In need of encouragement...

*sigh*

So my beautiful little BP, Patches, has gone off food again. I've tried f/t of all ages/colors/genders/tempertures/sizes, and I've even tried live pinks a couple of times. Tips/tricks/hints/encouragement?

Patience. How long have you had him? Is your husbandry up to par? If everything is good then i suggest to just try feeding him ONCE a week (not everyday that will make it worse) just like normal, until he takes. Thats all you can do. If there is something wrong with his setup then thats a different story. :2cent:

I've had her for several months now. My husbandry is fine. Temps are good, humidity is good. I've all but stopped handling her.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that I was trying to feed more than normal. I've been trying on Monday every week.

What I'm looking for is stuff people have done that has worked. Anyone had success with chicken broth?

Sorry I've never use the soup thing.


Can only suggest from the small amount of info in the posts so far that you stop handling totally to see if it makes any difference?

Have you tried a different prey item alltogether? say chicks or gerbils? Try misting the tank an hour or so before - I had success with that once.


dr del

Quote:

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I've had her for several months now. My husbandry is fine. Temps are good, humidity is good. I've all but stopped handling her.

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When you say it is good can you describe your setup to us because in some cases I have seen people who thought everything was fine when there were some issues.

What are your temps and humidity?
What do you use to measure them? (Type of device)
How big is your BP?
How Big is the enclosure?
Can you describe your hides?

Even if the setup as been the same since the beginning overtime it can have cause your BP to go off feed if there are some issues, this is why with an idea of your setup look like we can try to narrow it down.

Has your BP has ever ate with you and if so what were you feeding him?

Patches has eaten for me many times. She is also a girl. She is one of my three. She's in a Rubermaid under my bed. It's about the size of a 10 gallon, but shorter. I use a UTH and thermostat on the warm side, which is currently 91 degrees. I use another UTH and thermostat on the cool side because the AC is always blasting. The cool side is at 80 right now. I use two big apple herp thermometers (with probes), one on each side. I have a digital humidity gauge that I got at Walmart, which currently reads 62%. She has 4 hides. Two are old butter containers which she barely fits into. One is a petstore "half log" hide. The fourth is a small sandwich tupperware container which has moss in it to make a humid hide.

She (and all my other snakes) have always eaten rats which I breed. I haven't switched out any of my breeders, changed lab blocks, or used different bedding.

I forgot: Patches is 107 grams.

Hi again,


How big is she? Does she normally eat when she's shedding and is she due for a shed cycle again at the moment? When was her last meal and what size was it?

This is like playing 20 questions. :)

Did you try the "fake nest" method at any point? And do you routinely pre-scent the room.

Also do you feed in the tub or in a seperate container?


dr del

I said she is 107 grams. She eats fine while shedding, and no, she's not due for a shed. She shed about 2 weeks ago.

I have no idea what the fake nest method is.

I do pre-scent the room, mainly because I have a bunch of mice thawing while I feed my other snakes. I feed in her viv.

Another thing I forgot: Her last meal was 11 weeks ago. She ate a 13 gram rat.

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Originally Posted by jrgh17

I said she is 107 grams. She eats fine while shedding, and no, she's not due for a shed. She shed about 2 weeks ago.

I have no idea what the fake nest method is.

I do pre-scent the room, mainly because I have a bunch of mice thawing while I feed my other snakes. I feed in her viv.

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Yes sorry about that - it took me a while to post the questions as I got distracted in the middle. :oops: This will probably happen again as I'm trying to read all the new posts on the site while doing this so I appologise in advance.

How often has she eaten for you? And how is her weight holding up after the 11 weeks? How long have you had the little girl?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jrgh17

She (and all my other snakes) have always eaten rats which I breed. I haven't switched out any of my breeders, changed lab blocks, or used different bedding.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jrgh17

I do pre-scent the room, mainly because I have a bunch of mice thawing while I feed my other snakes.

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Ok I'm going to ask for some clarifiction of that?

The fake nest trick is to put a small open topped container of used rodent bedding in the tank ( like a rodent borrow idea) and then put the prey item in there so the snake explores the nest and finds the food as it does in the wild.

I'm afraid I don't weigh the rats I feed - could you estimate the development stage for me ( I'm somewhat hard of thinking tonight )?


dr del

With the exception of her first two weeks, she's eaten (almost) every week since I got her in November of 2006. She's lost 23 grams since her last successful feed. She's not emaciated, but she definitely looks thinner.

On the mice/rats thing, that was my mistake. My roommate loves rats, so I say "mice" to make her feel better. (Yes, I know, she's nuts). I started feeding mice, but have fed solely rats since before I got Patches.

As for developmental stage: I guess I would call it a fuzzy. They all have a short layer of fur, and can crawl, but not actually walk. Eyes are still closed, and they're about two inches long.

Thanks for helping. I'm sorry if I've snapped at all, I'm just frustrated and worried.

No problem - I know just how much of a mind-scramble these little wrigglers can be.:D


It's tricky trying to decide if something changed in your husbandry or if they stopped eating for other reasons ( if fed too much they can go on a fast to let their body "catch up").

So, to recap the suggestions we have so far;


Don't handle at all in case thats causing a little extra stress,
Try the chicken broth - also consider scenting the rat with mice or gerbils or chicks,
Mist the tank before feeding,
Try the "fake nest",
Try alternative prey -F/t mouse/gerbil etc,
Put the snake and prey in a brown paper bag overnight,
As your feeding f/t you can also try braining the rat,


When she shed did she get the eyecaps off alright?


Anyone else have any good tips they want to share?


dr del

only one I can think of at the moment is the Brown Bag ..

take a brown paper bag ....place prey item in it ...add snake.... close end ( like flap it over ...replace bag in viv/tub....leave well alone ...check a few hours later or following morning if done at nite .

Yeah, the eyecaps came off fine in the last shed. I think next week I'll go out and get a gerbil to use, as that one seems to come highly recommended. I'm thinking that I can freeze it and try scenting a couple times, then feed the whole gerbil if that doesn't work.

Thanks for the help.

O.k,


Sounds like a plan - though to be honest I'd still recomend the no handling thing as well.

You might have a little trouble getting a gerbil small enough for patches to eat and they don't breed quite as much as rats so bear in mind it may be a fairly time consuming job keeping a good supply going so it needs some serious consideration between the scenting and the feeding whole gerbils step.

Thay also apparently go nuts for african soft furred rats (I think - someone correct me if I've got the name wrong please)

Fingers crossed you get her eating ok duder.:)

Oh and feel free to share any pictures of your collection - we're kind of picture addicts as I'm sure you've noticed.


dr del

What about Adam @ 8Ball's trick with the newspaper? Crumpling a bunch of newspaper into balls and filling the tub with it to make them feel more secure.

I know you had her on rats but have you tried a live mouse?