Tips for picky eating Retic

I agree with what's been said about scenting and "chaining" prey items. These are great ideas that will sometimes entice an animal to eat or to transition to the keeper's preferred prey type. I take a less nuanced approach to feeding. I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again. She'll get the message soon enough. She's a retic so I doubt she'll refuse food for very long. I have a carpet that was a slow starter. She refused all food for the first month and then she would only eat mice and chicks but not rats. Once I stopped giving her what she wanted and only offered her rats she held out for about two months before taking her first rat. She was hit or miss for a little while but now she's eats rats or any other prey item that I offer consistently.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I agree with what's been said about scenting and "chaining" prey items. These are great ideas that will sometimes entice an animal to eat or to transition to the keeper's preferred prey type. I take a less nuanced approach to feeding. I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again. She'll get the message soon enough. She's a retic so I doubt she'll refuse food for very long. I have a carpet that was a slow starter. She refused all food for the first month and then she would only eat mice and chicks but not rats. Once I stopped giving her what she wanted and only offered her rats she held out for about two months before taking her first rat. She was hit or miss for a little while but now she's eats rats or any other prey item that I offer consistently.

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I did the same to get Rainbow to eat rabbits. Now she will eat anything with fur or feathers.

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Originally Posted by Skyrivers

I did the same to get Rainbow to eat rabbits. Now she will eat anything with fur or feathers.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I agree with what's been said about scenting and "chaining" prey items. These are great ideas that will sometimes entice an animal to eat or to transition to the keeper's preferred prey type. I take a less nuanced approach to feeding. I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again. She'll get the message soon enough. She's a retic so I doubt she'll refuse food for very long. I have a carpet that was a slow starter. She refused all food for the first month and then she would only eat mice and chicks but not rats. Once I stopped giving her what she wanted and only offered her rats she held out for about two months before taking her first rat. She was hit or miss for a little while but now she's eats rats or any other prey item that I offer consistently.

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I don't know what chaining is. I don't want her to go months without food either. I don't believe she has the weight on her to healthily go without for more than a month.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I don't know what chaining is.

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Chaining is putting a second prey item in their mouth before they finish swallowing the first. One right after the other.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I don't want her to go months without food either. I don't believe she has the weight on her to healthily go without for more than a month.

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She looks healthy enough to take a couple of weeks of tough love but you know her better than I do.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I don't know what chaining is. I don't want her to go months without food either. I don't believe she has the weight on her to healthily go without for more than a month.

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Like Sky said, chaining is when you try feeding one prey item after another to get the snake to eat the desired prey while still in feeding mode. If your snake likes chicks. Give her a chick and then offer a rat immediately afterwards. They'll often take the 2nd prey item instinctively and hopefully that will make the transition smoother. You may not want her to go for months without eating but she most certainly can survive months without food. I've had a few stubborn feeders of different species over the years and have never seen nor heard of a healthy snake starving itself to death. And if one ever does it's shouldn't be in the gene pool anyway imho. As long as your temps and husbandry are dialed in, and the animal isn't sick, it will eat at some point. You can certainly keep feeding chicks and offering rats occasionally if you wish. She will eat a rat sooner or later. It may take a while but eventually chicks aren't going to be enough and she's going to want and need more food. At that point she'll eat whatever's on the menu. Best wishes and keep us posted on your progress.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again.

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This is what I do as well, also when getting animals that ate live before switched to f/t. It can be frustrating but when it does finally work, very rewarding for the long haul.

Will do. I'll try to offer rats after her meal. I didn't buy her a chick last week and she turned her nose at her rat so I'll try to offer her a rat after her next chick. If not, I'll give her a month without chicks. I don't want to go further than that. She is healthy and in my rack with 20 other snakes. I don't check humidity but none have shedding issues. Temps are good too. 88 during day 80 during night. She retreats to the front of the tub when needed etc. She has the calmest disposition of all my snakes.

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

This is what I do as well, also when getting animals that ate live before switched to f/t. It can be frustrating but when it does finally work, very rewarding for the long haul.

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I switched 5 ball pythons from live to frozen and some were harder to transfer than others. In a couple weeks I'm going to increase my female rats from 4 to 20. I'm hoping thats enough to not have a need to buy bulk frozen anymore. Then all of them back to live lmao. That's the easy switch though.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I have a White Albino Retic who is just a few months old and the ONLY thing I can get her to eat is live chickens\quail. They are large meals for her, but she insists. I was told she was eating live hoppers when I bought her but she refuses any live or frozen mice\rats. Does anyone have any tips to switch her over? For now I am continuing on the live chickens.... until the local feed store realizes i'm feeding them to my snake and stops selling them to me LOL. I am downloading Tapatalk, will try to edit in pictures.

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I'd try one evening , in dim
light .... then warm up the thawed rodent with a hairdryer.... then INSTANTLY dangle it over the hide entrance..

Repeat the procedure exactly a few times ...


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

I'd try one evening , in dim
light .... then warm up the thawed rodent with a hairdryer.... then INSTANTLY dangle it over the hide entrance..

Repeat the procedure exactly a few times ...


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I thaw out a bucket of rodents every week directly in front of the rack. She flies out her tub happy for food, will crawl all over me the rat I'm holding in front of her, the lot. Looking for something other than a rat. Lol. I always feed at night.

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