Food question

Hello everyone! Todays the big day. I get to try to feed my new snakey girl tonight! IT's already been a week since I got her and I can hardly believe it!

Well, I was recommended to feed her f/t pinky rats by one of the breeders there. (Not the breeder I got her from) but we're having trouble finding them around here and when we do, they're sold out really fast, live ones or F/T ones.
I know one place that's an hour drive +/- and I don't know how the traffic will be either.
She was originally being fed live pinky mice.
So should I just try to feed her a pinky mouse? She kind of looks like she could eat something bigger.
This picture: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...mmySue/bp5.png
and this picture: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...mmySue/bp7.png
Kind of show how big she is around if that helps any. I can't say how much she weighs since the only way I can measure her is my inaccurate needle-on-the-number food scales that weighs on ounces which I have to convert into grams online. I need to invest in a scale at some point.
Can she eat a different sized rat or a different sized mouse? Or should I just stick with pinks?

You need to offer a live small mouse, obviously if fed live pinky mice the animal was underfed.

Breeders start their hatchlings on hoppers and quickly move to small and than adult mice.

Right now offering the same type prey is what should be done, than once your animal is an established feeder (3 to 5 consecutive successful meal) you can attempt to switch to rat if this is what you want to do (live rats) than again once the animal eat live rats with consistency you can attempt to switch to F/T

Switching need to be done one step at the time but for now the priority is to get this BP to eat for you.

Pinky mice are way too small for her! Dont even bother with pinkies. I'd try a mouse hopper or a small mouse. Even my hatchling newborns take hooper mice as their first meals. A snake that's ha a couple meals under it's belt would be fine on a hopper or small mouse. Pinkies don't move enough for the babies to really recognize them as food. And for tbe first few meals with you I'd go with live and then switch her over to ft.


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Hey There.

Congrats on your new snake :)

If she was being fed Live when you got her I would stick with live. There is a lot of discussion about which way is better and there are pro's and con's either way. Its ultimately up to you, but feeding F/T is a lot of work and can be just as dangerous to the snake as feeding live.

She looks like she could be on fuzzy ASF's if they are available in your area. If your feeding hooded rats - rat pups are going to be too big for him IMO.

Hope this helps..

Chris

REally?! She's still a little small. XD I can call ask the petstore with feeder rodents if they have mouse hoppers.
Alright, I'll go with that then slowly switch her to F/T rats. :3

And what do you do with a live mouse if it's not eaten? O.o Will a hopper mouse live a week later to be fed again if she doesn't take it?(The breeder I got her from told me to feed her 3-5 days after I got her, it's been 7 so I hope she's hungry!)

fluffpuffgerbil, I got my snake at the same show as you and she looks about the same size as mine. My breeder told me he might eat a pinkie in a few days so I gave him a live on on Wednesday. He ate it no problem but I didn't see any bulge afterward so i think he could handle something bigger. He weighs 53g btw:)

Seemed everyone there was feeding live mice. I got my snake from Aaron Standley from Gecko Exotics. He told me she'd probably eat one a few days later as well. XD
I'll try to get her a hopper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fluffpuffgerbil

Seemed everyone there was feeding live mice. I got my snake from Aaron Standley from Gecko Exotics. He told me she'd probably eat one a few days later as well. XD
I'll try to get her a hopper.

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That's the breeder i bought from too!

Hey, our snakes are brother and sister! XD
Do you have a name for your guy yet? I'm thinking of naming mine Kallista.
They're all different but since yours ate before the week was up, I hope mine will eat now that it's been 2-4 days past the time I was told to feed her.

You might want to get 2 hoppers just in case because it's been that long and don't forget to feed every 5 days. Every 3 days and you will never get to bring him out.

After he resets his jaws and starts to move around comfortably place the other hopper far enough so you don't get tagged or scare the snake, but close enough so he can smell and slowly stalk him.

Two? What if she doesn't eat the other one? will it still be a hopper next week? XD
And yeah, I'm not gonna feed every 3 days. XD The guy had fed her 2 days before I got her so he was saying in 3-5 days(so it would have been 5-7 since she ate last)
I suppose it has been 9 days since she ate so she must be hungry. XD

If she doesnt take the second then you have a short term house mate for a few days. It wont grown much during that time. Im going to almost guarantee that if she takes the first she will take the second. 9 days for a baby and I bet she is looking at you as a snack :D

I'll see how much they are. It won't hurt me any I guess to keep a mouse for a few days.
I should be feeding every 5 days then for now since she's so small?
I have kritter keepers I can put a mouse in + bedding, so yeah, shouldn't be too hard to keep it.
We have gerbils so we have rodent stuff.
It'll live for a 5 days without it's momma right? I don't want to slowly starve it to death. XD (I know it's just snake food, but I love rodents)

At that point they should be eating and drinking on their own.

M'kay, thanks. :3 I'll see about getting two.
I had to double check the age of how old they were on Rodentpro since the guy at the petstore was calling the day old rats 'rat pups'. XD If he doesn't know what a hopper is, I now know the age of them,

You will find that everyone has their own slang for them. Make sure the mouse is an appropriate size with eyes open and hopping around lol pretty soon you will be able to eye ball it with ease as you walk by the cages.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fluffpuffgerbil

And what do you do with a live mouse if it's not eaten? O.o Will a hopper mouse live a week later to be fed again if she doesn't take it?(The breeder I got her from told me to feed her 3-5 days after I got her, it's been 7 so I hope she's hungry!)

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We went out and bought a small critter cage for $10.00 at the local pet shop. Just throw some substrate in there and add a little water dish for him, and a little food dish with some seeds. He'll live till the next feeding :).

If you do get a "Kritter Cage", make sure it's tall enough for the size rodent you are putting in there. They are quite capable of chewing through the lids and escaping. I had a small mouse escape overnight before! Now I have a more fitting enclosure for any 'left-overs'.

Good Luck!!!

I got two hoppers. They're so small and cute! XD It'll be sad to see them eaten, but oh well. They seem to be healthy. Yep, and the critter cage I got is a big one. (It's the only one I have.)