Tips for picky eating Retic

I have a White Albino Retic who is just a few months old and the ONLY thing I can get her to eat is live chickens\quail. They are large meals for her, but she insists. I was told she was eating live hoppers when I bought her but she refuses any live or frozen mice\rats. Does anyone have any tips to switch her over? For now I am continuing on the live chickens.... until the local feed store realizes i'm feeding them to my snake and stops selling them to me LOL. I am downloading Tapatalk, will try to edit in pictures.

Could not edit, so here.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...89915ccdc7.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f76da78466.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2a987e6bf4.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...15889418f1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...cb6e0f3aea.jpg

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Could try rubbing a chicken on a live mouse or rat.

If she will only eat live chicks then feed her live chicks for a while. I wouldn't worry about them being oversized as they're not all that dense a feeder; their bones are pretty light. They do leave a big lump but it goes down quickly; baby retics have a high metabolism. If you're worried about overfeeding you can put her on a 7-10 day schedule.

Once she's at the point where a chick is a small meal for her, you can try "chaining" a warmed f/t rat pinky or fuzzy behind it so she learns to associate rats with food. Eventually she will start taking f/t rats without needing a chick as an appetizer.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

If she will only eat live chicks then feed her live chicks for a while. I wouldn't worry about them being oversized as they're not all that dense a feeder; their bones are pretty light. They do leave a big lump but it goes down quickly; baby retics have a high metabolism. If you're worried about overfeeding you can put her on a 7-10 day schedule.

Once she's at the point where a chick is a small meal for her, you can try "chaining" a warmed f/t rat pinky or fuzzy behind it so she learns to associate rats with food. Eventually she will start taking f/t rats without needing a chick as an appetizer.

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I'm not worried about overfeeding her, there is just a limited amount of live chicks near me. And they want $6 a damn chick

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Have you tried to waiting a couple of week then offering a live rat pup?

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I'm not worried about overfeeding her, there is just a limited amount of live chicks near me. And they want $6 a damn chick

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Look around for a local farmer that raises chickens. Some will sell for $1 each.

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Originally Posted by Skyrivers

Have you tried to waiting a couple of week then offering a live rat pup?

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Yes. I breed my own rats and also buy frozen so I always wait and offer her frozen rat, then live rat, then the chick. She won't take frozen chicks or quail either

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Originally Posted by Skyrivers

Look around for a local farmer that raises chickens. Some will sell for $1 each.

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None nearby. Closest I can get quail for is 45 min one way at $2 a quail

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

None nearby. Closest I can get quail for is 45 min one way at $2 a quail

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I wouldn't mind buying 10-20 quail and just keeping them fed, but it's illegal to have farm animals where I live.

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I agree with what's been said about scenting and "chaining" prey items. These are great ideas that will sometimes entice an animal to eat or to transition to the keeper's preferred prey type. I take a less nuanced approach to feeding. I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again. She'll get the message soon enough. She's a retic so I doubt she'll refuse food for very long. I have a carpet that was a slow starter. She refused all food for the first month and then she would only eat mice and chicks but not rats. Once I stopped giving her what she wanted and only offered her rats she held out for about two months before taking her first rat. She was hit or miss for a little while but now she's eats rats or any other prey item that I offer consistently.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I agree with what's been said about scenting and "chaining" prey items. These are great ideas that will sometimes entice an animal to eat or to transition to the keeper's preferred prey type. I take a less nuanced approach to feeding. I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again. She'll get the message soon enough. She's a retic so I doubt she'll refuse food for very long. I have a carpet that was a slow starter. She refused all food for the first month and then she would only eat mice and chicks but not rats. Once I stopped giving her what she wanted and only offered her rats she held out for about two months before taking her first rat. She was hit or miss for a little while but now she's eats rats or any other prey item that I offer consistently.

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I did the same to get Rainbow to eat rabbits. Now she will eat anything with fur or feathers.

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Originally Posted by Skyrivers

I did the same to get Rainbow to eat rabbits. Now she will eat anything with fur or feathers.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I agree with what's been said about scenting and "chaining" prey items. These are great ideas that will sometimes entice an animal to eat or to transition to the keeper's preferred prey type. I take a less nuanced approach to feeding. I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again. She'll get the message soon enough. She's a retic so I doubt she'll refuse food for very long. I have a carpet that was a slow starter. She refused all food for the first month and then she would only eat mice and chicks but not rats. Once I stopped giving her what she wanted and only offered her rats she held out for about two months before taking her first rat. She was hit or miss for a little while but now she's eats rats or any other prey item that I offer consistently.

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I don't know what chaining is. I don't want her to go months without food either. I don't believe she has the weight on her to healthily go without for more than a month.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I don't know what chaining is.

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Chaining is putting a second prey item in their mouth before they finish swallowing the first. One right after the other.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I don't want her to go months without food either. I don't believe she has the weight on her to healthily go without for more than a month.

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She looks healthy enough to take a couple of weeks of tough love but you know her better than I do.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I don't know what chaining is. I don't want her to go months without food either. I don't believe she has the weight on her to healthily go without for more than a month.

