1 1/2 month fast broken w/Live Rat...

[kenzie]

Thought I would share this with anyone interested because I couldn’t believe it ... We have a juvenile ball python born in October of 2005. We had successfully fed her 5 times since we owned her . Anyway, she has been on a one and a half month “fast” and I couldn’t figure out why. Every Friday my son and I would offer her the normal small f/t rat meal and every time she would just sit over it but never bite and the rat would go to waste. I thought it was because I got the rats from a different vendor and maybe they had a different smell. But that wasn’t it... Anyway, I took her to the breeder I bought her from, GREAT GUY!, and he said, “I’ll bet she wants a live rat.” I questioned him because I thought she had always been fed f/t while in his care. He confirmed that but said that every now and then they just want something that moves, like they get bored or something. So we bought a smaller than usual live small rat and went home hoping for the best. We put Linda, that’s her name, back in her cage and about 10 minutes later dropped in the rat. She “ran” out of her hide so fast to investigate as the rat hid in her other hide. She scared him out, striked and squeezed the life right out of it . I thought it would take some time but apparently that is what she wanted. I would have never guessed it!

Anyway, the breeder said to give her one or two more feedings with live rats then go back to the f/t. And every couple months change things up with a live prey item for her to have some “fun” with. Thought you may be interested in case you are experiencing the same thing.

[cassandra]

*POUNCE!*

I'm glad to hear she ate for you! =)

[xdeus]

That's great! I'm glad she was finally able to eat for you. Just one quick suggestion... when you start feeding her f/t again, get some tongs and wiggle it around a few inches in front of her instead of just dropping it in. Quite often they need that simulated "live" movement to trigger their feeding response.

[cassandra]

That's great! I'm glad she was finally able to eat for you. Just one quick suggestion... when you start feeding her f/t again, get some tongs and wiggle it around a few inches in front of her instead of just dropping it in. Quite often they need that simulated "live" movement to trigger their feeding response.

If you need help finding handy dandy tongs, I got two lovely hemostats for our girls at LLL Reptile on-line store. =)

[kenzie]

That's great! I'm glad she was finally able to eat for you. Just one quick suggestion... when you start feeding her f/t again, get some tongs and wiggle it around a few inches in front of her instead of just dropping it in. Quite often they need that simulated "live" movement to trigger their feeding response.

To be honest... I've done this with almost every meal she's had. Just for the past 1.5 months it hasn't done the trick. Oh well... Guess she's smarter than I thought and can tell the difference.