Another Feeding Thread

So both my albino and my spider girls are at that lovely time where they decide to stop eating.

With the albino I'm not worried. Honestly she seems like she might even be ovulating, but she's a bit too small for breeding yet. She just hangs out on her heat tape and seems fine.

With the spider, I am concerned. She is constantly roaming around, like she's hunting for prey. She's always been a finicky eater. I got her to break a month long fast about two weeks ago by offering mice.

Since then, she has consistently refused food. She has only ever eaten live, but she will not touch anything. Not mice, not rats. I've tried different sizes, different times of day, different colors and genders.

She seems intimidated by appropriately sized rats (small/medium). She seems unable to keep up with how quickly the mice move.

I went so far as to put a single live rat pink in with her today. She was very interested in it, smelled around it and started moving more quickly. She rested her nose against it, and then decided she was done and went back to her hide.

I figured it was worth a shot to see if anyone had suggestions. Otherwise I am just gonna wait her out, assuming she doesn't start losing weight.

Wait her out. It sounds like she has some decent size on her, so she can handle it. Just monitor her weight and offer every week to two weeks (I start skipping a week when it's this time of year so I don't waste rats). She'll "keep up" with that rat or mouse as soon as she wants it enough. ;)

My BP did the same thing on his last feed. I offered a live small rat and he was interested from what it looked like (roaming about), but only nudged his nose against it and moved away.

Have you adjusted anything in their enclosures at all (added a new hide or substrate?), or has the temperature fluctuated at any point? Double check temps to make sure they're at the right settings.

I recently added a new climbing branch into mine two days before I decided to feed him, so I figured out that might have been the case for him and he was still in the process of getting used to new things in his enclosure.

Some of mine are just coming off of a fast. What seems to get mine back on feed quicker is if I offer them live (Marilyn, shown here, is normally a hog on f/t) and very small meals. Marilyn is currently eating live peach fuzzy rats. She ate 5 of these today, which aren't much of a meal but it's what she would accept and it's a start. Marilyn, btw, is over 1500gms. Weird, but sometimes giving them baby food works.

Dorothy the pied, also recently fasting, just took a couple of not quite weaned rats. She did a pass on the fuzzy rats. My snakes are all different.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...abyfood001.jpg

If is a huge deal for you and your not breeding (That time of year). Grab a ASF see if she takes it and offer her something smaller then normal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by meowmeowkazoo

So both my albino and my spider girls are at that lovely time where they decide to stop eating.

With the albino I'm not worried. Honestly she seems like she might even be ovulating, but she's a bit too small for breeding yet. She just hangs out on her heat tape and seems fine.

With the spider, I am concerned. She is constantly roaming around, like she's hunting for prey. She's always been a finicky eater. I got her to break a month long fast about two weeks ago by offering mice.

Since then, she has consistently refused food. She has only ever eaten live, but she will not touch anything. Not mice, not rats. I've tried different sizes, different times of day, different colors and genders.

She seems intimidated by appropriately sized rats (small/medium). She seems unable to keep up with how quickly the mice move.

I went so far as to put a single live rat pink in with her today. She was very interested in it, smelled around it and started moving more quickly. She rested her nose against it, and then decided she was done and went back to her hide.

I figured it was worth a shot to see if anyone had suggestions. Otherwise I am just gonna wait her out, assuming she doesn't start losing weight.

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Leah hadn't eaten for a month so I threw a male in with her for an hour as somebody here suggested.

The very next day, she's hitting her thawed rats so hard they explode.

I think she forgot she was a girl.

:)