New Breeder Females Won't Eat

[cschub13]

About 3 weeks ago I purchased two large normal breeder females. One is 1600g and the other is 1900g and the previous owner said he had no problems feeding them large rats everys 2 weeks. I first tried frozen rats about a week after I got them and then just the other day tried feeding them live rats. Both times they showed very little interest and now I am not sure what I should do. Any advice or previous experience with this?

[J.Vandegrift]

It's pretty common for adults to go off feed after there has been a change in their environments. Try to find out from the breeder exactly what temps he kept them at and what size caging. I wouldn't worry. They will eat when they are ready. I bet when breeding season gets close they will start eating really well for you.

Last year I drove a het lavender female to a friend up in NY. It was eating great for me, but the drive from FL to NY along with the new enclosure knocked her off feed for over 6 months.

[rj1204]

I bought 8 adult BP's within the same week 3 months ago. All of them were live feeders and i wanted to switch them to F/T. I let them adjust to their new tubs for 2 weeks and then tried feeding. Everyone ate F/T and has been eating F/T for the last 3 months......all but one. He is a 700g male bee and has showed no interest in F/T or live. I put a shoe box hide in his tub and some extra newspaper for him to hide under a month ago. I left him alone for a good month and two days ago, I put a rat pup in with him. I checked on him after 5 minutes and he had the rat pup halfway down. I guess it took him 3 months to get acclimated.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It's pretty common for adults to go off feed after there has been a change in their environments. Try to find out from the breeder exactly what temps he kept them at and what size caging. I wouldn't worry. They will eat when they are ready. I bet when breeding season gets close they will start eating really well for you.

X 2 John nailed it perfectly adult are more prone to go off feed when changing environment and at their age and weight it is not something I would be concerned about.

If they were live feeder feed them live (I would also suggest smaller preys, they don't really need a large rat) than once they start eating for you you can try to convert them.

Just keep in mind your priority is to get them to eat for you, switching is secondary.

Also keep in mind switching animal that size to F/T can take months so if you intend on breeding them this coming season you might want to re-think that and wait until after they bred and lay eggs, at that time it should be fairly easy.

[snakesRkewl]

I'd suggest offering small rats till they start eating