First time live feeding

Just a question for the BP.net hive mind ...

My wife's banana, Foster, has refused to eat since we brought him home at the start of September. He's about a year old, 340g, and we're housing him in the same tank/setup Manasa had before she outgrew it.

The breeder said he was feeding on adult mice, but we have also tried rat pups (same size, and defrosted with mice for the other snakes), and hopper mice, all on a weekly basis. We have also tried feeding in his tank and in a tub. He almost seems slightly afraid of the mice sometimes, though whenever we have him out he is completely chill and barely head-shy at all. We asked the breeder this past week if Foster had been a problem feeder, but apparently he was eating just fine on F/T and live adult mice. Therefore, we are going to try a live hopper (so it doesn't go to waste if Foster refuses it).


Now that the preamble is out of the way, is there anything I should know or that you would recommend about live-feeding? I know not to leave him alone with the mouse under any circumstances, and we plan to feed him in his tank.

Thanks in advance! :snake:

I would suggest feeding rats. If the snake is 340 grams then a hopper mouse is too small.

Was the snake in a tub set up before? He might not like the openess of a glass tank set up even if he has a hide.

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Originally Posted by Gerardo

I would suggest feeding rats. If the snake is 340 grams then a hopper mouse is too small.

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Decided to go with a hopper at first because that way I can feed it to my carpet instead if Foster doesn't take it. Manasa's the only one large enough to take anything bigger than a hopper right now, and I've still got another 2 months in QT for Foster and Akurra.

If he takes it, I'll try again with an adult mouse (can't get live rats in Alberta) next week , and then (from there) try to get him back onto F/T. I just don't want to have to kill an animal that I didn't need to.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by piedlover79

Was the snake in a tub set up before? He might not like the openess of a glass tank set up even if he has a hide.

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Didn't think to ask that. I suspect he was probably in a tub setup before, though he is often out and exploring his tank.

Manasa wasn't even remotely this chill, but thanks for the idea, I'll have to ask the breeder.

If it's only been since September then I would wait another feeding interval


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I would actually have a frozen thawed warmed up and ready to go when you feed your live mouse. If he takes the live mouse I would follow up in about five minutes with a frozen thawed, they almost always will eat a FT after a live.

Success! Took him a little bit longer than I expected, but he nailed the hopper :bow:

Wifey decided she doesn't want to push her luck now that we've (theoretically) got him eating, so we're gonna go with the idea of having a F/T ready next week alongside either an adult or another hopper :)

Glad he ate!