Another Feeding Question

[Kizerk]

i have 3 bps. 1 is around 2-3 months, and the other two are younger. they're all about 1 ft to 1 and inches long

two of them refused ft. one has refused twice, (i tried feeding a week after) and the other refused last week's feeding. i'm pretty sure temps/humiditiy isn't hte problem cos the 3rd bp is housed the same way, and eats like a pig.

i'm thinkin about switching to live. the pet store ran out of pinkies/fuzzies both mice and rats, and the idiotic store person gave me some hamster fuzzies, being the desperate person that i am, i bought it. the snaks of course refused after i scented it with a thawed mouse pinky. i took them out, after reading a thread regarding hamster feeding

the two snakes seem pretty skinny, so should i just buy some live petco mice? and get the smallest ones? or wait till next tuesday , when the privately owned petstore stocks up on pinkies/fuzzies

[tigerlily]

As I don't feel qualified to answer this question, I'm going to point you to some information that might help. I would still double and triple check your temps, digitally, just in case. (don't use those dials and strips)

[snake_lady83]

Just out of curiousity, are each of your snakes in their own tub/tank? You didn't really specify. If any of them are housed together that will stress them out. They can also get stressed easily if they don't have identical hides (the proper size) on both sides of the enclosure. Generally speaking if your snake(s) are refusing to eat it is usually directly tied into your husbandry (temps, humidity enclosure setup). If your snakes have had enough space and time to get settled in I would try live prey. As long as you keep an eye on things your snakes shouldn't be at risk of getting hurt. As far as which pet store to get the "food" from...that's totaly up to you. Take a good look and see if the mice/rats seem clean and well fed. If they seem to be well taken care of you should be fine.

[Kizerk]

they are all housed separately with the same hides, thermostats, thermometers/humidity gauges (accurite)

i have one bp that has ate consecutively 3 times, one that ate 2 consecutively then refused last week, and one that has only ate once , all f/t (brained)

i'm just wondering if mice (at petco) were to big for them or not, they seem to be hoppers+.

[Sadie]

Like Hannah said, check the husbandry first. Don't stress if they miss a couple meals, try not to resort to live because they may not go back to f/t. And hoppers are fine, they can take hoppers right out of the egg. My 3 month girl has taken 2 rat pups in one meal, she'd easily take a small adult mouse. They can eat way bigger prey items than you'd think to look at them. Under that fuzz, mice aren't as big as they seem.

[TheAudOne]

Are any of them striking at the prey? We feed live, but I noticed that ours hide when there not hungry and strike at it when they want it but its to big...once I get a smaller item in the tub they eat it with out question.

[frankykeno]

First thing off the top of my head. Where did you get this trio of young BP's - breeder or pet store? If from a breeder, have you contacted them for advice and information about previous successful feeding methods used? If from a pet store, you've likely got the "they are EXCELLENT feeders, yes they are" sales line. When you purchased them what information were you given about what they ate (rats or mice), size of prey and method of feeding (f/t, p/k or live)? Whatever feeding program you want to do, now is not the time in my opinion to deal with that. Go with whatever worked for each particular snake until they are eating consistently for you, then slowly you can try to switch them to whatever you prefer.

Just as an example, we have an 06 female BP I did buy from a petstore. We raise our own rats...she apparently hates rats LOL. So for now we try every other feeding to introduce a mouse scented rat pup. She at this point won't even look at it so it's replaced with her favored adult mouse (though quite honestly a white rat pup and a white adult mouse are darn near identical LOL but she knows the difference). At some point she may go over to rats but for now our focus with her is to make sure she eats even if we have to purchase or end up breeding mice. In the end though it won't matter as it's been proven over and over that rats or mice, as long as the snake eats enough of either it will grow and do just fine.

Last questions. Are you handling these three babies at all right now? Have you had fecals done to make sure they are free of internal parasites that might be affecting their feeding response? Have you double and triple checked your husbandry against our caresheet? Are they in a quiet part of your home where normal noise and movement isn't scaring and stressing them out?

[Kizerk]

well i picked out the tiniest mice from petco dropped them into the tubs and they all ate. i'm so relieved!

but later on, i happen to notice that there were like maybe 5 drops of blood on the paper towel of one of the bps. i looked at the snake, and i don't see any scratches at all.... is it possible that it came from the mouse? i've heard of f/t exploding while being constricted, but live ?

[snake_lady83]

Yes that happens to live prey sometimes when the snake constricts. It isn't something to worry about.

[Kizerk]

thanks, just making sure!