Feeding Question

[ScottS]

I've never been able to get my year old female pied (about 700 gms) to eat frozen/thawed. She has been on live rats, but I've lost my source and can't find any less than 100 miles away. I can get mice and she will certainly take them. My question is how can I feed mice to get an equivalent caloric intake. Three or so mice depending on size should do it. Can I feed them consecutively or every couple of days? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Eric Alan]

You can feed them consecutively if she'll take them that way. You'll just end up feeding a good number of mice during each feeding to equal what she would've gotten from an appropriately sized rat. It's better than her not eating at all though!

[Slither Seeker]

I've found when I feed frozen consecutively (warmed of course) and the food item is under sized (I ended up with too many of the wrong size) and I need to feed multiple, that once they are in swallowing mode, I can gently tuck the next one in their mouth as they open up, toward the end of the first and they will just keep going. that's with my 4 month old babies so I can't speak for adults, but it's working so far.

[ScottS]

I've found when I feed frozen consecutively (warmed of course) and the food item is under sized (I ended up with too many of the wrong size) and I need to feed multiple, that once they are in swallowing mode, I can gently tuck the next one in their mouth as they open up, toward the end of the first and they will just keep going. that's with my 4 month old babies so I can't speak for adults, but it's working so far.

What a great idea, I love it. I can start her with a live mouse and follow with frozen/thawed. I hope it works!

[ScottS]

Slither Seeker - Your technique worked perfectly. I gave her a live mouse, which she nailed immediately, and when the rear legs were just disappearing into her mouth, I stuck the nose of a F/T mouse in there. It went down smoothly. This is a valuable technique. Next time I'll piggy back a F/T rat onto the live mouse and can see no reason why that shouldn't work as well.