Positive Feeding Vibes...

Yea, I've been doing the tong dance and he gets all excited (excessive tongue flickering) but then just slithers away and ignores the prey item. I'll be sure to try the chicken broth trick if he's not interested on Saturday!

If I may chime in here....

I tried the chicken broth with mine when she was being finicky. It just freaked her out. what got her going was a little dirty gerbil bedding that I got from the pet store where I bought the frozen rat. I put some on a paper towel in her tank about an hour before I fed her. When I was warming the f/t rat, I put some gerbil bedding in the baggie for a marinade :) Worked like a charm. Now she takes them with no additional nudging at all.

I have to disagree with the post saying that you should always feed them live to start and then move on to frozen. I don't see why you would want to endanger your snake in such an avoidable way. But that is just my opinion.

Also, sometimes moving the snake to another enclosure for feeding can just stress it out even more. If she's a new one, just feed her in her home, lay some paper towels down on the substrate if you're concerned about ingestion and use hemostats if you're concerned about getting chomped.

Good luck. It can be very stressful for the owner when the little lovelies won't eat. Keep us posted.

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Originally Posted by TheNunciate

If I may chime in here....

I tried the chicken broth with mine when she was being finicky. It just freaked her out. what got her going was a little dirty gerbil bedding that I got from the pet store where I bought the frozen rat.

I have to disagree with the post saying that you should always feed them live to start and then move on to frozen. I don't see why you would want to endanger your snake in such an avoidable way. But that is just my opinion.

Also, sometimes moving the snake to another enclosure for feeding can just stress it out even more. If she's a new one, just feed her in her home, lay some paper towels down on the substrate if you're concerned about ingestion and use hemostats if you're concerned about getting chomped.

Good luck. It can be very stressful for the owner when the little lovelies won't eat. Keep us posted.

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Good info! And I agree, I won't do live unless it becomes absolutely necessary because I'm a worry wort.

I've heard the gerbil bedding bit...may have to try that if the strike continues. I'm actually planning on feeding in the enclosure this time, but I'm going to have to take him out to weigh him and rearrange a bit in the enclosure, so I'm just going to bag him up in a paper sack with the FT fuzzy and pop him back in his home over night. The snake shop where I loiter said that 9 times out of 10 this gets all their finicky snakes to gobble up the little buggers.

I just want him to acclimate and EAT a few consecutive meals so that I can just have him hang out on me while I clean out his cage...but I figure it's best to sort of just bag him with the food while I do so and put him back home for now.

if the snake was interested try dipping it in chicken brother or water thats near boiling.

get it nice and hot. sounds liek its having a hard time identifying it from its suroundings. it can smell it but they require the thermal image as well to put two and two togeather and then ding the food light goes off in there head.

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Originally Posted by JeffJ

if the snake was interested try dipping it in chicken brother or water thats near boiling.

get it nice and hot. sounds liek its having a hard time identifying it from its suroundings. it can smell it but they require the thermal image as well to put two and two togeather and then ding the food light goes off in there head.

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2 things wrong with this, HOT water, can cook the rodent, Snakes cant digest cooked meat properly. Second, near boiling water is hot, and can burn the snake. Warm water is all thats needed, definately not HOT, especially not near Boiling.

I feel the F/T pain. I feed live but 3 of my snakes didn't eat their rats last week so I had to kill em. Well after I killed them I left them in the tank with them while I went to work, nobody ate. I froze the rats, and thawed one out the other day and then gave it a nice hair style with the blow dryer and made this thing do the freaking macarena, and still no strikes. Whatever, My other 2 are stubborn so tomorrow is special treat...live ASF day. Whoop dee whoop.

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Originally Posted by XGetSome

2 things wrong with this, HOT water, can cook the rodent, Snakes cant digest cooked meat properly. Second, near boiling water is hot, and can burn the snake. Warm water is all thats needed, definately not HOT, especially not near Boiling.

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i was unclear yes sorry, near boiling was a figure of speech i used that probably wasnt the best idea.

basically mean around 100*F not Celsius. which i suppose is not near boiling. srry its my Canadian brain.

:oops:

I think that you are better off trying to feed him in his home enclosure. Let the rodent thaw in the room with the snake. Then after it is thawed, turn off the lights and place the rodent in the cage with the snake. Leave the room and if it is still there in the morning, throw it away.

When my snakes decide to get picky, this always works for me.

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I'm just going to bag him up in a paper sack with the FT fuzzy and pop him back in his home over night.

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My BP has refused to eat the last 3 times and I am curious about the paper sack method. Oh geez I am cracking my own self up now because I was going to ask if you used a lunch sack sized bag LOL. However, my BP is a little over 3ft. So I am guessing a grocery size paper bag is okay?!

Also do you close the top of the bag before you place it back into the tank? OR Do you lay the bag on it's side with the top of it open?

Sorry I'm a details kinda girl:gj:

Close the top of the bag. If you want, tape it shut but don't use a staple. He'll probably get out of it anyway if he really wants to. Just remember to put the bag back in the habitat away from the light and close the lid up.