New baby, first feed! :)

[Yzmasmom]

So proud!!! We got Willow on October 14th and the breeder warned she was raised on live, but in her 2.5 months of life, has taken 3 f/t meals.
We left her alone until tonight (Sunday,) and then made sure the rat pup was heated up pretty hot (not cooked obviously,) and then I did the Zombie Rat Dance in the mouth of her hut. A few tense moments went by and I thought she was going to refuse, but then we saw a little white snoot come to the front of the hut and SNATCH! The rat pup was wrapped up! She downed it very quickly and now there is a tiny baby with a fat bump in her belly. Poor Yzma is in the same room and in shed. She smelled the rat and came out looking for food. I told her to go back to bed until she's done shedding, then she will have a nice rat waiting for her.
So happy that we can start to get her used to being handled in 48 hours! If she's happy enough to eat (and eat a f/t over a live,) then I think she will be ok to handle for a few minutes each day!
We defrosted the rat in the fridge over night, then put it in a baggie, in a tub of hot water and changed the water out once. After a few minutes, we put the pup under her heat lamp to help her get the smell, and finally blasted the head with a blow dryer. It was one hot little body. It felt like a baby who would have been in the middle of a super warm ratty pile. It's nose bled a bit too, which I'm sure helped.

[Reinz]

Congrats on the feed!

Those are the main keys to switching, heat and a long time between that feed for the first frozen.

Good job!

[Neal]

Glad she ate f/t for you, now hopefully she'll fully convert for good.

[Yzmasmom]

Thanks!!! I hope so too!! I'm not sure if she refuses the next if I try again in a week or go live.... I hope she converts. She was scoping out my hand today while I was standing her tree back up and changing her water. Would have tagged me I think. Feeding response.

[cletus]

Great to hear that she ate! I got lucky too. Keeping my fingers crossed. I'm getting ready to switch to rat pups

[Ptshay]

I just thaw with medium temp running water for 30-45 min, and hit em with the hair dryer for like 3 min. I get the body temp to about 96 degrees on the head side. And she always goes. I've fed broomhilda about 3 times and she was on live before too. Just another way to look at it. (Oh, the reason for the comment- I use one of those infrared temp guns, I heard too hot is bad for the internals of the snake).

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[Nellasaur]

Congrats on the feed!! Hopefully she keeps eating for you with no problem!!

Poor Yzma is in the same room and in shed. She smelled the rat and came out looking for food. I told her to go back to bed until she's done shedding, then she will have a nice rat waiting for her.

If you don't mind me asking, why wait until she's done shedding to feed? If she was hungry enough to come out and look? Not trying to criticize, just curious! I always offer to my guy on feeding day, even if he's blue, and he usually takes it.