Should i try live?

[philippe]

Here's me situation, I have a picky normal female who i want to breed this coming season. During the winter she rarely eats ( once every month and a half maybe to once every two months). However during the summer for about a month she eats like a champ. This was the month of august and i fed her as much as she wanted about 8 small rats for the month. Now she has stopped eating, but is still only 1150 grams. Shes going on her third winter and i really want to put some weight on her for the breeding season. Shes completely uninterested in f/t so I was thinking of trying live, but i dont want her to only take live from now on, i just want to get her feeding until she reaches about 1500 grams and then get her back on the f/t. Do you think this is a good idea or should i just stick to f/t?

Thanks alot

[Neal]

If you have to feed her live, then do so. You can always keep trying F/T, or even do prekilled. I've noticed on a few different occasions, that in the winter, if you raise the temperature a bit, not much, but to where it doesn't exactly resemble winter, she may stay on feeding for you.

[omnibus2]

Well if you plan to breed your female, she certainly needs a lot more weight, and therefore needs to eat more.

If she accepts live on a more regular basis, I say go for it.

[philippe]

Ya ive tried keeping the temps a little higher but she always seems to know when winters coming.

Its not really that i need to feed live, the past two winters she barely ate for about 6 months at a time never really losing any significant weight, but just not growing.
I could just keep with the f/t, but i know she wont grow for breeding season
thats why im not sure if i should just get her live so she could keep eating for the winter or just do like usual and let her fast for winter and feed her again in the summer. I just really want to fatten her up for breeding. Or else i may not breed her.

[CBI]

I would keep feeding her whatever she likes. I wish all my snakes ate F/T. I feel like a waiter during feeding time some want live, others want Pre-killed, others want F/T, some will only take jumbo mice, etc........

If she is over 1000 grams and if she is willing, maybe try feeding her medium instead of small... it may give her a more filling meal whenever she does eat....

[seeya205]

Do whatever it takes to get her to eat! If live works in the winter months then use it!

[snakesRkewl]

Do whatever it takes to get her to eat! If live works in the winter months then use it!

Totally agree.

[philippe]

alright well i just got a live rat size about between small and medium i left it in a box over the cage for about 30 mins then tried feeding but she wants nothing to do with it she sees it but takes no interest at all in the rat. Is this normal or do most snakes usually go for anything live?

[Elise.m]

Did you try leaving the room for about 10 mins? Maybe she's shy?

[philippe]

alright ill try that right now get back to u in 10 mins