My little Pain in the rear...

Ok, so my little Mojave boy is seriously getting on my nerves. He will only take live, I have tried many methods of defrosting, blow drying, zombie dance, no dance, braining, leaving it in over night (ew..by the way..) etc. Big problem is he won't eat live if I have his tub open. He is so worried I'm going to eat him, he won't eat his dinner. He has 2 hides, he is in a 15qt tub @ 164g. Temps, humidity etc are good (78/90/55-60%). I've tried removing the hides for feeding, and that works with live, he will eat once I shut the tub. My big concern is once he gets big enough to eat larger prey, even now actually...is I can't have the tub open to watch and intervene if something goes wrong (bite). I would really rather him be on F/T for convenience and less worry for me...but I don't know that he will *ever* make the switch.

Any suggestions? For switching, or getting him to the point were he will eat while I watch?

When I try f/t should I remove the hide he is in or let him stay hidden and keep trying the "walk by" zombie move?

Ugh..sorry..I am probably worrying too much, I mean the important thing is he *is* eating...even if it worries me to death while doing so...

Sometimes I have to listen for the strike if mine is feeling shy.

I just went through this with my lesser boy! However, he would strike and coil when I was watching, but he had an aversion to frozen/thawed and to live that was bigger than fuzzies. I just had to keep trying. Try to odder a small live rat and then follow it with a frozen/thawed rat. After many, many tries, my boy will tolerate frozen. He's very reluctant to eat (versus being a tremendous feeder on live), but he does eat with a little bit of encouragement. This is the trick that helped to break my boy's stubbornness about frozen food: once the rat is mostly thawed, place it in boiling hot water for a minute or two and then IMMEDIATELY offer it (giving it little time to cool). That seemed to work well to get my male feeding frozen and my spider girl to FINALLY switch over to rats. They just like theirs closer to a rat's body temperature.

I wouldn't worry to much about live. They are very adept at what they do. Basically when you are going to want to watch out for a bite is if they strike and don't have the best shot where they grab on. As long as you are standing by with tongs(or fingers, Coleslaw ;)), or something to stick in the rats mouth, should they catch a rat by the tail or something you should be fine.

Also making sure your feeder is well fed and watered will help. Mine take down small live rats no problem. They all seem to have so much better feed response to live. I say just go with it, that's what your boy is telling you he wants. As for the hides, I take the big kids out before feeding. But that's mostly so they have more room. The little guys get to keep theirs in, and will usually come flying out of it and snag the rat.

Sorry I can't offer f/t advice. None of mine get f/t. I started out doing that, well that was no fun, it was a pain in the butt, so it didn't last long. Then I moved on to p/k, which was ok. But now everyone gets live. Ten thousand times easier, and no wasted rats.

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I'll try the 2x smaller meal and see if he will take f/t as a follow up. If that doesn't work...maybe I'll put him back on mice. They are more readily available live around here. The different sized rats I have to order in.

That's my problem Doolittle, I can't watch him strike. He won't strike with the tub open, so I have to wait and listen for the strike, and I'm worried that if I open the tub he will release. Arg. Maybe when he gets bigger he won't be so shy :please:

I personally don't feed live but a friend of mine does he has a similar problem. His solution is to place the rat in a container (ice cream container) the rat can't escape the container but the snake can still strike the rat. It might be a solution.

Drop rat, close tub, problem solved :gj:

You don't have to watch, I don't watch any of my feedings.
I listen though, and as soon as the rat gets wrapped I open the tub and make sure the wrap was good and close tub and move on.

Thanks all, if the follow-up method doesn't do the trick, I'll just stick with live and :cool: deal with it :cool:

Appreciate all the advice!

I would first try getting him used to eating live with the tub open then try converting f/t. This may sound weird but don't let the f/t rat get wet. I recently converted my little snake to f/t and she wouldn't take a wet rat. I think it's because there's a lot less smell to it :P
And if you have a temp gun wait for the rat's head to get to 103 degrees F

Don't give up yet, he's still a youngster and may transition a little later.

I close my tubs. Rat goes in, tub gets shut. Then when they strike I open tub and peek, make sure all is well, then move along. I doubt yours will release his rodent. I've never had any of mine phased by me peeking.

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Thanks :) That was my main concern because of how shy he is. I thought people actually stood with the tub open looking in to watch the strike / intervene if needed. I feel a lot better about it now knowing you guys shut the tub and peek after strike.

I find mine much more willing to take F/T after the 200g mark or so

I've dropped a live rat into a tub ( with holes) with my young ball python and covered it. There are some tubs that are off colored that can help shy eaters.
Of course, I always watch with tongs in hand just in case the rat decides to try and move up the evolutionary food chain.

Just got back from the pet store. Asked the guy for a small mouse, he came back with a pretty large almost breeder size. So I asked the other guy if they had anything smaller and he let me in the back to pick one. I noticed they had rat pups! So I eagerly said "how much are the rar pups? " (I had already paid, so wasn't sure how much difference in price there was etc. He replied "they're not for sale. They are still nursing! Smallest rat we sell is a small rat at $3something"

Now, in another situation this wouldn't have bothered me. Policy is policy. But I just bought 2 rat pinks from this store about 2 weeks ago...so.. yea. Anyways, got the small mouse because I didn't see the employees that I normally deal with.

I dropped it in the tub, and it went right into the hide with mojo in it. *squeak* hide jumps...and I had the tub open! So I lifted the hide and he's got a good bite, and leave him be.

Maybe there is hope for him yet! He didn't spit it out when I lifted the hide, so I'm happy!

Side note, I didn't weigh it prior because I was excited to see how the feeding went. It was smaller than I thought after seeing him gulp it down in less than 5 min. I think he's still hungry lol. I'll give him 3-4 days and get another mouse for him.

Congrats! Got love the sound of hide rattling from a strike, lol!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrLang

I find mine much more willing to take F/T after the 200g mark or so

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You know, my boy switched about 250g. When I bought him, he was about 175g and only taking live.

To the OP, next time, feed him a mouse followed immediately by a F/T mouse/rat and just see if he takes it. If he doesn't, leave it in the tub overnight.

I was having problems feeding F/T to my ball pythons too. I was told a few tricks buy some fellow reptile owners. First, when feeding f/t put the rat or mouse in a plastic bag or two and put it in a big bowl of hot water. Next put a smaller bowl of hot water on top to submerge it to thaw. I usually wait 15 to 20 minutes before i take the mouse out. After the time has passed i take the mouse out and set him under a heat lamp. I use a 100 watt heat bulb. I let him sit till he's warm to the touch( i know its a little gross) And completely dry. The next step is really IMPORTANT: Move you snake to another tubs. I use a spare or empty tub. There doesn't need to be anything in it. The reason for this is that if he's still in his home he will respond defensively to movement/new prey being offered. I take him to a fairly dark room. In my case the kitchen with only the heat light on. I let them sit there for a minute to relax then i try offering the mouse. Its worked 100% of the time for me.

Edit: I also recommend feeding in a separate cage because hides and substrate can be health hazards. Most hatch lings do better when fed in separate feeding tubs.

Freaking woot! Just did a live mouse followed up with a prekilled off the tongs and mojo took the prekilled! I just danced around the house in celebration. Definitely a step in the right direction! Yay!