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Like Sky said, chaining is when you try feeding one prey item after another to get the snake to eat the desired prey while still in feeding mode. If your snake likes chicks. Give her a chick and then offer a rat immediately afterwards. They'll often take the 2nd prey item instinctively and hopefully that will make the transition smoother. You may not want her to go for months without eating but she most certainly can survive months without food. I've had a few stubborn feeders of different species over the years and have never seen nor heard of a healthy snake starving itself to death. And if one ever does it's shouldn't be in the gene pool anyway imho. As long as your temps and husbandry are dialed in, and the animal isn't sick, it will eat at some point. You can certainly keep feeding chicks and offering rats occasionally if you wish. She will eat a rat sooner or later. It may take a while but eventually chicks aren't going to be enough and she's going to want and need more food. At that point she'll eat whatever's on the menu. Best wishes and keep us posted on your progress.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I offer food. Snake eat food. Their survival instincts will eventually kick in and they'll eat anything you want them to. I've learned that sometimes it takes a bit of tough love but the hunger always wins in the end. You can try offering rats every 10-14 days. If she refuses twice on this schedule offer food every 2-4 weeks. If she goes three months without eating anything give her one feeding of her preferred prey type and start the process again.

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This is what I do as well, also when getting animals that ate live before switched to f/t. It can be frustrating but when it does finally work, very rewarding for the long haul.

Will do. I'll try to offer rats after her meal. I didn't buy her a chick last week and she turned her nose at her rat so I'll try to offer her a rat after her next chick. If not, I'll give her a month without chicks. I don't want to go further than that. She is healthy and in my rack with 20 other snakes. I don't check humidity but none have shedding issues. Temps are good too. 88 during day 80 during night. She retreats to the front of the tub when needed etc. She has the calmest disposition of all my snakes.

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

This is what I do as well, also when getting animals that ate live before switched to f/t. It can be frustrating but when it does finally work, very rewarding for the long haul.

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I switched 5 ball pythons from live to frozen and some were harder to transfer than others. In a couple weeks I'm going to increase my female rats from 4 to 20. I'm hoping thats enough to not have a need to buy bulk frozen anymore. Then all of them back to live lmao. That's the easy switch though.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I have a White Albino Retic who is just a few months old and the ONLY thing I can get her to eat is live chickens\quail. They are large meals for her, but she insists. I was told she was eating live hoppers when I bought her but she refuses any live or frozen mice\rats. Does anyone have any tips to switch her over? For now I am continuing on the live chickens.... until the local feed store realizes i'm feeding them to my snake and stops selling them to me LOL. I am downloading Tapatalk, will try to edit in pictures.

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I'd try one evening , in dim
light .... then warm up the thawed rodent with a hairdryer.... then INSTANTLY dangle it over the hide entrance..

Repeat the procedure exactly a few times ...


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

I'd try one evening , in dim
light .... then warm up the thawed rodent with a hairdryer.... then INSTANTLY dangle it over the hide entrance..

Repeat the procedure exactly a few times ...


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I thaw out a bucket of rodents every week directly in front of the rack. She flies out her tub happy for food, will crawl all over me the rat I'm holding in front of her, the lot. Looking for something other than a rat. Lol. I always feed at night.

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Caesar had his first rabbit 2 nights ago and after i tried to get him to eat it and him not registering it as food and trying to come out to play with me, I just left it on a piece of cardboard and after about 30 mins of investigating it, he ate it.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Caesar had his first rabbit 2 nights ago and after i tried to get him to eat it and him not registering it as food and trying to come out to play with me, I just left it on a piece of cardboard and after about 30 mins of investigating it, he ate it.

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I've left both frozen and live meals in her cage overnight. She doesn't go for it (although I have a boa who will Only eat if I leave his food on the floor)

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I've had success with "chaining" prey items before (not with a retic but other snakes including BPs) so I'd definitely try that. Also, another post suggested
scenting the rats with chicks (I think the rat odor would be the stronger one though) but what about some dirty chicken feathers stuck onto damp (f/t) rats?
Assuming you can find someone to give you some dirty chicken litter with feathers...I think they should stick to a wet rat. OK, you'll get some weird looks for
asking but that's better than $6 a chick, ya?

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I've had success with "chaining" prey items before (not with a retic but other snakes including BPs) so I'd definitely try that. Also, another post suggested
scenting the rats with chicks (I think the rat odor would be the stronger one though) but what about some dirty chicken feathers stuck onto damp (f/t) rats?
Assuming you can find someone to give you some dirty chicken litter with feathers...I think they should stick to a wet rat. OK, you'll get some weird looks for
asking but that's better than $6 a chick, ya?

