food for thought

ive been wondering .. do u think that bp's will not eat if they feel or maybe sent something is wrong with a rat ? f/t usually alive is never a issue .. but heres my thoughts and would like to see what everyone thinks ..

now ive been buying my rats from the only place around witch is petco .. at 1st i was buying just medium for my big girl .. all my otheres were growing the same rate so i jumped online and ordered .. well recently i have been having problems with my snakes not eating .. and its not there huts or temp or anything like that ive been keeping snakes long enought to all about all that ..

anyways now my big girl has been real picky as of lately and i was thinking it was just her and it might be and maybe im over thinking this ..but i get these rats home and one they look horrible .. idk y there eyes are white out im thinking they rolled in the back of there head .. but other places ive got f/t from never seen this .. 2 sometimes theres this horrible stink to them and its not all of them but i get once in awhile and ive noticed when i get these rats she will not eat them .. and i try a couple times with the same rat then just go buy a new one and if the rat dont smell she will take it without a issue ..

ok to keep me thinking about this and y i started to think this way and maybe my big female is not turning into a picky eater is cause i have another girl and boy that just moved up in size to small rats .. instead of ordering them i just went to petco .. now i tryed to feed my girl she struck wrapped it up good deal like 30 min later i went to see how she did with it and it was just sitting in her hut and her on the other side on ( by the way this rat had that same nasty smell) .. smh .. she never refuses a meal and she isnt even 1 yet ( ive heard that some bp's around a year will go feed for a bit ) only time she will not eat and do this is while she is shed witch she was not .. so i waited 2 days and since the pack of rats was a 3 pack i said let me grab another one and try that .. this one had no smell she took it like a champ coiled and gone in 20 mins not even ..

ok on to my boy this guy will eat anything anytime he dont care what it is .. that same small rat i tryed to feed my girl that she coiled but didnt eat i said let me feed this to him and see what happens .. so him like the champ he his came half way out his hut just to coil it up so i was like ok maybe she wasnt hungry that day .. so im like cool leave the room go about my bizz come back and check to make sure everything is good .. and sure enough that same dam rat is in his tub not eaten .. wtf ..

i tried again tonight with the 3rd rat out that pack and she refused again wouldnt even coil up .. and my big girl refused again all with the same nasty smell to them .. rats i ordered on like by bulk have sat in my freezer for months n i never smell this nasty smell so idk what it is .. but im getting mad wasting my money .. i left both the rats in with both the girls over night to see if they eat but im thinking there not i do kinda know my snakes but they bp's do change up out of nowhere .. so if that small one doesnt get eaten im gonna wait a couple of days and try back to male and see if he refuses .. hes in shed right now so he should eat anything when hes out .. so will what happens ..

let me know what u guy/girls think or if u have had the same thing happen just trying to figure out whats going on ..

PEACE ....

I think it may just be more of a different smell.

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Originally Posted by Neal

I think it may just be more of a different smell.

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This probably does not apply to to OP, but along the lines of smell and "duh". This may help someone new.

I have a dog and a cat, thus I always wash my hands well before feeding. I love them too, I pet throughout the day.

I feed live, so tongs don't work on a large struggling rat. If my snake smells the dog or cat on me, he may get confused either strike at me or not strike at all.

For frozen, why risk transferring smells to that food as well?

I believe hand washing IS important with these finicky eaters.

Same goes before I handle the snake.

im not talking about a different smell i.e cat ,dog etc .. im talking about the rat smells like its rotted or something .. i dont know how they live in the wild and bp's adapted a different life since they became so big in captive .. but i wouldnt expect a bp to roll up to a dead rotted animal in the wild and strike coil and eat it ..

but what do i know ..

anyways i left both in the there huts all night got home in the morning and my little girl ate .. my big girl didnt so idk what to do i might switch over to live with her if this starts to become a problem .. will see

I believe animals have a sense about things like this. I'm not saying that I know where to draw the line between a snake being able to tell a meal offered to it is toxic and a snake turning picky, but if you describe the smell as 'rotten' then I'd say your level of surprise should be pretty low. Maybe if you were unable to discern a difference between the rats this would be more perplexing. You said that if you get a new rat and it doesn't smell she will take it without an issue- I think that's the answer to your question. I have read on this site that frozen rodents can go bad after months in the freezer but I don't know how many months that takes or at what temperature they were frozen or if that could even apply to your situation.

I have no personal experience with this though. The only time I've seen my snake not eat is when it was going into shed and I brought the rat home not knowing it or during the winter sometimes when I know my husbandry has been a little wacky.