Feeding question

I got 4 snacks at the moment 2 in a rack and 2 in tanks. All four of them the female pin, male spider, male pied, and female het pied have taken rats in the past.

I fed the female het pied rats from petco and she took them perfectly for 2 weeks. Now when I offer the ones I got from rodent pro she doesnt want anything to do with rats. But she will take adult large mice. Is there any reason they would switch like this? I know its a little colder now then it was 2 weeks ago and after I get paid tomorrow am gonna order a ranco and a heater for them.

The weird thing is the pied male will eat rats all day she did before too but now quit.

Hey there,

They shouldn't be switching off of rats if they have been taking them regularly. Some BP's will skip meals every now and than and its not a big deal when they do. I wouldn't offer them anything other than the rats. If they don't eat for about a month than you can try other options. I can't think of any reason why there would be a difference in rats from other companies unless the original source you were getting your rats from where housed in the same area as mice or ASF in which case they may have smelt like another species.

You mentioned that you will be buying them a heater.. what source of heat are you using for them now and what do your temps look like?

How old is your female pied? Some female BP's will go off feed during the breading months. OCT, NOV, DEC, JAN - and this is normal. Keep offering rats, and think about other options if you don't get a response from her in a couple of months.

I've heard of adult BP's going off feed for almost a year.. sometimes they just do it.

My male BP Charlie absolutely will not eat rats from PetCo, only from a small pet store we have here in Oshkosh. My girl Lucy goes on a binge before breeding season and then tends to slow down, even though she's never been bred.

I'd love to see pics of your snakes!

hmm considering that other people are experiencing a difference in feeding responses based on the source of the rodents makes me curious. Not trying to hijack the thread by any means but maybe there's something to this. I wonder if anyone knows the answer.

Cheers.

I'm so curious to this too. I wonder if they smell different? The small pet store keeps the rats all together in a cage (this one will not eat f/t if his life depended on it) and PetCo keeps them with just one or two.