1 out of 3 ate their first F/T weanling...

Well, I thought I'd place an order for some F/T's from Edna and The Mouse Factory...Great customer service, extremely friendly and very nice F/T rats...

Well, tonight I tried...Did the ziplock in hot water and then blow dry the head...Used some tongs and put the weaning in with my Mojo and BANG!!! Took it...I was like SWEET...Thought "piece of cake"...Spoke too soon!!!

Got another did the same process and no matter how long I did the zombie dance or what type of zombie dance I did...The other two wouldn't bite...I tried slow zombie'ing, break zombie'ing, almost thought about putting a pole in my cage to do some dirty zombie'ing...I know I probably added to their not taking it by all the activity, but I was calmer than my explanation...

All said and done, at least one eats the F/T tonight...We'll see what happens the next feeding time...And a couple weeks down the road I'll try them again with the others...

congrats on the mojo eating!! just be paitient they will come around with time. and good luck.

P&P, heat is the key. I would bet that the rodents were cooling down the whole time you were dancing with the stars.

Try blasting them with a hair dryer right before you present them to each snake.

I keep them in the hot water in double baggies so they stay dry right up until the minute I "serve" them to my girl. They're still nice and toasty and she comes flying out of her hide like a freight train every time. I actually get startled half the time lol.

Good point...All the dancing could've cooled off the little guys...I'll try again tonight and heat them up like they were Lawrence Taylor on Dancing with the Stars...

Side Question: Are there any chain stores that sell hemostats? The tongs I'm using are kinda clunky...

i found some pretty long feeding tongs at petsmart, but im in canada so i dunno if you can get them in the states...

they are supposed to be for feeding other critters but they work great! they even have little grips at the ends so you dont accidently drop the mouse wile "zombie dancing"

Unsure, my set of tongs is just a plastic doohicky from petsmart. They work fine for what I need them to. You can always order a good set online.

Thanks...I'll swing by PetSmart and see what they have until I can order a hemostat online...

DANG IT!!!!

Well, I tried again...Major blast from the hair drier, all thawed and no go from the two that wouldn't eat last night...

On the good side...I thought, hey I'll warm it up again and see if the Mojo will eat another weanling...Blast from the hair dryer and BANG!!! Snatched up another F/T weaning...

So 0 for 2 on two BP's that wouldn't eat last night and 2 for 2 on my Mojo Leilani...

Any suggestions??? I thought about trying every day and when they're hungry, they might eat? Or should I feed them live a couple of times and then try F/T again?

Have you tried pre scenting the room. try this: the night before the feeding move the mice from the freezer to the refrigerator, then the next day the mice should be a little thawed out. next take the mice out on the day of feeding in the morning and put them on a paper plate in the same room as the snakes. leave them there all day to defrost and scent the room up real good. then about 5 that afternoon come in and give them a good blast with the hairdryer, id say about 3 minutes. then present the mouse to the snake and see what happens. sometime pre scenting is the key to get there mouth watering.

Hi,

You should really just wait till the next scheduled feeding day.

Offering them food everyday will only stress them out and actually decrease the chances they will eat for you.

I would also not feed the mojo till the next scheduled day - let it digest its meal and get nice and hungry for next time. Keep an eye on its behaviour and if it is showing no sign of hunting behaviour consider giving it a couple of extra days maybe.

If you keep offering the two non F/T eaters and then feeding it to the mojo you will in all likelyhood end up with three non-feeders when the mojo feels overfed and decides to stop eating. ;)

When some of mine are being predictably fussy I do it this way;

I defrost only what I know will be eaten the first week - in your case you have one that will eat happily so you could try defrosting only one but offering it to the two non-feeders first. (heat it up between times obviously ).

If one of them eats it great. :gj: - you can defrost another one the next day and try the other non-eater first that night. If none of the non-eaters wants it then you feed it to the mojo and you have tried all three animals and not wasted any food.

The second week I hope they will be a little hungrier so tend to defrost two - if I end up throwing the second one out then its back to one for a coupel of weeks.

Of course if they are all hungry you end up with two snakes that smell food but aren't getting any - but hey, you have to suffer for your hobby on occasion. :P

But between feedings double check all husbandry, think if there is any way you can make them feel more secure in case that is the problem, and resist the temptation to handle them in case that helps.

You can also get some nice deals on hemostats on ebay - I see them under "international sellers" all the time. :salute:

Oh and by the way;

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pitsandpythons

no matter how long I did the zombie dance or what type of zombie dance I did...The other two wouldn't bite...I tried slow zombie'ing, break zombie'ing, almost thought about putting a pole in my cage to do some dirty zombie'ing...

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Utter, utter class. :bow: :bow:


dr del

UPDATE!!!!

All 3 ate the F/T weanlings today...:banana:

Thanks for all the suggestions...Did the same process but danced less and zapped them longer and quicker with the hair dryer...

My mojo is on her 3rd F/T and the others have just had their first...Hopefully this will be the start of moving over to F/T for good...

FT is so ridiculously easy. I've never fed live and hope to never have to but its so nice just going to the freezer, grabbing their dinner, thawing it and feeding. No running to the store to get live feeders, no having to kill them if the snake doesn't eat them, WAY cheaper and no danger to the snakes. I am NOT trying to start a debate here lol, I am just listing the benefits. If you feed live and prefer that way then more power to you, its how it happens out in the wild.

Okay...This will be my last update, but I'm stoked after what just happened...:banana:

I thawed my 3 weanling and BAM in less than 5 minutes give or take a few to run to the laundry room and get another baggied rat and blow dry zapp them...All 3 ate their F/T meals today...

You can not believe how relieved I am...I think they might now be transferred over to F/T...Most have done 2 meals and one has done 4...

Do you think I'm out of the woods and can stock up on my F/T Rats?

Hi,

It does sound like our on the way at least - I like to use 3 as the magic number for claiming a pattern but lets see what the others give as their numbers. :)


dr del

I have 2 snakes that have eaten f/t exactly once, and refused it all other times offered. One of those is a corn! So I would say while it is a very good indication that because they have taken the f/t more than once that they will continue to eat it, it is also possible for a snake to take f/t on occasion and refuse it most of the time. So I'd say not quite out of the woods.

Congrats on the progress you have made so far though!

Okay...Sorry had to post from tonight's feeding...I did my thawing process...Got the hairdryer out...Started the blow dry on the first weanling and next thing I knew all of them were out of their hides staring at me...KINDA CREEPY!!! This never happened with any of my boas when I had normal feeding live rats on regular feeding days...However, all 3 ate F/T again...3 down minimum for each...When they get full grown, I'll be really scared seeing them all stare at me from the front of my RBI cages...

Was it the hair dryer or the air blowing the rat scent around? Or them thinking I'm a 200lb rat and they were hungry? No comment on the last part :)