Problem feeder

[metalsmoker]

Hey guys, I have already written about my problem in other post, but nobody responded for some time. So, I have a female spider BP (hatched 10/2013, weighs only 320 grams ) since june this year. She ate only 5 times since I got her: 3 times a f/t rat (each month one rat). Then she refused to eat for 4 weeks so I bought her live mice to brighten things up a bit. She took them immediately after putting them into the enclosure. Today I offered f/t rat thinking that her feeding response has improved, but she did not pay attention to it.
I dont want to feed her live mice since they are not so nutritious as rats and as for live rats, when they get bigger with her growing as well, they might hurt her.

Do you have any suggestions as for what I should do? I tried feeding in separate enclosure, at night, heating up the rat with hair dryer, heating up in warm tap water, leaving the rat overnight ---> nothing helped.

Thanks a lot

[rlditmars]

I feel your pain. I have had two that went off feed. One went for about 4.5 months, then ate a F/T rat small. Then went another 5 weeks then ate a another F/T rat small. Then went about a month when I threw a live rat in for her. She slammed it. Feed her about 5 times on live and she would hit it as fast as it approached her. Tried yesterday to give her F/T and she snubbed her nose. So getting the feeding response back up hasn't helped because she hammers live and won't touch F/T. The other girl has been off for about 3 months.

As for the mice versus rats, if she is eating mice then feed her mice for now so that at least you can keep her progressing. Mice can be just as nutricious but it takes more to equal the muscle mass of the rat. So you may have to feed her two in a row for now and if she doesn't switch as she is approaching 1000 grams bump it up to 3 or 4.

You may try following up a F/T right behind a mouse she is swallowing so as to get the taste there. Do that a few times and see if she'll take the F/T then. Good luck.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Mice are fine while the nutritional value differs from rats no study has been done on the nutritional requirement of BP, so to sum it up gram per gram it is all the same the only difference is that you will at some point have to feed multiple mice.

It's not about what YOU want to feed or not feed it's about to feed what works and if it takes mice then that is what you should feed.

You can either keep your BP the way you are now, and be frustrated about the food or switch food and see if there is a difference.

Not knowing the background I would also examine your husbandry (cage size, temps, etc)

[metalsmoker]

Hey guys, thank you for your replies. Last week I gave her a small live rat. She took it just fine. This weekend I tried small f/t rat and she was not interested. I guess I am stuck with live for now. Hopefully I will manage to get her on F/T. Sooner the better cause I am afraid live rats will hurt her.

[zachbinger]

Live rats are only really dangerous once they are medium and up unless its a really small snake ive never had an issue with not taking f/t but 2 of my females were really slow starters when it came to eating took 1 almost 2.5 mon to take its first meal once i got it home now she is an eating machine. My other 1 is going on a month w/o eating but she will come around.

[Daigga]

Hey guys, thank you for your replies. Last week I gave her a small live rat. She took it just fine. This weekend I tried small f/t rat and she was not interested. I guess I am stuck with live for now. Hopefully I will manage to get her on F/T. Sooner the better cause I am afraid live rats will hurt her.

Some snakes just don't want F/T. You can try to convert them, but I've found it easier to just give them what they want.

If she has a good feeding response, I wouldn't worry too much about the rat trying to hurt her. Feel free to be choosy when picking your feeder rat; try holding it around the body and not by the tail. If it tries to bite you or wiggle away, maybe try to pick a more docile one. The docile ones might sniff at a snake (I had one that tried to push bedding onto my big girl as soon as she was dropped in. Making herself cozy and whatnot), but they don't usually try to bite. As for nippy rats, I've noticed that my live feeder has an incredible food response as long as I manage feeding time correctly, and any feeder that gets dropped in doesn't last five seconds.

Besides being picky about the temperament of your rat, here is what I do to keep Chelsea safe (and fat); I have a critter tote that I put my rats into upon purchase right now that's lined with aspen chunks. It makes a nice rustling noise whenever the rat moves around. I put the tote close to where I keep Chelsea (right now this is next to her tank, but soon I'll end up just putting it on the table next to the rack. She usually hangs out in her hide in a ball, but after about five minutes of listening to the rat rustling around she's uncoiled and coming out of her hide; very obviously looking for her food. Once I can see she's in feed mode, it's drop and go; the rat hits bedding, Chelsea hits rat, end of story (no feed response? no rat). She gets fed once a week on the same day every week, and she starts to get antsy the day before feeding. You should be able to see pretty clearly if your girl isn't interested in eating, but if she fakes you out and decides she isn't all that hungry after all (This has only happened to me with my F/T eaters, but I suppose anything is possible) you can always put the rat back in the tote and try again later. I'm sure you already know, but if you don't have a tote don't leave the rat in the cardboard carrier most places give you. Rats, mice, and any other rodents get bored in these and can easily eat their way out.

[metalsmoker]

Some snakes just don't want F/T. You can try to convert them, but I've found it easier to just give them what they want.

If she has a good feeding response, I wouldn't worry too much about the rat trying to hurt her. Feel free to be choosy when picking your feeder rat; try holding it around the body and not by the tail. If it tries to bite you or wiggle away, maybe try to pick a more docile one. The docile ones might sniff at a snake (I had one that tried to push bedding onto my big girl as soon as she was dropped in. Making herself cozy and whatnot), but they don't usually try to bite. As for nippy rats, I've noticed that my live feeder has an incredible food response as long as I manage feeding time correctly, and any feeder that gets dropped in doesn't last five seconds.

Besides being picky about the temperament of your rat, here is what I do to keep Chelsea safe (and fat); I have a critter tote that I put my rats into upon purchase right now that's lined with aspen chunks. It makes a nice rustling noise whenever the rat moves around. I put the tote close to where I keep Chelsea (right now this is next to her tank, but soon I'll end up just putting it on the table next to the rack. She usually hangs out in her hide in a ball, but after about five minutes of listening to the rat rustling around she's uncoiled and coming out of her hide; very obviously looking for her food. Once I can see she's in feed mode, it's drop and go; the rat hits bedding, Chelsea hits rat, end of story (no feed response? no rat). She gets fed once a week on the same day every week, and she starts to get antsy the day before feeding. You should be able to see pretty clearly if your girl isn't interested in eating, but if she fakes you out and decides she isn't all that hungry after all (This has only happened to me with my F/T eaters, but I suppose anything is possible) you can always put the rat back in the tote and try again later. I'm sure you already know, but if you don't have a tote don't leave the rat in the cardboard carrier most places give you. Rats, mice, and any other rodents get bored in these and can easily eat their way out.

Well she was in shed last week, and I don't offer food right before shed. She shed perfectly yesterday and I tried offering F/T again today, but she did not even notice it. With live she had always had the greatest feeding response, however, right now I am not able to get her a live one, and I think I'll way 5 more days before next feeding cause I don't want to put a lot of stress on her.
Anyway, I am still worried about her. She will be year old in two weeks, and only weighs around 340 grams. I think this is very little, since my 1,5 year old male is over 800 grams now. What do you think, should I try and feed her more and more even if she refuses?

[calmolly1]

My BP is the same. She takes multiple live mice or one baby rat. I try FT every so often and she picks it up and puts it in her water bowl...I'm going to try live stunned rat next. I'm just so worried about injury


Molly & Steve
0.1 Normal BP. PRECIOUCESS
0.1 Normal Columbian BCI. LUNA

[coldbloodaddict]

She won't get big if she's not eating regularly.

Feed her live and stop messing with thawed.


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[Masonic]

I heard of some people feed then then right after she puts that down offer a f/t rat.