Yay my normal finally took at rat

So after refusing food for 3 week he finally took a rat. Now only if my spider girl would follow the lead. Oh and i finally witnessed my columbian rainbow boa eating after a month of me having him. He always eats just never when im watching. Also my cbb male took his first hopper wensday so its been a pretty good week with the exception of me finding my cbb female who escaped dead. Also picked up a pair of ybs

They're sod's for eating sometimes aren't they! Congrats on the normal taking though, always a great feeling of relief :)

Yeah he/she was worrying me he/she always ate really good then for 3 weeks he/she refused food. Then today it was a huge relief when he struck at and ate the rat.

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Just saw your post. Congrats. Gotta be a relief.

Can you tell me how you went about getting your BP to eat rats? I have a pastel who is refusing rats. Seems mostly uninterested (will pose as if going to strike, smell the rat up and down, and then leave it) whereas I barely lower a mouse into the feeding pen and she strikes and constricts.

A few details:
I've had her since Oct 11
she's eating F/T mice
weighed 75 grams on arrival
up to 102 grams now

I also have a Mystic Potion about the same age who I'm having to assist feed. She wouldn't take rats or mice. Breeder was feeding her live rats, but I can't get any near my home.

Thanks for any help!

Fortunatly when i got him/her it was already eating rats so i didnt have to worry about switching it to rats. For me its easier to get mice in all there stages. The pet store i go to only sells small,med,large, and extra large rats so anything under a small rat i cant get locally. Luckily for me the 2 that should be eating rats where already eating them when i got them. You can always try scenting the rat with a mouse or mouse bedding and after a few feedings they should take rats without scenting.

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Both my ball pythons switched to rats and easily. My ghost with no problems..my other guy didn't a few times,would only take mice and last week he took his first rat pup after looking at it for damn near 20 mins...my ghost is a pig,dead alive rat mouse he don't care.

Can see how the tittle can be confusing it always ate rats it just hasnt eaten for 3 weeks was pretty excited when I wrote this. A better tittle would have been my normal bp is back on feed

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Thanks for the reply. A friend suggested buying a hamster and rubbing the rat on the hamster. I've tried rubbing the F/T rat on a mouse, but he said he's had luck in the past with the hamster method.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fleapower

Just saw your post. Congrats. Gotta be a relief.

Can you tell me how you went about getting your BP to eat rats? I have a pastel who is refusing rats. Seems mostly uninterested (will pose as if going to strike, smell the rat up and down, and then leave it) whereas I barely lower a mouse into the feeding pen and she strikes and constricts.

A few details:
I've had her since Oct 11
she's eating F/T mice
weighed 75 grams on arrival
up to 102 grams now

I also have a Mystic Potion about the same age who I'm having to assist feed. She wouldn't take rats or mice. Breeder was feeding her live rats, but I can't get any near my home.

Thanks for any help!

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Hey! I thought I'd throw in some advice for you here, again my pastel is a fussy eater but she will eat rats (when she pleases, only taken 3 out of 7 feeds with me).

- scent the rat with a mouse (rub the mouse on the rat)
- scent the rat with mouse bedding
- brain the rat (tooth pick through the skull)
- you could breed your own feeder rats and attempt to feed live (buy two rats and breed them, they do breed quite often though and not sure how many BP's you have or if it is only the two mentioned)
- Ask if anyone on the forum lives near you and feeds live?
- Try to get the rat to 38 degrees Celsius (I was told by a good rep shop here that I might not have been heating the prey enough and rats are around that temp live.
- Separate feeding enclosure something smaller with the snake and the rat and leave overnight if they don't take? (Sometimes this is the only way in which to feed something fussy, I feed in my enclosures myself and 5 out of 6 feed and handle brilliantly)
- Try to kick start feeding by using a different prey type (I'm going to try a frozen multimammate on my pastel for one feed only to see if it kicks her into feeding for me)

These are some things I have read on as sometimes working. With one which is assist feeding you have to persevere I'm afraid, I have heard of someone who had to assist feed for quite a long time until the BP would eat by itself :(

I may have missed some things out but these are the most commonly heard routes I know, more experienced people may be able to fill in any gaps :)

Thanks. I haven't tried a few of those. I'll give them a shot.

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