Frustrated with feeding F/T

BP's are so picky.....

I have a couple of my snakes that no matter what I do they just wont take the F/T rats. They show interest in feeding as if they can smell it, but its almost like they are blind to the f/t rodent. I have tried everything from putting the F/T rodent in a bag with live rodent poop and substrate, I have tried wet I have tried dry I have dangled, dragged, made pretend it was crawling, starved, EVERYTHING!!!!

Today I offered the F/T to one of my bigger females and she ignored it completely, I then dropped a live rat pup in since she hasn't eaten in about a month of me starving her. She immediately went crazy looking like she would strike anything that came close and when she finally saw it she tagged it hard as heck and ate it in a sec. I tried to offer another f/t as soon as she was done but still, its like she is blind to them.

:mad::mad::mad:

I've actually batted almost 100% on mine. Trick I used to break a lot of them was to have the f/t "peek" from behind the water bowl and as soon as the snake flicked it's tongue it went back around. Did this for a while before moving it in front of the snake and it turned around some of my most stubborn eaters. Also, they can go a lot longer than a month, especially an adult. I've had several go three months or longer and they eventually come back around. Just monitor the weight and make sure it doesn't drop too much. But it can definitely be a test of wills. Good luck and just be patient with them. :gj:

I'm am far from a BP expert, but I have found that this definitely works with my BP.

Try making sure that it's warm enough. I thaw mine in warm/hot water to the point where they are 100% thawed and actually warm enough to emit heat when I touch the mouse/rat.

If they are too cold, like the water was too cool, my snake will sniff it but otherwise ignore it. If the F/T is not warm enough, it ignores it. Once its warm, do the zombie dance and mine has never missed a feed in the half year I've had it.

I feed live however when I did do FT I would always hit it with the blow dryer right before offering it.

I know they can go longer without feeding but I want to make sure she stays at breeding size so I didnt want to starve her for too long.... I actually had my biggest male go off feed for about 8 months one time and he showed no signs of stress or even weight loss.

Ill have to give the zombie dance a try.... lol

I tried the blow drier already..... :mad:

luckily I have a pig who just took the two extra rat pups from today. :D

Yeah, often times they'll miss the f/t when it isn't warm enough. try warming it, mostly on the head, with a hair dryer maybe?

Edit: Sorry, posted this at the same time as I saw you saying you already tried the blow dryer. Woops.

Try what we're doing with our male [10 years old, used to only take white live mice, now taking f/t rats]. We place the f/t rat in a baggie, but leave the baggie open. Place it on the screen top [if you're in a tank or next to the "vent" holes on tub (is that how it works? I don't have tubs so I'm not sure)] and let it air thaw. Yes, it takes a long time, but if you're buying good quality f/t prey it shouldn't smell. If you use lights, after it gets to room temperature place either the head or whole rat under the dome. If you exclusively use UTH like most people here do, place it somewhere warm or blast it with a hair dryer for a while. The rat's head should be warmer to the touch and the rest of the body should be warm to the touch, with the head hotter than the rest of the body. Leaving the rat on top of the screen if you're in a tank or somewhere with a tub where the scent of the rat can get into the tub/tank lets the smell get into the enclosure and gets the snakies hyped for the meal. Our female goes nuts and just stares at the rat with her head and neck out of her hide until we open the tank and our male peeks just his nose out like, "you brought me food?"

I put mine on a plastic chinese container lid directly under the heat lamp right before feeding. The only time I had any issues was when the bulb had blown and I couldn't do that. Since I couldn't get it warm enough, she refused to eat.

If you have one, hit the mouse/rat with a temp gun. My temp is usually 100 or slightly above.

Ill give the heat lamp trick a try. I use strictly heat pads and tubs but have an old heat lamp from a tegu I had.... I'm sure I'm getting the rats hot enough because they feel very warm to the touch and my other snakes take without a problem. Maybe the heat lamp tick will work. Ill give it a try next week.

Thanks for the advice all.

One of my possible het Lavenders will only take f/t if I leave it in her tub next to the hide opening. I tried to get her to strike the f/t rat for weeks trying everything, then I finally gave up and just dropped it in front of her...I went back in the room 15 minutes later and there she was eating it. Since then we have repeated this every feeding and she eats like clockwork! Have you tried just leaving the prey in over night?

I have left it in the tub for a couple hours but never overnight. Will also give it a try if the heat lamp doesn't work.

