My white rat experiment

Yep! I have one like that. My male pied, Ashwin, will only take hooded rats. He won't take white rats or solidly dark rats -- they must be hoodeds. But from there, he doesn't seem to have a preference. They can have a full-body cape or just a dark head. I've joked that he likes his rats to be "pied" as well :)

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Originally Posted by Reinz

I have no problem believing these stories.

It's easy to be picky when you are well fed.

I don't really care for salmon, carrots, yams, or tea. But if I went a few days or a week without eating, I believe that I would love to consume that stuff!

My point is, if these picky snakes were on their own they would eat any rodents that come their way. That being said, there's another point as well.

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Yes. I've told this story before but it's relevant here. A pet store I was close with got tired of several customers coming in and requesting a specific color or gender rat or mouse because their snake wouldn't eat anything else. They instituted a $15 charge per rat/mouse if a specific color,type, or gender was requested for feeders. Magically these picky snakes began eating any color/gender/type offered.

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Originally Posted by LittleTreeGuy

A lot of truth to this. I remember being a kid... Didn't want to eat dinner because I didn't like what we were having. 8pm rolls around and i was hungry. My dinner plate that mom put aside was there for me before I could eat anything else. Believe it or not, I ate it. lol. Happened a few times. :)

This is very interesting though.. as I thought they only really cared about prey that had a heat signature and smelled good. it would be neat to see if you could offer a white one, and then there was a safe way to color the fur and re-offer the same prey to see if it made a difference?

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That thought crossed my mind as well, maybe food coloring would be okay to use. Although a guy might create a monster and he'd only eat green rats:)

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

I wonder if the darker rats are easier to see?

I've had the super picker eaters in the past and my ZsaZsa is notoriously picky, and generally only want brown mouse hoppers.

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I think their eyesight is better than we give them credit for. Observing how they watch and follow me around the room and interact I think they have half way decent vision. Ive had mine watch me with his head peeking out of hide start getting paper towels laid out on my workbench and he knows dinner is coming.