Please give me some suggestions...

[Mitch21]

I 've got a 7 week old female pastel that's just the pickiest eater. When I got her she was only 3 1/2 weeks old. I got her from a breeder on kingsnake and he seemed trustworthy. When I got her, she definitely seemed underweight. She was and still is a skinny little thing. I started out feeding her live hopper mice and she has a great feeding response with them. The second I drop the mouse in her tub, she's excited and ready to rumble. I have definitely had high hopes with getting her on f/t since my other BPs rock f/t pretty well.

Anyways, needless to say she would not take f/t at all. She was interested in them, probably because of their scent and I'd wiggle them a bit, but she didn't have the same killer look in her eye as she did with live. However, one thing I noticed was that I was attempting f/t with black mice and was feeding her white live mice. So I figured I would try some psychological conditioning on her and feed her a few live black mice, then switch her over to f/t black. It worked, but not that well. I usually feed my f/t around 8 or 9pm at night. So I tried with her and no luck. Nothing at all. I fed my other boys that they gobbled their meals up. I'm in college so I'm usually up pretty late and figured that I would make another attempt at 2am with the same mouse. She was in her hide and I dangled it in front of the entrance and she hit it immediately! 5 days pass and I try the same thing again. Tried the feeding at 8-9pm and nothing happened. Made a second attempt at 1:30am and she nailed it. So this is where my problem begins...

The last two times, I've tried feeding early. No response. Then I try late at night like always and still nothing! She's a baby. I'm feeding small adult mice. And she looks skinny so she should be hungry. But she's just not enjoying the f/t experience...More so than anything, she's just been afraid of the last two f/t mice I've offered. But they're from the same bag as the first two that she actually took! What is her deal???

What do you think I should do? I bought a TON of f/t mice once she took 2 mice consistently but now she's putting up a fight. Plus not to mention adult mice by me are way too much money for me so I don't really want to consider switching over. But do you have any thoughts as to a solution? Any advice? Anything at all????? I LOVE my BPs but she's just really eating at my patience...

Thanks!
Mitch

[SecurityStacey]

Well, from what I've heard on here you shouldn't even try to move to f/t until 4 or 5 meals... I mean.. you've only had her for 3 and a half weeks... I'd keep feeding her live for a couple more feedings and then try the f/t again... I mean you mentioned money and everything but I think the first concern would be getting her eating and once that is stable go from there.

[dr del]

Hi,

Can you tell us how you prepare the F/T and how you offer both it and the live?

I'm wondering if the first offering that she refuses is letting her know food is in the offing - this is the reason we prescent and doing that might make a difference if you are not currently doing it.

Second idea is maybe you are not getting the F/T hot enough?

Try hitting the head and body of it with a hairdrier for a bit just befpore offering it.

It might also depend on how you present it - do not bring it so close to her that it can make her feel defensive. Keep a bit of distance and if she is hungry she will come to it (within reason ).

They can be a little less excited by F/T on occasion but she has eaten it twice so she should hopefully be ok with a few tweaks to get it exactly to her demands (they are royal pythons after all ).


dr del

[Mitch21]

I didn't have any methodology when I gave her the live mice. And I don't think she really needed any help. I would usually drop the mouse in at the opposite corner of her, and immediately her head would poke out of her hide and you could see her excitement rising. She'd usually hit it the second it was in range for her.

As far as my f/t with her, I usually place them in an open baggy and put it on an exposed piece of flexwatt to just gradually bring them up to temperature (which would take a few hours). That was usually my form of prescenting the area. The mouse would be outside the tub warming up and then when I knew it was good and thawed. I'd run its head under hot water while still in the baggy. I'd use my tongs and grab the mouse by his butt and dangle it about 3 inches outside of her hide. Both my other BPs have absolutely no problem with this method but she's struggling with the concept.

Any further ideas?

She's been wandering about her tub at random times the last two days. I'm guessing she's hungry and maybe searching for food??

Thanks,
Mitch

[SatanicIntention]

If you have access to live mice, then feed her that. No use in her starving herself or not eating consistently on f/t.. Feed her what she wants until she gets some size 3-400g, and THEN try to switch her. Once she gets happy and confident about eating, you can try to slowly switch her.

Also, feeding her a live mouse, then offering up a very warm, thawed mouse afterwards while she's still in feed mode is helpful.

But.. feed her live for now. It's what she wants.

[kidt89]

ive never tried this but ive heard about people who dip their frozen thawed in chicken broth to get picky eaters to eat.

[frankykeno]

I'm really sorry you got a 3 1/2 week old hatchling in the first place. Since they don't shed until 7 to 10 days after hatching and then sometimes won't eat for another few days after hatching, how many meals could that baby have ever had before it was shipped out....maybe 1 or 2 at best.

Personally I'd suggest whether it's convenient for you or not, expensive or not, you try this baby on live mice hoppers, then live small adults/weanling mice after she's taken a few hoppers. You need to get a solid feeding pattern set down and get some weight on that baby while you can and if that means live, it means live.

[starmom]

If you have access to live mice, then feed her that. No use in her starving herself or not eating consistently on f/t.. Feed her what she wants until she gets some size 3-400g, and THEN try to switch her. Once she gets happy and confident about eating, you can try to slowly switch her.

Also, feeding her a live mouse, then offering up a very warm, thawed mouse afterwards while she's still in feed mode is helpful.

But.. feed her live for now. It's what she wants.

If you follow Becky's advice, your snake will be eating live mice consistently until she is up to weight and then will (hopefully) make the switch to a more convenient f/t.

Becky helped me with a female hypo who preferred to starve herself to the point of near emaciation than eat frozen thawed. I have been giving her live mice and she is doing really really well!! I buy several at a time and feed one and then raise the rest up so that the snake gets a nice chubby female mouse. If you get a few to raise up, make sure they are females-- jeez, the males stink to high heaven!!!

Good luck!! Keep us updated as to your snake's progress!! Take care.

[Mitch21]

Thanks for all the advice everyone!!

Becky, what you said really made sense to me. The next day I went out and bought myself an adult mouse and she nailed it. She's got a great feeding response with live so I suppose I'll just stay with that.

Yesterday, I decided I'm going to start breeding my own feed. I just can't justify spending 2.50 for a mouse at PetCo. After MUCH help and advice from Bruce (loftlizard), I decided that a 1.2 colony should work out just fine for me. I'm dumb and bought a starter kit that was on sale at PetCo which included everything I needed. But I basically bought the starter kit and just 3 feeder mice for now. I'm still working out all the kinks with breeding. I bought a tub, water dispenser, and wheel today at walmart and plan to have that all set up maybe today or tomorrow. And I'll probably pick up my 1.2 by Wednesday or something.

Joanna, Bruce told me to contact you about your tub setup with the screened top design(?)... I'd love to see pictures if you wouldn't mind. Also, because I am only keeping such a small colony, and I'm only trying to raise enough for this one female, does anyone have any good methods to achieve a good maintenance level of mice?

Thanks again everyone!
Mitch

[rishnack]

yeah breed em yourself i did the same thing with rats and its so much nicer to have food available then doing the all day rat hunt from store to store try prekillen em also if your worried she might get bit then there nice and fresh
and personaly i would feed her rats not mice cause when she big enough your gonna go through the same thing switching to rats
(or you might not)