I strongly believe in "pre scenting"

All the snakes I've gotten were fed live, one of them live mice. I was able to convert them all to F/T rats on the first try.

I provide dark smallish hides on both warm and cool end. I wait till the snake feels safe and should be getting hungry. I get the F/T prey nice and toasty warm, I use water. Before feeding I wave the rodent around in the tub a couple of times to "scent the air". Then I use the blowdryer to get the body and head of the rodent pretty warm, not burning hot, but "kind of" hot. By now the snake has scented "prey" and is excited and ready. I wiggle the rodent in front of the hide and WHAMMO. Never failed, yet.

I don't post very much on forums but wanted to share my quick fix when I converted to F/T... I feed at night, and I feed at the same time each time I feed. Since I feed in the evening, I will let the food thaw out at room temperature. Some may not agree with this and that's OK, I just want to share what worked for me... So here are the steps. I take a bowl big enough to submerge the entire rat/prey in and fill it half way with water then take a grocery store bag (don't use paper hee-hee) cut it so that it's big enough to cover the bowl and line it like a pie crust... Now imagine you're looking at a swimming pool with a plastic cover over it, you jump in and make an indent of your body in the plastic. OK, now do this in the hot water bowl with the food item. I find the plastic bag keeps from cooking the insides of the prey. OK this may be the part some don't agree with. I microwave the water (about 1 minute) before placing the bag over it so that it will shorten the time I need to leave the food there to warm up. Since we're talking about balls, the food should heat up in about a minute or so. I found this seems to heat the food pretty evenly. It's very time consuming and may get old, but I was determined not to feed live to my kids... You might want to try this and see if it works. Hope this was helpful.

Blessings,
Bone

I tried the heat lamp trick today with my big girl and even though it smelled like crap to me it must have smelled delicious to her because she downed not one but two f/t rats. YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!:banana::banana:

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I once microwaved a cup of water with a mouse in it when the bulb on my heat lamp was out.

I put it in for 15-20 seconds. When I went to feed, the mouses stomach burst open spilling out. My guess is that the microwaving weakened the thawed out cells.

Grossest feeding incident so far. So yeah, count me among the people who won't microwave.

microwaveing rodents can cause them to have really uneven thawing one area can get wicked hot while somewhere else can still be frozen. You have a good chance of hurting the animal (snake) when it eats. If I am in a rush I just soak them in a baggie in hot water.

Not sure where all this microwaving talk came from but I am very pleased with the heat lamp method :gj:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bone

I don't post very much on forums but wanted to share my quick fix when I converted to F/T... I feed at night, and I feed at the same time each time I feed. Since I feed in the evening, I will let the food thaw out at room temperature. Some may not agree with this and that's OK, I just want to share what worked for me... So here are the steps. I take a bowl big enough to submerge the entire rat/prey in and fill it half way with water then take a grocery store bag (don't use paper hee-hee) cut it so that it's big enough to cover the bowl and line it like a pie crust... Now imagine you're looking at a swimming pool with a plastic cover over it, you jump in and make an indent of your body in the plastic. OK, now do this in the hot water bowl with the food item. I find the plastic bag keeps from cooking the insides of the prey. OK this may be the part some don't agree with. I microwave the water (about 1 minute) before placing the bag over it so that it will shorten the time I need to leave the food there to warm up. Since we're talking about balls, the food should heat up in about a minute or so. I found this seems to heat the food pretty evenly. It's very time consuming and may get old, but I was determined not to feed live to my kids... You might want to try this and see if it works. Hope this was helpful.

Blessings,
Bone

---

That's where it came from, and yeah, I suggest sticking with the lamp method.

I didnt read anyone suggesting to microwave a rat, microwaving water yes..... Any way I am lazy and feeding frozen thawed I have an old crock pot..... I fill it with water and turn it on, with the water hot I put the thawed rodents (still in a bag mind you) head first in the crock pot can heat a crap ton of rats without having to reheat water works great fer me

Haha the crock pot seems like an easy way to do it. Would be funny to see what guests would say if they saw you cooking some rats. LOL

No hostility coming from me about the microwave I was just wondering if you saw something about microwaving rats. No biggy

I might be mistaken, but I assumed it was microwave the water after putting the rat inside. I was just using that as a chance to share my story really.

Sorry I wasn't being hostile just trying to head off a potential problem before it started I am sorry if it was worded poorly. My apologies.
Alex