my bp will not take a white rat

i have been wondering why my bp has not been eating. well i figured it out. i was talking to my friend about my pastel skipping a few meals. he asked me what color i was giving him and i told him white. he said, "theres your problem". so i went to the store and got a white one and a black one. i put the white one in there for about 45min and he did not seem interested. as soon as put in the black one he struck and coil fast.


my question is do bp know what color their prey is, and are they attracted to different colors? any input would be appreciated.

thanks

ive heard about this two...but doubted the theory because snakes see heat right? not color....but ive heard a lot of instances where this happens so i dunno....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MUSTANGGTANDGSXR

i have been wondering why my bp has not been eating. well i figured it out. i was talking to my friend about my pastel skipping a few meals. he asked me what color i was giving him and i told him white. he said, "theres your problem". so i went to the store and got a white one and a black one. i put the white one in there for about 45min and he did not seem interested. as soon as put in the black one he struck and coil fast.


my question is do bp know what color their prey is, and are they attracted to different colors? any input would be appreciated.

thanks

---

i talked to a breeder today, Morphmakers, he said pastel generally well not go for rats. but go crazy over mice. but he did say that pastels are not to crazy about white rats. i have never seen my pastel eat a white rat. only white/black ones or African black rats

so we might be on to something here with these pastels

anyone else have the same problem???

Actually my pastel won't eat white rats either. He'll eat a white and black rat, black and white, and white and tan. It's odd some people thought I was nuts when I said this before in another post about the same subject.

Just had my female pastel eat a white rat pup this morning. And one last friday.

I figured out the trick is to get the head really warm, and hold it about inches from her, then move it rapidly to one direction or another until she notices, becomes enticed, and preps to attack. Took about 30 minutes on friday, took 10 today.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I do feed live.

I don't think your nuts, lol. One of the first things I read when looking into BP husbandry was that some snakes will only strike at things of certain colours. Such as what is happening here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zombie&lemons

i talked to a breeder today, Morphmakers, he said pastel generally well not go for rats. but go crazy over mice. but he did say that pastels are not to crazy about white rats. i have never seen my pastel eat a white rat. only white/black ones or African black rats

so we might be on to something here with these pastels

anyone else have the same problem???

---

I used to have a normal back in the day that would not for anything eat a white rat , only white and black.

I have a lemon pastel who has no problem eating white rats...

I guess I will find out as I just picked up a pastel. this interests me.... not sure if I believe yet though.

I don't have a pastel but have a similar problem, bu the other way around. My Ball will take white mice, but not black mice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zombie&lemons

i talked to a breeder today, Morphmakers, he said pastel generally well not go for rats. but go crazy over mice. but he did say that pastels are not to crazy about white rats. i have never seen my pastel eat a white rat. only white/black ones or African black rats

so we might be on to something here with these pastels

anyone else have the same problem???

---

All of my pastels go crazy over rats. I don't feed mice.

We actually have a 5 year old male ball which my son calls "racist" because he will not eat anything white, mice or rats. We've even joked around about puting a little diluted blue food color on a white mouse to see if we could trick him. He is always curious when given a white food item, but upon closer examination, he simply backs off and coils back up.....

When my normal was younger (6+ years ago) she would only eat all white, or all black rats. I feed F/T and if I tired to give her a hooded one with a black head, she would try to swallow sideways from the shoulders (like the head wasn't even there.) It took a while but she finally figured it out and will now eat anything.

wow... more people than i thought. maybe there is something with this.

All my pastels eat any color rat on the face of the planet.

Did your switch in color correspond to a switch in supplier or food for the rats? It may have had a different smell.

JonV

nope, same place i've been getting them from

just out of curiosity, what do you use for substrate? i use paper towels, and i have a similar "problem" with my yellowbelly. i just assumed he was having difficulty tracking a white rat on the white substrate. so if i put an all white feeder in his enclosure, he'll strike, but it takes him longer than if the feeder is marked or colored in some fashion. i understand they use their labial heat sensors to paint a thermal "picture" of their environment, but surely they rely somewhat on optical stimuli too. or maybe not so much when hunting?

Your BP is racist.

One of my pastels switched from mice to rats in one night. He takes white, black, male, female (I keep track of these things). My other pastel is a mouse-eater. I did have one normal BP that preferred black rats/mice to white, though. But all of my others take any color/sex.

My pastels eat any color rat. I don't feed mice. Sometimes they get a black sometimes white, sometimes hooded (black and white), or tan or hairless or...well you get the idea.

My pastel male eats white rats every week :gj: Don't know about the female I just got from Adam though, I will find out this week. He said she was a strong feeder so I don't anticipate any problems with her eating white rats either.

I have a few pastels who are mouse eaters(color makes no difference) and one who will eat anything you put in front of her. I definately don't think the morph has anything to do with it.

well im currently feeding tie-dyed rats and my guys just love them. I take a white rat and get an egg coloring kit and dunk them. its fun for the snakes.:gj:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gu1do24

well im currently feeding tie-dyed rats and my guys just love them. I take a white rat and get an egg coloring kit and dunk them. its fun for the snakes.:gj:

---

LOL!

I've heard of snakes being picky about the color, or even sex of their meals. I have not personally experienced it. I have one corn and one BP who mostly refuse to eat f/t (each one has taken exactly one f/t meal), and one other BP who sometimes will strike & constrict its meal, but then never actually eat it. I thought I was noticing a pattern with that one that it would only eat smaller meals, but then one day I didn't have an appropriately small meal for it, so I figured may as well try something a little bigger, and it ate that just fine, so now I have no idea what is up with that snake other than just really picky.

Other than those 3, I've had a few that were a little slow to get started on a good eating routine when I got them, but the rest of my snakes don't seem to care about color, sex, f/t, live, etc.

Do you think food coloring is in any way harmful to ball pythons? I would love to see some of you guys with picky eaters test this theory out.

i have a pastel that only eats mice. he will take a white mouse in a couple seconds but he will not take a black or brown one for about 30 min.

My pastels eat rats and they eat rats of any color.

My axanthic will only eat white rats :rolleye2:

*****update****

i put a white mouse in the feeding tank and he took it within 15min. so maybe i didnt give him enough time before.

my BP has rejected 2 white fuzzies, he tends to like the white grey colored ones. I was told my the breeder i got it from that white might be troublesome. so i guess its true.

my pastel ate a white rat last time i fed him.... I saved a white one just for him and he gobbled it right up. faster then the others actually.

I have some that will only take white rodents and some that will only take them if they have at least some brown on them. Most of them don't care. I believe that some of them imprint on the color of prey that they were given when young.

my BP just ate 2 white fuzzies for the first time ever tonight one after the other live, bang bang.

no tricks. guess i retract my previous clame that he wont eat white either.