Underfed... more tomorrow?

[Lolo76]

I went to get my live prey today, and the store was REALLY low on stock... no adult mice, and only 10 hopper mice. So I bought all the hoppers, along with 2 medium rats for my big girls. One of the rats was rejected (by Nerissa, the new girl), but the mice were of course gobbled up - and the bigger snakes still look quite hungry. Toby only got 2 hoppers, and he's over 600g, so he's been glaring at me like "Is that it??"

So here's my question... should I get more tomorrow (at another store), or just make them wait until next week? Also not sure what to do with the leftover rat, since I don't think Toby could handle it quite yet. Or do you think he could? I'm sure Mona would take it, but 2 med rats would be overkill even for a big gal.

[CoolioTiffany]

Just wait until next week to feed again. Don't try feeding him the rat unless the rat is abou the same size as the middle part of his body. If it is too large, don't try it. I thought two small rats would be a lot for Candice, but my Kingsnake refused his small rat (in shed) so I didn't want to waste it. It was smaller than the small rat I fed to Candice, so I went ahead and fed it to her and she had no problem taking it down. Right now I think she is in shed after eating all of that, so I'm happy that she took it down and now I'm looking forward to an awesome and first shed in the new tub.

[rabernet]

The rat isn't going to grow that much until next week - keep it and feed and water it until next week and then offer it to Mona.

I personally, would have passed on the hoppers and just let the kiddos wait another week to eat when there was more appropriately sized prey.

[Lolo76]

Thanks for the replies! I probably should have passed on the hoppers, but they were already looking sooooo hungry... LOL.

I've been thinking a lot about feeding recently, and decided I really DO want to convert them to F/T. Getting sick of making weekly pet store trips, not being able to get what I need, having leftover live rats, etc. Only three of my snakes (Pedro, Vinnie & my corn Scout) will consistently take the dead prey, and so far the others mostly refuse... Toby used to take them, but seems to be getting pickier with age. How would you suggest starting the conversion? I was thinking of giving them a week off, and since this week was a small meal too, they should be nice and hungry!

[cinderbird]

Part of a canned reply on feeding: its got switching prey types and stuff


Feeder Quality
The quality of your feeders matters. I had some older feeders who were not in the best shape, I got new much better looking, smelling and appearing feeders from a few vendors at a local show and it REALLY showed when i went to feed my snakes with these new feeders. Personally, if i have a refusal i don\'t re-freeze the rodent. I use quite a bit of time to defrost so i dont trust them. Luckily, i have a garbage disposal of a spider female and just give her the left overs.

When picking out feeders, look for clean whole animals (the occasional rodent missing a tail tip or foot is completely acceptable, as is the occasional urine stain especially on a white mouse or rat. Or a few poops). Rodents, even frozen ones do SMELL rodent-y. Its like an earthy musty smell. When the rodents smell FOUL you want to discard them.

Anyway, onto the more useful info:

PRE SCENT PRE SCENT PRE SCENT.
Pre scenting, i have noticed, will trigger most snakes to go into feeding mode. What I do personally, is stick the mice and rats im going to feed my snakes into an empty tub in their rack (i feed frozen thawed and happen to have empty rack space in my rack). I let the rodents defrost for about 5 hours or more. The larger items go over the heat tape, the smaller ones don\'t have to. I then take out a hair dryer and give all the rodents a quick blast with it on low. I usually have the hair dryer on, but not directly on the rodents because you dont want to cook them. Within 30 seconds all my snakes are out cursing their enclosures looking for food.

Other methods of presenting are leaving the rodents to thaw near the enclosure of the snake. Weather it be a live rodent or defrosting in a baggie with warm water and leaving the corner of the baggie open.

Always make sure your rodents are warm enough. They should feel warm to the touch (not hot, not cold). And make sure they are thoroughly defrosted. You can check this by squeezing the ribs and stomach of the rodent lightly. If you get give the rodent is defrosted. If you squeeze and you dont feel any movement of the ribs, then the rodent is not yet defrosted .

SWITCHING PREY TYPES and SCENTING:
Ball pythons can be pretty picky when it comes to their food. If they like mice, sometimes they want to stay on mice, but you want to move them to rats (for whatever reason you choose).

Always try just feeding the wanted prey type first, you\'d be surprised how many snakes just don\'t care and smell "rodent" instead of individualizing, and end up eating.

If you feed F/T, defrost 2 prey items that together reach the size of the prey item you want to feed your snake. Have one of them be the first prey type, and the other be the second prey type. Take the first prey item (hereby called mouse) and rub it all over the second prey item (we\'ll call that one rat). I usually try to rub the head, belly and genital area of the mouse on the rat. I don\'t really know rodent anatomy other than the gross anatomy stuff but i assume rodents have scent glands in their faces and genital areas. Do this pretty liberally. You might not be able to discern a difference between the two, but your snake may. Try to offer the rat (second item) once you\'ve done this. If the snake doesn\'t take it, try rubbing the mouse on the rat some more (this is called scenting). Try offering it again (make sure it is warm, the item may have cooled off by now).

Hopefully the snake will take it, if not, offer the first prey item first (mouse). Let the snake eat that item. Once it has finished and realigned its jaws offer the second item. Since the snake is in feeding mode, it may take the rodent since it already smells vaguely of its preferred type.

If this doesn\'t work, try it again at the next feeding. If you have to skip a feeding session to try to switch your snake it is ok. These snakes eat much more often in captivity than they do in the wild. Baby snakes can go with skipping a meal every once in a while. Until your snake switches, keep scenting the rodent by rubbing it with the other prey type.

With older, more established animals, skipping a few feeding sessions may be in order. Be aware that there are some snakes that will never switch. They would rather starve than eat prey type two.