Both refused....

This is why i hate f/t. 10 bucks of overpriced petco food down the drain. They both refused tonight. I want to keep trying f/t because f/t will be the cheaper way to feed them in the long run. I can't keep a rodent colony right now. I have to use RodentPro and I'm pissed at the prices at PetCo.

Their action really have me worried and frustrated. The male showed intrest and kept flicking his tongue while i was holding the rat doing the dance but he never struck. I thought maybe it was too cold and warmed the rat up again and he still didn't go for it. After a few minutes, he just balled up and acted scared of the rat.

The female showed absolutly no interest. she acted scared from the second i started dangling her food in front of her, doing the dance and everything else.

I am so bummed. i thought for sure tonight was going to be a snap, but boy was I wrong.

I'm starting to think they may be super stressed out from the trip last week..i dunno what else to do but attempt to feed again in an hour or so. I have a medium rat that is still thawing that was supposed to be for the female. If she's not interested in the small rat, then she won't be interested in the medium rat.

Make the rats do the cha-cha next time, I hear snakes like that dance.....lol sorry :D


I've never tried f/t feeding, only live. Petco does suck though...

i was doing that but they're not at all interested. It's too late to hit up petco for a live meal.

Nate,i know Rusty only feeds live so they have no clue what that thing is i am sure.

yeah i know. Live is my preference. but it's also out of my budget. :(

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

yeah i know. Live is my preference. but it's also out of my budget. :(

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What the price differance from the frozen to live?

live should be about $1 a pop for live hoppers right? (i'm guessing $1.99 if your going to petco..) When you say they what snakes are you refering to? I didn't know you obtained any? Are they HETS? Are they normals? Have any pics?

live all the way! woot!

How are you heating them up. I put mine's dinner under a heat lamp for a few, right before I feed, to get the head area nice and warm. Mine was eating live and did have a few P/K but, he ate F/T for me 3 times so far. Maybe it's not hot enough to seem like live to them (just a thought)

Ok well here's an update....i guess the female was just pissy the first time around, but this time when i opened the enclosure she was READY for some food...she struck and missed about 5 times!!! :O then started hissing..she is peeeeoooo'd.....so i'm gonna wait around for a few more minutes while the rat warms up again....I *think* the rat was just not warm enough. Right now, the rats are sitting on a table with a lamp hovering right above them to get them nice and heated.

The male still is still showing interest for a split second and then is like :bolt: WHAT IS THAT!?! GET IT AWAY EEEWEWEWEWWWW

You could try warming up the mouse by giving it a shot with a hair dryer. Doesn't smell the best but it bumps up the heat signature of the f/t rat really well. If your snakes seem shy you could also try just leaving the mouse at the outside of hide, sometimes they'll take it sometimes they won't. Feeding f/t is about patience and persistence.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

What the price differance from the frozen to live?

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A live medium rat from petco is about 5+. After shipping and handling is all said and done, the f/t rats from RodentPro comes out to around 1.70 each.

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

A live medium rat from petco is about 5+. After shipping and handling is all said and done, the f/t rats from RodentPro comes out to around 1.70 each.

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Holy macarooni $5+ for a rat :O .Nate,see if you can find a herp club in your area and see if one of the members raise rodents.

Oh man. I get a small/med rat for a $1.00 here from a local breeder feeder!
That price is crazy!

Nate try putting the F/T rat and the snake both in a pillow case and leave them like that overnight, i have heard alot of snakes feeding that way no problem to get they started. I would also go from live-P/K-F/T. I gas my rats just before feeding, i use a converted CO2 tank for paintball to pump gas into the box i get them.


wildlifewarrior

Update!

I know some people have success just dropping the dead rat in and letting the snake do it's thing, so i thought i'd give that a try.

The good news is I woke up this morning and the rat in the males cage was gone...so he ate!! (yessssss!)

The bad news is even after the female showed an excellent feeding response last night by striking at the rat about 5 times and missing, I put both the medium and small rat in in hopes she would take interest in one. She refused both. I think I will buy a live small rat today just to make sure she gets fed this week...I have a feeling she is hungry, especially after seeing her snap at the food last night...

Are you aware that attempting to feed your snake day so often is probably adding stress which is making whatever problem they had before even worse.

If your snake refuses food, wait at least one week until attempting to feed them again.

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

Update!

I know some people have success just dropping the dead rat in and letting the snake do it's thing, so i thought i'd give that a try.

