Advanced feeding issues.

Well, the car ride does not work. Tried it and he's happily ignoring his rat. Why can't all snakes be garbage disposals like my granite?

After the death of my last ASF group I gave up but now it looks like I'm going to have to give it another try. I don't need him ginormous. I just want the dang boy to EAT.

I have used the car ride to get one of mine back eating also.

So wait, you guys seriously drive around with your snake in the car to get it to eat?

Yep did it every week for almost a year ..

@ 4 dollars a gallon, that is one thing I will NOT be doing ;) hahahah

I imagine the car thing has something to do with human children. I've heard of dads driving their children around in the car if they're fussy and won't sleep at night. The driving relaxes the children and they go to bed. Maybe the driving relaxes a stressed out snake, so it will eat? Or maybe the vibration of the car gets it geared up (opposite of kids)? :) It's certainly interesting.

When I was very little and was too wound up to get to bed, my mom used to drive me around in the car for awhile.

Perhaps the vibration has a similar relaxing effect on the snake.

Perhaps the sense of motion makes the snake feel like its actually gone somewhere to eat.

Which makes me wonder - perhaps environment is part of the issue.

Wild. I've never heard of the car thing. I guess all I can say is Patience. I have a girl that is about 800g, and she (if she were growing like her "sib" should be closer to 1500g. If I recall correctly, she's a 05. She was the fussiest eater for the longest time.

If I opened her tub in the rack at all the day of feeding, she wouldn't eat. If she missed the strike, she wouldn't eat. If she was just about to start a shed, but hadn't dulled yet she wouldn't eat.

It helped a lot once I got her into a closed in rack with more hides. She's a great eater now..but she can still be fussy about the "do not disturb me on feeding day" thing. She's one of the few ball snakes I have that always prefers one hide on one side of the tub (I swapped her hides for a few weeks and she stayed in the same spot). When I feed her now, I lay the rat just on the edge of the hole of the hide (it's a freedom breeder hide with the hole in the top). So I don't really see her go for it anymore, she's usually completely hidden (she's on F/T).

Anyway, I wish you luck and I hope it starts eating for you like a champ down the road.

Btw, did you try different hide styles?

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Originally Posted by Entropy

Well, the car ride does not work. Tried it and he's happily ignoring his rat. Why can't all snakes be garbage disposals like my granite?

After the death of my last ASF group I gave up but now it looks like I'm going to have to give it another try. I don't need him ginormous. I just want the dang boy to EAT.

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heh, if you need to borrow at het pied male, my guy has anorexic girlfriends who refuse to eat much, he looks ready to breed every winter, but the ladies keep turning up their noses.. XD

I agree with Tim... try the ASF's again or leave a small live rat in overnight. Just put some rat food in there with it.