Hi gang... checking in...

[Hoomi]

I haven't been over here lately; been busy with other things.

Let's see... all three of the Ball Pythons are healthy and doing fine. I finally figured out Dixie's feeding preferences. The folks I bought her from had said they'd been feeding her live, and all my attempts so far to feed her frozen have been unsuccessful. I e-mailed the dealer a week and a half ago, but never heard back from them. I'm not sure if the message ended up lost in the holiday weekend shuffle, or if they simply weren't concerned enough to bother replying.

I had tried her on a live rat a while back, but she seemed more intimidated by it than interested. She was plenty big enough to take it (she's pushing 3 foot), but when she showed no interest in it, I removed it from the enclosure before it could turn the tables and chew on her.

We visited a new pet shop in town tonight, and they had mice on special for 88 cents. I decided "what the heck... for 88 cents, if she doesn't eat it, Phil or Magellan will". When I dropped it in her enclosure, it started nosing around her hide and she struck at it, more of a "don't get too close" strike. The mouse fled to the opposite corner, and Dixie immediately crawled out and started positioning herself. She slowly kept bringing a bit more of her body into position, zig-zagging herself in preparation to strike out, and just waited until the mouse finally ventured close enough. When it did, I was pleased to see her hit it, hold it, and constrict it.

It wasn't much more than a snack for a snake her size, but it's the only thing she's eaten since I brought her home in mid March. Now that I know she'll eat live mice, I can start working on switching her over to PK, and hopefully eventually to PK rats. I'm guessing now that she was only fed live mice, and as yet she still doesn't associate the rat smell with food. I'll give her some time to digest the small mouse, and try her on a F/T mouse and see if I can coax her into taking that.

On other news, I'm probably going to end up with another BP, as a co-worker's niece has one that she thinks is "too mean" and just wants to find a new home for it. It sounds like it's younger than Phil and Magellan (Phil is about a year now, and I think Magellan is a bit younger), so I'm hoping with a little patience and work, I can calm it down to be handleable again.

[rex322]

good luck with switchin and the ball! let us know how it goes!

[Ironhead]

Been wondering where you have been Hoomi.....Now if we can figure out where Randy P. is?

[The_Godfather]

Hoomi, we've missed you man! You're part of the original bp.net crew!

[elevatethis]

Hoomi, I am completely clueless as far as your experience with bp's so forgive me if you already are aware of the suggestion I am about to make, but welcome back, theres a lot of new people on here (including myself)- I recently switched my jan 04 bp to rats, and I used the mouse bedding technique to scent the rat. You basically just let the rat (if live) crawl around in some mouse bedding for some time before offering it to the snake. After that, it should smell enough like a mouse to get your snake interested if its really smell thats keeping it from rats. Worked for me, just thought I'd throw that out.

[Hoomi]

Hi Brad... yep, I'm aware of that technique, and will likely use something similar to try and switch Dixie over to rats. Part of the problem was simply not knowing what it was she WOULD eat. Now that I know, that's one less thing to have to try and figure out.

I guess the mistake I made initially is assuming that, from her size, she'd already been switched over to rats. When she showed no interest in rats, I then had to try and figure out if she was simply "off her feed", or whether rats didn't register as food. I was just about ready to try her on a gerbil instead, as I had tried her on a F/T mouse before. I fear the freezing process may sometimes alter the smell of the prey, which may account for her showing no interest in the mouse before.

Lesson learned is get SPECIFIC information on what the snake has been eating and work from there. Just because she's big enough that most mice barely rate an appetizer for her doesn't mean that wasn't the staple of her diet. The mouse she took last night was small enough that it barely stretched her neck on the way down, but at least she ate it. The way she kept watching the far corner of her enclosure, I think she might have been hoping for another...

[Smynx]

Good to see you again, Hoomi, and glad to hear everyone is doing well.