Can I feed my snake live rats? - Reptile

nothing
we can reduce the attraction by removing any food for rats and mice
clean up the area , remove ant tin drums that snakes can live under
the main thing is , snakes follow the food source so have no food source and they keep moving

When I lived in Georgia I watched my dog jump at a snake every morning for two or three days. I looked it up and "thought" it was a rat snake. But this snake was really vicious! Turns out, it was a poisonous copperhead snake! What I am saying is that snake identification charts are not that easy to read. However, I learned that snake behavior is important!
According to WikiHow: "Copperheads. These beauties have a similar body shape to cottonmouths but are much brighter, ranging from coppery brown to bright orange, silver-pink and peach.[2] The young have yellow tails as well.

Check out their head shape. Non-venomous snakes have a spoon-shaped rounded head and venomous snakes will have a more triangular head.
The fact that you describe the snake you saw as long might be a good sign as most of the poisonous snakes I saw in Georgia had fat bodies.

According to SRELherp.UGA: Brown snakes are small -- 6-13 in. (17-33 cm) -- snakes that are usually brown, but can be yellowish, reddish, or grayish-brown. They usually have two rows of dark spots, sometimes linked, along the back and a dark streak down the side of the head. The belly is light brown to white.

Maybe this will help you: http://www.oplin.org/snake/quick%20id/quickid.html

Hello Linda, If you have that many rats, you should get several cats to catch them. Don't feed them. Let them catch their own food.

common garden snake,, 2 ' is a really large one.. harmless and eat mice, bugs, and rats

Probably a 'hog nosed' snake. About the only one I know of that will play dead. The Eastern hog nose does kinda look like a diamondback at first glance.

Black snakes, also known as black rat snake, or western rat snake, can live anywhere between 10 to 20 years.

I keep and raise many corn snakes and have had numerous successful hatchings...they are a lot of fun. Age and size will determine the enclosure they will need to start with. A 20 gallon long will do fine for a few years...make sure you get the type with the sliding locking lid to prevent escapes.



I use under tank heat pads for my snakes typically abbreviated UTH (under tank heat). I UTh on the side I choose to be warm and nothing in the other side ...so in effect you have a hot side and a cool side. The hot side will be maintained at 82-85F and the cool side is room temp. usually no lower than 71-73F in my house except on the coldest of winter nights. but thats OK because the snake will migrate to the warm side as it desires.



Now we need to address the substrate. After many years I have settled on ASPEN bedding ....inexpensive. clean and free of harmful odors and caustic oils. Cedar and Pine and Redwood have toxic chemicals that over a long term exposure can cause problems like caustic burns and respiratory issues. Please use ASPEN. Snakes love to burrow through the aspen bedding. Or on the cheaper side newspaper is common and easily replaced when soiled. Aspen bedding can be spot cleaned for a month or 2 and then replaced depending on the amount of feces and size.



A water bowl is required and a place to hide out...A small box for free from the USPS the PRIORITY small box is perfect and free if you need to replace it. cut a few openings on the side and the top so the snake can get in and out.



Feeding of rodents / mammals is required. The snake is a carnivore. You must learn to feed frozen thawed rodents available at the pet stores or raise your own. Depending on the size of the snake you will need to feed it something as big as the largest part of the snake. Usually a corn snake at 2 years of age can eat adult mice ...or young adult mice. Another term often used is a HOPPER mouse which is a younger / smaller mouse fed to 1 year old snakes. Newborn snakes require pinkie mice / newborn mice and will quickly graduate to fuzzie mice in 6 months time.

The reason I say frozen thawed rodents is for the safety of the snake. It is possible for the adult mice to bite the snake and do damage to the snake, if you choose to feed live rodents. I realize after many years and seeing the results of my snake being bitten by a rodent ...it happens and I prefer to feed frozen thawed. The damage was minor but if the mouse had bitten the snake any closer to the eye cap it might have been serious and irreparable.



As your snake grows and sheds it can live for many years. Shedding skin is another area that requires a bit of common sense...offer the snake more moisture when the eyes get cloudy and dull. After a week the snake will turn clear again and then shortly after it will shed its skin. During this time misting of the enclosure and a moist damp towel / washcloth will keep the humidity up to facilitate shedding.



Any more questions I will be happy to help with if I can.

It is better to give your reptile prekilled food. The main reason is that you don't want your snake to be injured by its prey. Sometimes the prey will fight back and start chewing or pecking on your snakes. Understand that captive snakes behave differently in captive than in nature - they may not be as aggressive as they are in nature and the result can be serious - snakes did loose eyes before when they were offered live food.

o, you must unfreeze it first. Put the frozenrat or mouse in warm water for half an hour, dry it (make sure you don't give yourpet wet food) then throw it to your snakes' cage.