The good news is I woke up this morning and the rat in the males cage was gone...so he ate!! (yessssss!)

The bad news is even after the female showed an excellent feeding response last night by striking at the rat about 5 times and missing, I put both the medium and small rat in in hopes she would take interest in one. She refused both. I think I will buy a live small rat today just to make sure she gets fed this week...I have a feeling she is hungry, especially after seeing her snap at the food last night...

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Nate....congrats on getting the male to eat! On the female though, I would hold off and try again in a week. It's very likely that she was striking out of fear rather than hunger and she may be feeling pretty stressed out right now. Introducing a live rat at this point may be more harmful than good.

It won't hurt her one single bit to not eat this week. Give her another week to just chill and get more comfortable in her new home. Then decide if you want to feed live or f/t. If you WANT to feed f/t, but give in and offer her live, you won't gain any progress in the f/t "struggle." If you're sure you want to stick with f/t, then offer it to her next week with a nice warm heat signature and no weird dancing...just put it in her tub, close it up and leave her alone and maybe she'll take it.

Nate,
I know what your going through, when we got our BP's they were only live fed, but I really wanted them to eat F/T, so I went to petco and picked up 2 bags of small rats. Well I didnt realize until I got home that I had paid $7.99 for 3 small rats, and they were crappy looking none the less. And after trying them on the snakes there was no luck, and yes I got the tongs and made them do the "cha-ha" lol, and still nothing, just me looking like a fool with this dancing dead rat. So $14.00 was down the drain for us. (and of coarse it was the middle of the night so I couldnt run up there to get live) so the next day I went up and bought live, only to figure out it was 3.99 PER live rat at our Petco. :eek:
And ya know what? He refused them, so now I have had to house and feed these 4 dollar rats for over a week, which now have become like a million dollar rats lol. But I do feel alot better being able to know what there eating and what will I hope at one point go into my snake.

Brian and I have decided once we get the T3 in and get everything settled with that, were just going to breed the darn rats and mice and keep pushing them on F/T, so we can just freeze our own and not have to do this again.

I know he's stressed so I havent been pushing him to eat, Willow on the other hand is an eating machine when it came to the live mice.

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Originally Posted by JLC

Nate....congrats on getting the male to eat! On the female though, I would hold off and try again in a week. It's very likely that she was striking out of fear rather than hunger and she may be feeling pretty stressed out right now. Introducing a live rat at this point may be more harmful than good.

It won't hurt her one single bit to not eat this week. Give her another week to just chill and get more comfortable in her new home. Then decide if you want to feed live or f/t. If you WANT to feed f/t, but give in and offer her live, you won't gain any progress in the f/t "struggle." If you're sure you want to stick with f/t, then offer it to her next week with a nice warm heat signature and no weird dancing...just put it in her tub, close it up and leave her alone and maybe she'll take it.

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Wicked good stuff! ... ROCK ON Judy! :sweeet: ;)

-adam

You may also want to try, and feed a small live rat, then follow it quickly with another small frozen rat, hopefully working off of her being in "feed mode"glad to hear the male is eating way to go.

wildlifewarrior

just my two cents nate,
i just made the switch from live to f/t, wasn't even sure it'd work. stuck two frozen rats in a plastic bag, heated it up by sitting them in hot water, made sure i could feel their ribs and to the touch they were not too cold, took them out and held them with tongs up to a lightbulb that had been on-spent most time with it near the head, moved Aza's hide and dropped it in next to her, did the whole dance thing with the tongs after lightbulb heat signature bumping with Eden and struck right away. i think the key is definitely the body temp overall and doing the little bump with the head temp via a lightbulb nearby. worked well, eden constricted it forever and finally swallowed. did the same with another rat and same thing. Aza took longer to smell it out but then just swallowed it. worked out well. conclusion: light bulb by the head.

Yeah... heat is important when feeding F/T. I let mine room thaw over nite in a freezer bag and then hit them with the hairdryer right before feeding. My Ball will strike just by dropping it in. My RTB is more picky, not only do I have to make it dance, but I also have to move it around like it is walking away from him. Only then does he get nervous that it might be getting away then he strikes out of the tongs. I think he just likes to see me work at it!! :)

Peace!

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Originally Posted by Kilo

When you say they what snakes are you refering to? I didn't know you obtained any? Are they HETS? Are they normals? Have any pics?

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