BP wants to eat, but doesn't "get it"?

[jjc]

Okay, so I've been sparing you my personal mini-drama of Simon not eating for a month. The first refusal (an actual refusal) wasn't too worrisome, since he was in shed. However, he didn't eat on three more occasions. Okay, so BPs fast, they're highly sensitive to husbandry issues, they won't die if they miss a few feedings, etc. The thing is, the poor little bugger wanted to eat, but each time (after the first refusal) couldn't seem to get the damned rodent down the right way! He'd try and try to eat it sideways until finally giving up and going back in his hide.

Finally, today, he actually eats, but after a good while of trying to eat it the wrong way. The poor little guy was so hungry, he actually struck and coiled (a first) when I was lowering the rat into his enclosure. It startled me half to death, but good for him.

Until this month, he's been a total champ about eating, but after a month of wasted rat pups, I was wondering if maybe he should be riding a short bus. Is this something he'll outgrow, or do you guys have adult snakes that are generally good eaters, but just a little dumb about the logistics?

[Kaorte]

Are you feeding F/T? I would try heating up the rats head with a hair dryer right before offering it so the snake can find the head easily.

Also, how big is the snake? I have noticed that if the prey item is too small or too large, the snake has a hard time finding a logical way to swallow it.

[ballbreeder]

Are you feeding F/T? I would try heating up the rats head with a hair dryer right before offering it so the snake can find the head easily.

Also, how big is the snake? I have noticed that if the prey item is too small or too large, the snake has a hard time finding a logical way to swallow it.

I agree, they are very heat based feeders. Also, I'd like to add that in my experiences, BPs have a really great ability to learn. I've had many babies that were . . . let's just say not the brightest, when it came to feeding, such as totally missing pray when it's standing still, eating backwards (butt first), not eating a rat pup, but eating a mouse. It seems that when they finally do it correctly, they don't go back to their bad habits. Or in the case of not eating rats, once you do get them to, they'll gobble them up all the time. I think that if your snake does end up eating correctly a couple times, you won't have any trouble in the future.

[seeya205]

Try live! If he eats it right then you just are heating it wrong like Kaorte said!

[jjc]

I'd lean more toward the prey items being too large than being too cold. He typically roams for an hour or more before taking his f/t rodent, so they've certainly cooled off by then. The recent rat pups have been between 15-20% of his body weight (my local supplier isn't very consistent with the frozen prey items, and Petco jumps from adult mice to gigantic rats).

Today, he ignored his f/t rat for hours before I reheated it (in just very hot water) and was reintroducing it on tongs when he struck and coiled. I am religious about heating his prey items, and I use the hair dryer to the head every time. As I said, he usually roams for a while, so the prey item has certainly cooled off by then. He used to eat like a champ. I'll attempt live, if I have to, but I am not convinced he needs to be fed live just yet. As I said, he definitely wants to eat, bites his prey, struggles with it forever, but has recently been unable to sort it out. I was going to go buy him a bunch of mice fuzzies to give him something he could swallow, no matter how wrong he was in his approach.

I think it was probably more of an issue with the size of his prey and/or his inexperience. It's just nice to know they get "smarter" about eating as they get older. These rat pups aren't nearly as fat as he is, so I don't think they're way too big, but if you go by the scale, I can see that some would suggest that they're too big. I'll take that into account and feed him smaller prey items for a bit.