a bearded dragon, and a corn snake.
Yup, just like Pringles....

Anyway, I really love these shots. I like the second one especially. The lighting is wonderful.

LaFoto · May 9, 2007

Thanks for the comments, folks, much appreciated.
I am happy the second photo turned out the way it did, it is not my expertise to get it like that, it just happened to turn out this way.

My cousin and Sabine were out buying food (i.e. mice) for the two snakes,and they ate when I was not at home, but one wasn't quite so hungry, so one mouse remained, which was, of course, THE attraction for Mia, the cat:

(All three just quick snaps taken with the Powershot)

This morning, however, my cousin put the remaining mouse into the terrarium where one of the snakes caught it AT ONCE and started to eat it.
If you are squeamish and cannot bear the sight of a mouse being eaten by a snake, don't scroll down. Stop looking at the thread HERE.
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Well ... we all have to get used to a new kind of "feeding the pets" in our house ...

Big Mike · May 9, 2007

You should really train your (Sabine's) new snake to eat pre-killed (frozen/thawed) mice. Feeding live mice can be very dangerous to your snake...and is considered, by many in the reptile community, to be in bad taste.

Also, it's much easier (& cheaper) to buy a bunch of frozen mice and just thaw the ones you need...than to buy and/or keep live mice.

LaFoto · May 9, 2007

Oh, and Daan: sorry, I cannot find the English word for the kind of snake this one is. My cousin says, the German word from them is "Schönnatter" (which would translate into something like "pretty snake" ... oh, just went to ask my cousin (who is still staying with us) if he knew the Latin name, he looked for his book, and that reads "Orthriophis taeniurus friesei". Well, hope that helps...???

doenoe · May 9, 2007

just googled it. Thats going to be a pretty long snake, nice.
And like Mike said, you can try and feed it pre-killed. Works like a charm most of the time.
My snake hasnt eaten in a while, like 4 months now. But she is going to shed soon anyway. So i guess she still is growing a bit. Ah well, ball pythons are known for not eating for long periods of time. Just gonna try and keep on offering her frozen rats.
Pretty nice that your snakes are allready eating

d1a1s1 · May 9, 2007

Big Mike said:
You should really train your (Sabine's) new snake to eat pre-killed (frozen/thawed) mice. Feeding live mice can be very dangerous to your snake...and is considered, by many in the reptile community, to be in bad taste.

Also, it's much easier (& cheaper) to buy a bunch of frozen mice and just thaw the ones you need...than to buy and/or keep live mice.

Dont they eat live animals in the wild?

JahLynJie · May 9, 2007

d1a1s1 said:
Dont they eat live animals in the wild?

Of course.
But it's much safer to feed captive snakes frozen mice for a few different reasons.
If live mice are fed, often times the mouse will try to defend itself against the snake, taking a few bites of your expensive snake before it's consumed.
Also, companies that freeze and pre-package mice generally have good reputations for offering healthy, mite and flea free mice.
It's also a little kinder to the mouse.

Kerri Rae · May 9, 2007

Eating live animals puts the reptile at greater risk of infection as well. Snakes should take dead mice very well if trained to do so (not hard).
http://www.anapsid.org/prekill2.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Feed-a-Snake-Frozen-Food