slight feeding prob

[Dragons91RS]

I have a little bit of a feeding problem with Mephisto.
when he tags his food he doesnt keep hold of it, but rather immedatly lets go. this is a problem because he wont strike any thing that doesnt move.

after trying with the F/T mouse many times today I gave in and got him live.
he ate it but not befor having some of the same problems. I held the mouse in the air he struck at it droped it, when it ran around he just sat there making no movement.
when the mouse would stand in one place for a few seconds he'd start to get intrested again, but if it moved b4 he was ready he'd just lay his head back down. finally the mouse stayed in one place long enough and he got it.

has any body else had a problem like this? any one have any ideas for me to try? and last is this some thing that just do to how young he is, and the fact he's probably only been fed pinkies or fuzzies up to this point he doesnt quite know how to strike and keep hold yet, but will get better over time?

[gozetec02]

That sounds like he is striking in self defence instead of a feeding strike. What I do is instead of a live rodent knock it out get some tongs and do the mousey dance. If that don't work kill the mouse and put the mouse and the snake in a dark container for a little while and check back about 15 minutes. He might not feel secure enough to feed. When a snake feed it leaves them exposed a vulnurable. But it doesnt seem like a feeding response but more like a self defence response.

[Dragons91RS]

I suppose it could be a self defence strike, but dont think so.
when I dangle the food(or rather do the mousey dance) he will flick his tongue, and follow it around same as our other BP. all actions leading up to the strike are identical.
it's just he strikes and after he gets it he lets go, and if it doesnt move he wont strike at all. once he does get it he's very aggressive, in that he kills it very quickly, and immedatly starts to swallow it.
I can say almost for sure after 2 feedings that he has a prefrence for live

Id also like to note another reason I dont think his strike is self defence. this BP is over all very timid. any time any thing spooks him at all he balls up. not once when trying to feed has he balled up.

[Marla]

Try tugging back a little bit after he grabs hold so he thinks there's some resistance but no threat. That may get a better response out of him.

[Smulkin]

After having transitioned all our snakes (except our finicky lil blood) to f/t I was expecting problems with our new BP. I had been assured by the guy who used to have her that she refused to eat anything but live over a yer's time, but went ahead and thawed one out for her yesterday figuring I had nothing to lose but a mousesicle. The zombified mouse dance wasn't doing much until (as in the case of all the others) I danced it across the floor to make little shuffling noises. The minute it stopped moving she seemed to lose interest - took about 3 minutes of doing the dead-mouse jig (away and back - not keeping it up in her face or anything they don't seem to go for that) before she struck and took it.

Temperature of the f/t mouse is important - if it's not putting off enough heat no make a decent impression to their heat sensors the scent alone may not do the trick. The first couple of feeds for our youngest BP's required actually holding the mouses nose to a heatlamp for a few seconds to actually get thier interest primed enough to eat. As time has passed I can now just lay the f/t in front of the hide entrance and walk away. This last weekend the AfRock for the first time just began swallowing the mouse straightaway - no striking or coiling involved.

We usually thaw in ziplocs in sink-hot water then lay them out under a heatlamp a lil bit if there's moisture from thawing still sogging down the hair.

G'luck!