Cursed?

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Originally Posted by Reinz

When my Carpets are in this position I have learned to not even bother offering food. Even if they are “scheduled” to eat or past due. It’s as though all they have on their mind is coming out of the cage or just watching me, or just plain o’ herp derping.

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That's very interesting Reinz. My Bredli is still young so he has never refused a meal, even during winter.
But my Ball Python will refuse 100% of the time if he's roaming about in his enclosure when is time to feed and like you I don't even bother to offer. He has to be in his hide with his head sticking out, and then I know he's ready to eat.

All,

After probably five months, finally have two snakes eating again. Hopefully for anybody who reads this thread, realize that patience and consistency will likely pay off.

The method that finally worked was:

1. Thaw the rat in lukewarm water.

2. Bring water on stove to roughly 130* and also keep a bowl of about 110* water available.

3. When ready to feed, put rat in the warmer bowl of water and let sit for about 5 minutes. Pat dry. Get a cup of the hot water and dip the rats head in it for about 1 minute.

4. Quick-pay dry, offer and continue this process until it eats.

This variegata has no strike response and likes to smell all over the rat and still refuse. This has been the issue for months. Ended up dropping the whole rat in the hot water for about thirty seconds and laying it outside the hide and she finally ate. Will continue moving up sizes here and likely feed every couple weeks. Hope she continues to eat.

Thanks for all the advice.

CJ

I'm glad your critters are eating again. I'm a firm believer that they all eat eventually. My last holdout took her first meal yesterday after a 4 month fast. I hope yours are back on track now.

Would you move up in meal size right away?

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Originally Posted by Cee Jay

Would you move up in meal size right away?

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I actually feed smaller meals when they're coming off of a fast. If they were eating large/medium rats I'll give them mediums/smalls for a couple of feedings. Once I know their appetites are consistent and strong then I'll increase the prey size. My Bredli is really quirky. He normally eats medium rats. He won't touch rats right now but he'll slam jumbo mice. I'll let him have a couple of mice just to get him eating again then I'll start scenting the rats with a mouse. He'll refuse a couple of times and I won't feed him anything. After a few refusals he'll take a scented rat and in a couple of months he'll be eating unscented rats again. It sounds like your crew is heating up again. There's nothing wrong with giving them more food while they're taking it. I tend to feed my animals just a little bit more during the summer months. They eat more like every 2-4 weeks. My bullsnakes and Olive eat every 10-14 days.

Thought I'd add to this "cursed" post, even this is more of a general question. After finally eating after months, my variegata has been sniffing and literally sort of looking down at a f/t rat for a couple hours now. The wife is home doing the feeding, but has anybody experienced this? I saw a thread about it years ago someone posted, but it seemed more like a "guarding the rat" type of situation. This is more like straight glaring down at it very intently...for a long time. Am I cursed?