Some of you may recall I have a 5’ adult male corn snake in my fifth grade classroom. “Henry” is extremely docile, marvelously handle-able, and a HUGE hit with the students. “Lucky,” our considerably cuter parakeet, is all but ignored in the room.
Henry eats mice, and sometimes small rats. He is always fed during non-school hours, usually before school starts, so that children who WANT to watch nature in action (after being thoroughly warned that it ain’t pretty) can see…no one is made to watch cute little beady eyed mice get ingested. Students are fine with this. Parents are fine with this. The principal and 98% of the teachers are fine with this.
But…my teacher-neighbor protests. Now, understand she is a friend and a respected colleague. We get along grand and are very supportive of each other both in personal and professional issues. But with Henry–she says “It isn’t fair. How’d YOU like to be put in a box with no means of escape? How’d YOU like to be eaten by some big thing?” She says it isn’t sporting (this is a sport??). She suggests I’m being cruel to the mice.
Um…hel-LO? I don’t make the rules! Snakes eat rodents! It’s a good thing! We need our rodent population kept in control! And what should we do, let the snake starve? Oh, oh, that’s okay because the snake isn’t cute and fluffy. And HOW MUCH “SPORT” IS INVOLVED IN THE KILLING OF THAT COW THAT YOU’RE MUNCHING ON? (I did say something milder to that effect, and she said “I didn’t eat cow…today…”)
It isn’t about sport. It’s about the food chain. Sure, Henry didn’t hunt this rat down in the woods, but you didn’t grow the grain that made your muffin, either.
Fruitcake.
[sub]…the preceding rant has been rated PG, simply because I cannot cuss out someone who I respect and like. Even if she is really starting to annoy me with this poke in the ribs every time Henry satiates his hunger.[/sub]
Hey, why don’t you take a cereal box or something, and make a fake label for it that says “Purina Corn Snake Chow” or something. Then tell her you’ve seen the light, and show her the box.
Believe it or not, Green Bean, they have these “Snake Sausages” on the market now. I have only seen them in books…apparently, these are a less-perishable alternative to feeding a snake live mice. You have to rub the sausage with something prey-like in smell; I’m not entirely sure how you get the snake to eat it, other than that.
Of course, what are they made of? Ground up mice. Now there’s a fun alternative for the rodents.
There’s also something called the “Pinkie Pump” to use on stubborn hatchlings that won’t eat. Without getting too gruesome in detail, it basically purees a newborn mouse before it is forced down the throat of the nonfeeder.
Considering those two options, I think Henry’s (and nature’s) approach is best. Yech.
Well, you can feed them rewarmed frozen pinkies–if you can get them to go for it. We have a Kenyan Sand Boa who ate frozen pinkies with no problem. Then we got a Ball Python who ate frozen pinkies with no problem.
Then one of them went off their feed and, in desperation, we fed it a live mouse. As soon as it had eaten one live mouse, it would not go back to the frozen ones. As soon as it started get live mice, the other one went on a hunger strike until we switched, too. (Despite the fact that they are in widely separated tanks and should not have been sharing tales of their repasts.)
I will say that I have rarely encountered a frightened mouse. Generally they run around the tank, sniffing at everything, including the snake, until the snake gets its head set for a strike. At that point, death comes pretty quickly.
But what if you made it more like a sport? You could put Henry in the middle of the classroom and a mouse in every corner. Then place bets on which mouse {if any}will get eaten.
This could be a big money raiser. I think I’ll suggest this to my kids’ school. The less candy I have to sell, the better.
Most pet stores sell mice and rats pretty cheap – even cheaper if you’re getting them for feeders. This is more likely, of course, if you visit a pet store that also sells reptiles. They understand.
Although, it is better in general to feed snakes pre-killed prey, as dead rats don’t bite back. There are many frozen rodent purveyors who raise their stock on high-nutrient diets to make for quality snake food. Or, you can but them alive and kill or stun them yourself before feeding the snake. This, unless you are a very sick person, is not fun. The first time I had to whack a rat, I had to do some pretty serious justification and intellectualization as I was standing there with this cute fuzzy thing in my hand. I still hate doing it, and prefer the frozen ones.
The problem with pre-killing, though, is that some snakes are picky. I have had snakes who won’t touch a dead mouse, no matter how much I wiggle it. On the other hand, I’ve seen a 12-foot boa eat a rabbit out of my friend’s hand, without even striking or constricting.
I’ve never seen those before. I haven’t been in a pet store in a while.
According to John Acorn “The Nature Nut”, who has many, many different pets including more than one type of snake, you just toss the frozen mice into some warm water before you feed them to the snake. They don’t know the difference.
Pinkies are way, way too small for Henry. He’s an adult corn snake–about 5’ long and about the same diameter around as a 50-cent-piece. A pinkie mouse, and even a pinkie rat, wouldn’t be more than a special treat.
My first corn was a hatchling, and she took frozen pinkies. This was easiest–many pet stores sell packages of frozen pinkies. But, getting anything much larger that’s frozen is far less common.
Henry eats either adult–and live–mice, two at a time, or one small (live) rat, as he did yesterday. I can’t handle prekilling–it’s just so violent and bloody and unnatural to me.
Have you ever had students who were REALLY REALLY scared of snakes?
I know for one, I would probably have to be transferred to another classroom-I am extremely ophidiophobic, to the point that even pictures of snakes freak me out.
It’s a fairly common non-poisonous snake. Corn snakes and rat snakes are two of the more active natural rodent control factors in rural areas. I’m pretty sure Pennsylvania has both groups, and you’d probably be surprised how many have managed to ratcatch their way into various parts of the cities.
Incidentally, I have a question of any resident herpetophiles. I’ve never actually owned a snake as a pet, though I have had friends who did. Was the term “pinkie” used before Pinky & the Brain became popular or did the cartoon lend the name to the feeders?
John Acorn “The Nature Nut” has either never maintained a snake or has been incredibly lucky with his snakes. We tried frozen (we had already successfully moved from pinkies to fuzzies) when our snakes simply quit eating them.
They had never seen a live mouse as we had bought them young from people who used frozen. At some point, they simply decided they wanted a more entertaining dinner.
It is blanket statements (with 50% error rates) such as Acorn’s that drive new snake owners to distraction thinking they have done something wrong.