No live fuzzies- Try mice or f/t?

I was going to say that my girl will go between mice and rats, but I know not everyone's snakes will do that. My Lilly is a very stout eater, and hasn't ever missed a meal. Personally I would try the live mice, although I guess since she was already on rats, the chance of her eating a f/t rat is about the same as her going to mice. I would say that it's more what you want to do. If you don't like the f/t being in the freezer, I would suggest sticking with live.

I don't know that I was much help...sorry about that! :P

she dosent need to eat every week, she can go months (not reccomended at all) without eating, but try to stick to one food, how would u feel if u had a lobster dinner and then your next meal was a cracker??? also, try to find another place to supply you, somewhere that readily has food.

So, is the rat the lobster, or is the mouse the lobster? I'm kind of not understanding your point there.

As for the lobster and the cracker, that's like...happened. And I don't remember minding at the time. lol

Now, I personally would be horribly bored eating the same thing all the time, even if it were lobster. But, I'm not a snake.
I still maintain, if you want to avoid the snake getting hooked on just one type of food, then varying what it eats will accomplish that.
A snake used to eating different types of prey shouldn't suddenly start refusing any of them.

A snake can go weeks without food, sure...but why should it have to when there's food available for it?
If the snake is used to eating several types of prey, then in situations where your supply of one is gone, but you have the other--just like the situation described here--there's no problem, and the snake still gets to eat.
I don't understand why it should have to go hungry.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I don't understand why it should have to go hungry.

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That's an interesting question. Is it your belief that snakes experience "hunger" in the exact same way warm blooded animals (animals that must burn massive amounts of calories in order to maintain their own body temperature) do?

-adam

They certainly appear to be more active and alert, more prone to strike at movement, and unsurprisingly, they seem to be searching for food--this tends to happen a few days after they defecate.
I would call that 'hungry', yep.
I'd be curious to see any research that shows brain activity in a hungry reptile is significantly different from that of a hungry mammal. It might reveal clues about the reptile brain that could help us in keeping the animals. Would you happen to have any links, or perhaps a title and author of a research paper on it?

LMMFAO! at this !! I love it...

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

They certainly appear to be more active and alert, more prone to strike at movement, and unsurprisingly, they seem to be searching for food--this tends to happen a few days after they defecate.
I would call that 'hungry', yep.

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Or, you could call "more active and alert" - 'awake', "more prone to strike at movement" - 'stressed', and "searching for food" - 'exploring their environment'. I would call that a "ball python", yep.

Just sayin. :D :sweeet: ;)

-adam

So, a couple days after they defecate, they become stressed? (Just trying to fit this into context, here...)

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

So, a couple days after they defecate, they become stressed? (Just trying to fit this into context, here...)

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I wouldn't even begin to speculate about what kinds of problems your animals are having ... All I know (for whatever you feel that is worth) is that I have 700+ ball pythons and the only time any of them are striking at anything is on feeding day when I'm dropping small live rats into their enclosures (or when nervous hatchlings having their tubs cleaned are striking to defend themselves) ... Maybe I'm just feeding them well enough to keep them from ever becoming "hungry"? :confuzd:

-adam

lol, I probably should have clarified, the ball pythons aren't the ones striking at things. The conversation had moved to the differences between hunger in mammals versus snakes--you asked if I thought it was the same. I gave observations on behavioral changes in snakes that seem indicative of hunger.
My African house snakes get strikey when they are hungry. The big female actually becomes a menace a day or so before feeding time. The rest of the time, they're fine, so it seems directly related to hunger.
I've seen this behavior in other colubrids as well.
The ball pythons just get more interested in their surroundings, and take on the 'hunting pose', but I've not had one of them strike at me, at least not so far. I'm certainly more cautious around them at this time.

So, the answer is, snakes appear to undergo behavioral changes that facilitate their finding food. Knowing whether or not hunger is uncomfortable for them would require brain scans, which probably haven't been done. The fact that their behavior does change is indication enough for me that they are, in fact, hungry.

Some people have a strong aversion to anthropomorphization. In my opinion, it can sometimes lead to going too far in the opposite direction. They are vertebrate animals, and they do experience a limited range of emotions, as well as typical physical sensations. Far enough back down the line, our ancestors were reptiles. We have inherited some things from them...if it's not broke, nature doesn't usually fix it. It strikes me as an odd notion to imply that reptiles don't experience hunger. I can't think of any logical reason to assume that they don't. Hunger evolved to stimulate animals to eat.

Having 700+ ball pythons, how much time do you spend getting to know the typical behaviors and personalities of each individual snake? Do your snakes not show any behavioral changes in the time period after they defecate, and before you feed them again? Do you know each of them well enough to be sure?