Feeding is a Fiasco

[zantedeschia]

I was out of town for 3 days, came back into town and it's been 7 days since the snakes were last fed. So I stopped off at a reptile shop when I hit Houston. This place isn't close to me by any means, 15 miles away and near downtown but they have live food the size I need (tho coming into town it was on the way home).

I wasn't impressed the first time I was there. She told me live is more nutritious than frozen and when I told her it was for a boa constrictor, she in no uncertain terms informs me he's going to grow to 14 feet. (um, I don't think so). But she has live hoppers, so what the hey (tho she calls them 'small mice').

This time I decide to try a live rat on Paradox. She pulls one out and it looks huge but she assures me it's the right size. I also decide to try a small adult cause I'm not sure I'm feeding Charade or Enigma the right size. Wanted them in addition to the 2 hoppers, but I get home and find I only have the rat and the small adult mouse (which she called a large adult). O-Kay, still not impressed. Turns out it's just as well I didn't end up with the hoppers.

Now I've been afraid to feed live rats to Paradox. One cause I'm afraid of the whole biting issue. Two, cause I don't feel right about feeding rats. Mice are one thing, I find them stupid and annoying but rats are too close to pets for me. My fears about point 1 turned out to be unfounded, Paradox killed the rat handily. But after trying to eat it for several minutes, he spit it out. Too large. ARGH. The rat also got dragged through his own feces which smeared on his fur, I don't know if that contributed to the rejection. But it did get on Paradox and made him smell bad. And I *hated* wasting the live rat.

In the meantime, I tossed the live mouse to Charade who did his little ball up thing. Fine, gave it to Enigma who actually climbed up on the dial gauges stuck on the side of the cage to avoid the mouse running below. By this time I'm going WTF???!!! NO one is eating!

Fine Paradox is my garbage disposal, he'll take it. Tossed it in his cage but he was so unsettled about not being able to eat the rat, he refused it! Paradox has *never* refused food. He was skittish when I handled him, especially touchy around his neck, did spitting the food out cause him discomfort?

Fine I'll feed the corns. Go to the freezer to find I have only one fuzzy and it's a monster, it's the size of a hopper. Too big for them. By now I'm tearing at my hair.

Screw this, I decide to clean cages and discover Enigma is in blue. Well d'oh, no wonder he wouldn't eat.

Paradox had pooed while I was gone and no one wants to clean that up but me, poor thing had to live in it till I got back. I gave him a quick bath to get the smell off him, and he sat under his lamp to dry off while I'll did the other cages. So I offered him the live mouse again. He finally ate it but it took 15 minutes of watching it scurry around his cage before he struck. Not like him at all.

The next day I went to Petco, picked up some frozen fuzzies and one more live adult mouse (big plump one).

Fed the corns, check.

Dropped the mouse in Paradox's cage, I swear, I heard the thump of him hitting before the mouse even touched the ground. Okay, Paradox is back in form.

Charade, I left the monster fuzzy in front of his hide. Half an hour later, it's gone. Check.

Enigma I'm gonna leave till he has shed. But wait, today both Phoenix and Charade are blue.

Weird. Makes me not want to leave my snakes again.