Auryn's Eating again...Sort of.

[AzureN1ght]

So, Auryn has been fasting since I moved him home from school back in mid-December. I have tried feeding him every week, and even skipped a week to see if it would make him hungry enough to strike. Nothing. I've given him a week after bringing him back to school without bugging him, his husbandry is right on (81 cool, 92 warm 55% humidity), so I was getting a little worried.

When I picked Auryn out at NERD, he was being fed live. Kara switched him to F/T before I brought him home and he's been eating F/T mice with me ever since. I tried switching to F/T rat pups during the summer and he wasn't having it. He went back to F/T mice without an issue.

So, when he decided he wasn't going to eat I was a little worried. I had to feed him live a couple times over the summer when I ran out of F/T, so when I tried yesterday to feed him again and he refused--again, I formualted a new plan. I picked up a live mouse from Petco today (they are the smallest "mice" I've ever seen ), and set it in his tub. Auryn struck and constricted almost immediately--I tried following up shortly after with a warm F/T, but he wasn't having any of it.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever had a F/T feeder abruptly refuse to eat F/T and become a live feeder? Or is this something that is a fluke and he'll go back to eating F/T? I know snakes are individual, but if someone has a similar story and resolution, I'd be interested to hear it.

If Auryn is going to only eat live, I'll need to find a source for it (I can't spend $2.50 each on half-grown mice every week). I also have about 45 F/T mice in my freezer...

[stangs13]

Sorry to hear. You might be able to talk to Kara at neerd, to see if you can buy mice from her. Maybe order enough for a month or two. You could trade her the F/T mice aswell. You could also breed your own, but if you don't plan on getting more snakes in the near future, you could be over run.(lol)Try rubbing a rat pup in mouse bedding, then offering it to him, could work. Or you could rub mouse brain/blood on the rat. Good luck with him!

[AzureN1ght]

Sorry to hear. You might be able to talk to Kara at neerd, to see if you can buy mice from her. Maybe order enough for a month or two. You could trade her the F/T mice aswell. You could also breed your own, but if you don't plan on getting more snakes in the near future, you could be over run.(lol)Try rubbing a rat pup in mouse bedding, then offering it to him, could work. Or you could rub mouse brain/blood on the rat. Good luck with him!

Just to clarify, he's been eating mice all along. It's the F/T mice he's refusing to eat now (even though he's been eating them for the last year)--and he'll eat the lives ones I'm at college, so breeding my own mice is out of the question. I suppose I could keep a small supply of live here, though I'd have to get females to minimize the smell. I'm hoping he'll get back into the F/T--otherwise I might be calling K for a visit. It's about time I go see her, anyway, and it'd give me an excellent excuse to do so.

[stangs13]

Yeah, pefect excuse to see her! I thought you wanted to switch to rats? Yup, bunches of females that will cover enough for a month or twos feeding wont require a whole lotta room. Good luck!

[AzureN1ght]

Yeah, pefect excuse to see her! I thought you wanted to switch to rats? Yup, bunches of females that will cover enough for a month or twos feeding wont require a whole lotta room. Good luck!

Auryn and I tried the switching to rats thing. I tried for a month and used every trick in the book, no dice. He's definitely a mouser, which is fine. I just wish he'd still eat F/T for me is all

[fishmommy]

it could be that he's still semi-fasting and the live really just enticed him over the edge to eat. I would imagine he would go back to F/T when he's really done with fasting and back to normal.

I am a noob though, so don't rely on my advice alone.

[AzureN1ght]

This week, I tried pre-scenting the room with a live mouse (I could tell it worked--when I peeked in on Auryn, he was perched on his hide, waiting to strike). I "marinated" the F/T mouse in some used mouse bedding, and warmed it--but when I dangled the mouse for Auryn, no dice. He just wasn't striking--he flicked his tongue at it a few times, moved around, looked at it, but didn't go for it. After trying twice (warming it in between), I gave up and popped the live mouse into his tub. He struck the live one in seconds, coiled and swallowed.

It's so frustrating! He used to eat F/T weekly without issues, had a really good feeding response, and now he's only responding that way to live. The live mice at PetCo aren't really large enough for a decent meal (and these "snacks" are $2.50 a pop!). I'm going to try F/T again next week and hope for the best... if he doesn't decide to go for it soon, I'm going to have to find a live source!

[SatanicIntention]

Sometimes after being on f/t for a long time, they get bored, understandably. Live feeding helps them get back on track again and maybe after a few good meals, he'll switch back. My first snake, Amani, started out on f/t rats. At around 7-800g, she just got bored and stopped eating them, for months.. She's been on live mice now ever since then(she's an 04 and is 2000g) and is doing great. She's actually about to ovulate soon too

[fishmommy]

I don't know if you saw my other post but my boy also went off feed recently and I ended up leaving a thawed rat in the tub with him after lights-out and he ate it within a couple of hours. I never thought he'd go for that but he did.

I'd try the overnight dead mouse buffet and see if he decides that F/T is ok with the right ambience

[AzureN1ght]

I don't know if you saw my other post but my boy also went off feed recently and I ended up leaving a thawed rat in the tub with him after lights-out and he ate it within a couple of hours. I never thought he'd go for that but he did.

I'd try the overnight dead mouse buffet and see if he decides that F/T is ok with the right ambience

I tried that, too--twice! I ended up with a mildly smelly mouse in the morning in the tub, and not a fed snake, unfortunately.