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This is a similar conversation to one I was having with some coworkers about my snakes recently. I had purchased what was supposed to be a captive bred Solomon Island ground boa eating live mice. Ummm, not so much. After the show and well after the sale, I reached out to the vendor due to feeding issues. Discovered he was wild caught and preferred geckos. Great. I purchased a gecko, which was left in the same enclosure. Didn’t eat the gecko. Over time I fed him house geckos with very limited success. I also rubbed live pinkies on the gecko...stressful for the pinkies and the gecko...also with limited success. Eventually discovered that he would eat fuzzy/hopper field mice. For a couple of years my Mom raised field mice for my snake...wild caught field mice from the Home Depot where she worked, where we luckily captured a pair.

On a similar note, a friend had a hatchling king that wouldn’t eat rodents. We kept the shed skins from my hatchling corns and stuffed the pinkies into little cut tubes of shed skin. It worked like a charm and we were eventually able to stop using the sheds. All this to say, if you use chicken bedding or feathers, or rub the rat sufficiently on the preferred prey item, you can often wear down their resistance if you aren’t willing to let your snake go without food until it decides its hungry enough to eat what is on offer. And I do understand the reluctance to wait on the feeding response to kick in, especially during my early years of snake keeping and having snakes on a feeding strike. It can be nerve racking...as I’ve recently experienced with my hatchling lemonblast.

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Originally Posted by Dianne

...We kept the shed skins from my hatchling corns and stuffed the pinkies into little cut tubes of shed skin. It worked like a charm and we were eventually able to stop using the sheds.....

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:gj: That's what I love about keeping snakes...the creativity & "problem-solving" involved. I don't feel good waiting out hunger strikes either, because it weakens
their immune systems eventually & if there's any little underlying issues that we don't know about they can make some headway.

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Originally Posted by Jnksnakes

I've left both frozen and live meals in her cage overnight. She doesn't go for it (although I have a boa who will Only eat if I leave his food on the floor)

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Hmm guess i got lucky then. My only problem feeder was Luna the dumerils when i was switching her from mice to rats. Scenting, braining, nothing worked. I had to just make her wait about 3-4 weeks with no food and then lay a thawed rat on cardboard and she came over to check it out and finally ate it. She still wont eat rats if you present them to her. She is terrified of them and will machine gun strike them and then haul butt out of the area. I have to lay them down about 6 inches from her on cardboard and she will come over and eat it.

My boas are garbage cans and will eat anything. I've even had them strike at the cardboard i use on their floor for feeding since it smelled like a mouse, rat, quail or whatever.

But otherwise, i've never had an issue switching anyone over. Even my JCP who would only eat live black mice at night got switched over to FT rats. Although i never could break her of her habit to strike me about 50% of the time if i even put my hand inside the cage.

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Originally Posted by Dianne

This is a similar conversation to one I was having with some coworkers about my snakes recently. I had purchased what was supposed to be a captive bred Solomon Island ground boa eating live mice. Ummm, not so much. After the show and well after the sale, I reached out to the vendor due to feeding issues. Discovered he was wild caught and preferred geckos. Great. I purchased a gecko, which was left in the same enclosure. Didn’t eat the gecko. Over time I fed him house geckos with very limited success. I also rubbed live pinkies on the gecko...stressful for the pinkies and the gecko...also with limited success. Eventually discovered that he would eat fuzzy/hopper field mice. For a couple of years my Mom raised field mice for my snake...wild caught field mice from the Home Depot where she worked, where we luckily captured a pair.

On a similar note, a friend had a hatchling king that wouldn’t eat rodents. We kept the shed skins from my hatchling corns and stuffed the pinkies into little cut tubes of shed skin. It worked like a charm and we were eventually able to stop using the sheds. All this to say, if you use chicken bedding or feathers, or rub the rat sufficiently on the preferred prey item, you can often wear down their resistance if you aren’t willing to let your snake go without food until it decides its hungry enough to eat what is on offer. And I do understand the reluctance to wait on the feeding response to kick in, especially during my early years of snake keeping and having snakes on a feeding strike. It can be nerve racking...as I’ve recently experienced with my hatchling lemonblast.

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The guy I purchased her from is fairly reputable. He said he remembers the snake ( he wholesaled it to someone I knew and I bought it from them at the expo ) and it only had 2 live hopper meals before shipping out. (He usually waits 3-4 to sell). So I believe him that she was eating, but with 2 environmental changes AND an expo to stress her out, I understand why she could be kind of picky. She has no problem with handling, as a matter of fact she's the most docile snake I own atm. I might try "scenting" rats. Who knows. I feed today so I am going to offer her live and frozen rats again.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Caesar had his first rabbit 2 nights ago and after i tried to get him to eat it and him not registering it as food and trying to come out to play with me, I just left it on a piece of cardboard and after about 30 mins of investigating it, he ate it.

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The first time I offered Rainbow a rabbit, she sniffed it then looked at me like "What the heck is this? Where is my rat or chicken?" and waited almost 10 min before eating it. I guess hunger was stronger than her being challenged to eat something new.

Lmao. Local pet shop sold me a frozen guinea pig instead of a Jumbo Rat. I didn't notice somehow but my wife did. It finally made sense why my burm was like "WTF IS THAT? WHERE'S MY RAT????". He eventually ate it when I left it in there but refused to strike it. He was not a happy camper lmao.