How To Switch Stubborn Baby Sumatran From Live Mice To Frozen/Thawed

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

As regards the Royals , reading around the forum there are loads of Royals not feeding as they're in breeding mode ...

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I've been wondering if that wasn't the case, too! I keep seeing the female wrapping around her water dish. I know they will do that after they have become gravid, right? But, is there some reason they will do that before they've bred? Maybe while follicles are developing or something? I have been so tempted to go ahead and throw the boy in with her...

Success! Hopefully they keep it up. My picky boy got a live mouse but took a f/t rat after it this week, I did get up really late one night and saw him poking his head out so maybe I need to suck it up and try offering food later, I usually feed afternoons/evenings and it's not dark.

glad to hear it worked! I heat mine in warm water as well.

I am 100% convinced that this girl would have eaten f/t every time in the past month if I would have kept heating up the rat and not given up so quickly and not just left it in there every time. That definitely seems to be the key! Now, I just hope I can get her to start actually striking the prey properly instead of taking it so slowly and softly. She's such a sweet girl that maybe she's just afraid she will hurt it, huh? lol

Just an update on this stubborn little girl... As it turns out, I was only able to get her to eat frozen/thawed for two feedings in a row. She has since been refusing them for about another month now and so has her brother/boyfriend. Spending a half hour puppeteering for each of these guys every feeding day, only to have them not eat and end up having to waste rats week after week is becoming a huge burden. I am considering just giving in and feeding both of these animals live for awhile. At least until they get some more size on them... What do you guys think?

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

Just an update on this stubborn little girl... As it turns out, I was only able to get her to eat frozen/thawed for two feedings in a row. She has since been refusing them for about another month now and so has her brother/boyfriend. Spending a half hour puppeteering for each of these guys every feeding day, only to have them not eat and end up having to waste rats week after week is becoming a huge burden. I am considering just giving in and feeding both of these animals live for awhile. At least until they get some more size on them... What do you guys think?

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Have you tried the hairdryer trick , where you get the rat in the tongs and then give the top half rat a good hot blast with a hairdryer then IMMEDIATELY dangle it in front of the snake , if it's refused - repeat process exactly until it's grabbed ... It will work if there is some interest shown but if there is no interest , not even a tongue flicker you're best waiting a week or so ..

That's what I have been doing only i've been running them under hot water over and over. Most of the time they will show interest by flickering their tongues and smelling them. Other times they act like they don't want anything to do with them. Whether they end up taking it or not, I always end up going through this for up to a half hour with each of these snakes on every feeding day. Neither of these snakes will ever actually strike at the prey, either. They just take them slowly and gently...

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

That's what I have been doing only i've been running them under hot water over and over. Most of the time they will show interest by flickering their tongues and smelling them. Other times they act like they don't want anything to do with them. Whether they end up taking it or not, I always end up going through this for up to a half hour with each of these snakes on every feeding day. Neither of these snakes will ever actually strike at the prey, either. They just take them slowly and gently...

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To be honest I stopped using warm water for thawing as it also washes away the rodent's smell / odour .
As I understand it , many ( all ?) snakes use their tongues to smell/taste their prey so that's why I changed ( very successfully ) to heating with a hairdryer after thawing on either a heat mat or radiator or boiler or whatever kind of heat source ( be care not to cook the rat though - just warm enough to thaw ) .

Many of my balls will absolutely refuse a wet rat. If I turn around and feed them a dry one.. bam

With a picky pair like this I don't prepare two feeders, I only prepare one. If the first snake doesn't eat then the feeder is rewarmed and offered to the second one. If the first snake eats then I prepare a second one for the other snake, and it's not like thawing and warming a rat pup takes a very long time.

Also I would put these guys in a 10-14 day feeding schedule. Snakes in captivity are often overfed and most really don't need to eat every week, though many will simply because they're opportunistic and instinctively they know that it may be quite a while before the next meal comes along. In the wild they would not eat as often and they would expend energy hunting.