Help needed - not eaten in 13 months

Confused. All of the repected members here made the same suggestion, and that is to feed live. You have been advised not to feed the suppliment crap.

And now after all this advice you are planning to keep feeding f / t and feed the suppliment crap?

Whatever floats your boat I guess.

Good Luck.

Hi Mike~
Laws regarding the live feeding of rodents to reptiles differ in different countries.
I understand in England, for example, it is illegal to feed live rodents unless a vet documents that the reptile's life is in serious jeopardy.

Out of my 50+ BPs maybe 2 will eat a prekilled rodent the rest only eat live. I reccomend live rodents and small enclosures, always works for me.

Best of luck

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Originally Posted by starmom

Hi Mike~
Laws regarding the live feeding of rodents to reptiles differ in different countries.
I understand in England, for example, it is illegal to feed live rodents unless a vet documents that the reptile's life is in serious jeopardy.

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I didn't believe in the UK it was necessary for a vet to deem necessary to feed live... so that may be something... who knows

I had always read it was feeding live only when the health of the animal was at stake, but that doesn't mean its the same across the board for europe.

Whether or not he wanted to attempt feeding live I don't think he's exhausted all his options for f/t. It would probably be the easiest and most effective to feed live but f/t can be done. 7 of my 8 snakes feed on f/t without a problem, granted I had my difficulties with a few but I always worked through them.

More hides, less hides, different humidity, different cool/warm side temps, smaller enclosure; they are all things you can try to coax a snake to eat f/t. If he hasn't lost much weight I honestly wouldn't be concerned. An appetite stimulant just seems like the easiest way out of a problem that may be solved through other methods that are "natural" to the snake.

Considering that the snake hasn't lost much weight I think you have time to tweak your set up to solve your problem with something that doesn't require you to feed live or give your snake a supplement.

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Originally Posted by starmom

Hi Mike~
I understand in England, for example, it is illegal to feed live rodents unless a vet documents that the reptile's life is in serious jeopardy.

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That's not quite the case - Currently it is not illegal in the UK to feed a live vertebrate to another unless you cause it unnecessary suffering, so that would have to be the result of a court case and the judge would have to make a decision. Also, if you were to feed live prey to an animal in a public place for others to watch that would be illegal. It is generally discouraged in the UK but people do it. OP is in the Republic of Ireland so their laws on feeding live may well be different

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

And now after all this advice you are planning to keep feeding f / t

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On account of the fact that few in the UK feed live then it's likely that jphealy's snake will never have encountered live prey (I'm assuming it's a CB snake?) and may therefore be freaked out by it...

Hope the gerbil works and he feeds! With mine I heat them up till I can distinctly smell them - usually on the radiator in the same room as the snake. Often I dangle it in her viv for a few moments before I plan to feed it to her and that way she gets interested and alert.. Let us know what happens :)

Well - he's eaten!

I gave him a few doses of the Avipro Plus in his water over the last ten days or so, as instructed by the guy in the reptile store. I then offered the gerbil last night. I could tell straight away that he was interested. He reacted to it more than he's reacted to anything in the last year. He didn't strike right away though. He was sniffing it out for a good 15 minutes before he started to eat. I guess we'll never know for sure whether it was the Avipro or the gerbil or a combination of both that did it. I'm delighted anyway - big weight off.

Great!!! happy for you he's eating :)

Glad to hear he's eaten! Hope he does it again soon :) If you're worried about him fixating on gerbils keep a gerbil in the freezer bag with some mice or rats or get some gerbil bedding from a pet shop and rub the other type of rodent in that.....