Picky eater thoughts

[AutumnVanilla]

For starters, I think El-Ziggy’s method of “The Hunger ALWAYS Wins Method” will work here, but I am just curious if anyone else has experienced a similar issue regarding the type of F/T feeder.


When we got our girl BP in July, she was only 75g and the previous owner had to re-home her b/c he had brought her home without asking his parents and they said no, so in the month he had her, she was only fed once. To get her up to size, we fed her live rat fuzzy’s or small mice (depending on what was available). She is now 165g and on live rat pups. We are trying to get her on F/T rat pups, but she isn’t interested. I prepare them the same way I do for our male BP who is on F/T rats.


I keep a log of all their feeds, and I have noticed that the only F/T food she has ever accepted is 4 F/T large/adult mice out of 21 feeds (only bought the mice because they were out of rats at the time). The last 4 weekly feedings have only been live rat pups, hoping that after so many she will get used to rats and eventually take the F/T. She’s a good size (more toward the slim side of Ideal), but not quite filled out enough that we are willing to wait her out for 2+ weeks between feedings. We want to her to be switched to F/T before we must go up in feeder size.


Right now, I think our plan is to get her size up leaning toward “overweight” from Ideal with the live pups, then only offer her F/T pups till she realizes that is as good as she gets. I thought about feeding her only F/T mice until she was used to those then switching to F/T rats, but I don’t want to continue feeding her mice.

[Snow Balls]

I keep a log of all their feeds, and I have noticed that the only F/T food she has ever accepted is 4 F/T large/adult mice out of 21 feeds (only bought the mice because they were out of rats at the time). The last 4 weekly feedings have only been live rat pups, hoping that after so many she will get used to rats and eventually take the F/T.

If you had her taking FT why did you switch back to live? How are you preparing the FT? Properly scenting goes a long way with feeding FT


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[AutumnVanilla]

If you had her taking FT why did you switch back to live? How are you preparing the FT? Properly scenting goes a long way with feeding FT

We just noticed this was happening when I updated her notebook with her shed last week. We buy the f/t rats singly (or similar sized mice, depending on availability) and we try to offer them, and she took some but not all – we just noticed the pattern that it was only the f/t mice (not consecutive feedings) she was accepting. We try to feed her once a week, but if she refused the f/t we would wait 3 days and try again. If she refused that one, then just get her a live one so she would eat to keep her weight right.


Never tried “scenting”, I am not even sure how to go about that, but definitely willing to give it a go! Once we can get her on f/t rats, I will start buying in bulk.

[Snow Balls]

We just noticed this was happening when I updated her notebook with her shed last week. We buy the f/t rats singly (or similar sized mice, depending on availability) and we try to offer them, and she took some but not all – we just noticed the pattern that it was only the f/t mice (not consecutive feedings) she was accepting. We try to feed her once a week, but if she refused the f/t we would wait 3 days and try again. If she refused that one, then just get her a live one so she would eat to keep her weight right.


Never tried “scenting”, I am not even sure how to go about that, but definitely willing to give it a go! Once we can get her on f/t rats, I will start buying in bulk.

You’re feeding to frequently, if she refuses a FT wait a week and try again. It’s also a good idea to buy FT in bulk that way it’s cheaper and you never run out of feeders. A lot of people use different methods to scent, some a hair dryer and blow the scent of the feeder into the cage. I go about it by leaving my feeders to thaw right outside the tubs, that way my whole snake room smells like rats. It gets them curious and into feeding mode


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[AutumnVanilla]

You’re feeding to frequently, if she refuses a FT wait a week and try again. It’s also a good idea to buy FT in bulk that way it’s cheaper and you never run out of feeders. A lot of people use different methods to scent, some a hair dryer and blow the scent of the feeder into the cage. I go about it by leaving my feeders to thaw right outside the tubs, that way my whole snake room smells like rats. It gets them curious and into feeding mode

Thanks! We will try that, and waiting longer. She was small to start out with and we have managed to pork her up some, so we didn't want her weight to get too low. Still newbie BP parents

[Snow Balls]

Thanks! We will try that, and waiting longer. She was small to start out with and we have managed to pork her up some, so we didn't want her weight to get too low. Still newbie BP parents

Another thing you could try is going to your local reptile shop and getting them to put some mouse bedding in a bag for you and thawing your FT rat in that bag. That way it scents the rat like a mouse and it will make your BP think its going after a mouse. Doing that a few times might do the trick as well

[Bogertophis]

I agree with the above suggestions. Also, you could try chain*-feeding- but some BPs can be difficult to do this with, unless you're stealthy. (*No, don't make her eat chains!)

What I mean is, get 2 rodents on the small side so taken together they'd equal one decent meal for her. First, offer what the snake prefers, & then before they finish swallowing it- BEFORE they close their mouth for the last time- you must be sitting right there with the f/t prey on feeding tongs, & gently guide it in, RIGHT behind the one she's swallowing, nose to tail, so they're taken as one. If you can manage to do this without the snake realizing & balking, it seems to help them learn to accept the new flavor. But you do need to be stealthy. I'd try the "scenting with used bedding" first, it's much easier. But if you get really desperate, buy some dissolving sutures (or borrow a few strands from someone with long hair to sew with) & sew them together.

[Caitlin]

Let me know if I am misunderstanding here - but if I am reading your posts correctly it sounds like your snake will eat F/T mice. If that's the case, why the emphasis on feeding rats? Why not feed mice? There's no significant nutritional difference between mice and rats - she's just a baby; various ages of mice will be a perfectly appropriate size for her for a very long time. As a side note, I have an adult Jungle Carpet Python who just does not like rats at all - he loves his mice, and continues to do very well on them.

Thank you for being open to the feedback that you are trying to feed too frequently! Waiting a week between offering meals will be better, as with just a couple of days between feeding attempts you risk stressing her and getting her into a cycle of refusing meals.

[AutumnVanilla]

We read that rats were better and as she got bigger she would out grow mice, so thought it would be best to try to make the switch early. Our other BP has always been on F/T rats. We are going to try the scenting and spacing out attempts. If it is better to just stick to the F/T mice (since she does eat those) instead of sticking with rats till we can get her switched to the F/T rats we can try that too.

Just a thought, maybe we should get her F/T adult mice and just store them with Jasper's frozen rats, maybe that might work to help her switch?

[Bogertophis]

Good suggestions ^ ^ ^! She's still young anyway, so you can always try rats again later- it's not a critical issue right now. Eating regularly with good growth is far more important for the moment. BTW, ALL of my "rat snakes" eat nothing but mice now, as I quit breeding rats some years ago, & the largest ones are about 7'. They are fed one or 2 mice, depending on season etc.

RE your latest post above, they won't likely transfer much scent in the freezer- it takes thawing for that.