Not eating Rats

Oops!....

You feed the snake what it will eat. If it wants to go back to mice, then feed it mice. If it wants rat weanlings, then feed it that. If you're worried about saving a half a dollar per meal, you're probably in the wrong hobby/side business. I learned LONG ago, that if a snake wants a cheesburger, you feed him a cheesburger, if he wants prime rib, feed him prime rib. Don't try and figure out why a snake does what it does.

I'm not trying to be mean here, but your snake will have a favorite food of the month. Just be glad you can find out what that is and keep them feeding.

Good luck!
Jim Smith

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

You feed the snake what it will eat. If it wants to go back to mice, then feed it mice. If it wants rat weanlings, then feed it that. I learned LONG ago, that if a snake wants a cheesburger, you feed him a cheesburger, if he wants prime rib, feed him prime rib.

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That is my philosophy. Give the snake what it wants, not what you think it wants or what you want to give it. 50 cents a feeding comes out to what? $26 a year? That's a pretty trivial amount, IMO.

Sometimes I'm amazed when I figure out something about my snake. When I got my little boa, he never used his hide. But he would spend a lot of time in the corner directly behind the hide. I figured, okay, my boa is one of those odd ones that has no need for hides. Until one day I was cleaning his cage and on a whim, flipped his hide around so the entrance faced that corner. The next day, he was in the hide. I'm like duh.

And my corns, I took their hides out cause they'd rather burrow under the layers of paper. If that's what makes them happy, that's fine with me.

But food. Food's another story. I feed them what they want to eat. I'd rather have them eating than constantly futzing and worrying about it.

Do what works. Works for me, works for my snakes.

Similar to the idea of placing mouse bedding in the cage/tub...the technique I've used with success is this...

Take out a rat, place in in a tupperware filled with quite a bit of dirty mouse bedding (the dirtier the better!). Cover the rat in it, flip the container a couple times to make sure the rat is covered in the 'dust' of the mouse bedding. I usually leave them in the mouse bedding for 10-15 minutes just to make sure they smell more like a mouse and less like a rat. I then offer the prey with hemostats to ensure the scent doesn't get rubbed off or whatever.

I wouldn't do this though, unless the snake has a very good feeding response with the mice. If its somewhat of a problem feeder, stick with what it likes until that feeding response gets fully geared up.

Good luck.