Problem Eater - Any Advice?

[pinkprincess]

Hey all,

I picked up a 4 month old MBK at a local expo in September, and the breeder told me she was eating 1 F/T pinky mouse every 4-5 days. For the first couple feedings, she ate on that schedule with no problem. A couple weeks ago, however, I began having trouble getting her to eat. I live in Canada, so it's starting to get cold now, and I'm thinking I may need to add a heat lamp to her set-up, and maybe that's gonna be the answer to my problem. She's currently in a 10 gal with a heat mat. Her temps are low 70s on the cool side and 85-90 on the warm side.

I offer her 1 F/T pinky mouse every 5 days. I thaw the mouse in a container of room temperature water, and then blowdry it for a few seconds outside her cage so that she gets the scent (this works for my ball python every time). She always looks excited and will poke her head out of her hide or substrate to investigate, her tongue flicking like crazy. I use feeding tongs to dangle the mouse in front of her, about an inch from her head. Sometimes she comes out farther to sniff it, sometimes she backs off like she's afraid of it, sometimes she just completely ignores it. She rarely strikes.

Is this just normal food refusal? I'm particularly confused because she seems so interested when she smells me warming the pinky up with the hair dryer, but then acts afraid or disinterested when it's right in front of her. What should I be doing to get her eating regularly? And at what point should I be concerned about this?

Thanks for any help!

[Zincubus]

That's a puzzle ... Kings generally have a reputation for being ferocious feeders yet my yearling MBK is very calm and just slithers slowly up to the warmed up mouse and eats calmly .

[EL-Ziggy]

It is odd for such a young king to go off feed. My adult kings will take food breaks during breeding season and during the winter sometimes. My Cal King has only eaten 3x in the last 4 months but he's still active and not losing much weight. Are your prey items hot enough? Once thawed I use a blow dryer to heat the prey up to about 100F before I serve them to my snakes. It sounds like your temps are on par so as long as your husbandry is dialed in and the snake isn't losing much weight I wouldn't worry just yet. At 4 months I'd think your MBK would be eating larger prey. If she refuses a few more meals you may want to try braining the prey item and if that fails you could try a small live feeder. Sometimes a live feeder will kick start their appetite. Best wishes and keep us posted.

[daniel1983]

I would try these things in this order:

1.Make sure you husbandry is spot on. At this time of year, a cool draft or cool ambient temperatures may kick your snake into brumation mode and they will want to stop feeding consistently. If your conditions are not right, then nothing you can do to the food will help.

2.If you have a deli cup, put the snake and the pinkie in the deli cup together overnight in the dark. If you don't have a deli cup, use the smallest container you have.

3.If that feeding doesn't work. Do the same with a live pinky two days later.

If those don't work, let me know....there is a lot of stuff to try, so no worries. You shouldn't really worry unless the snake is visibly loosing weight. If it was eating steady before, it should be able to go at least 4 weeks without a meal before starting to decline in weight.

[pinkprincess]

Thanks so much to everyone who responded. I'm going to either purchase a heat lamp (with a dimmer) for her enclosure to warm it up a bit or move her to a warmer area in the house as a first step, since I am a bit worried about her temps at night when I can't monitor it, and it is getting colder. I'm also going to take the advice of EL-Ziggy and make sure the pinky is nice and warm before offering it. If that doesn't work, I'll give Daniel's deli cup idea a shot. I'll keep this thread updated with my progress as we go along here.

And, just for reference, my MBK is currently weighing in at 30 grams (although this was my first time weighing her since I brought her home... yikes). I'll be keeping a very close eye on that as well as time goes on.

[pinkprincess]

Just an update for anyone interested in this topic or following this thread: Athena is now eating!

I first moved her tank to a different spot in the room, where she is now getting better ambient temperatures. II was still having trouble getting her to eat, so I brained the next pinky I fed her, and left it in the tank and left her alone for a few hours. When I came back, it was gone. Since that meal, she's been taking the regular thawed pinkies off the feeding tongs when I offer them. I haven't had to brain another pinky for her since. She is also a lot more active. She isn't gaining weight very quickly, but she's not losing weight either, so I guess that's a good sign!

She's currently weighing in at 32 grams.

[Zincubus]

That's excellent news ... I had another 100% success rated feeding session last night .
All 21 snakes taking d/f frozen - including 6 Royals .

Perfect night apart from getting a playful nip from my Mexican Black King .. Complacency is a no - no when feeding snakes ( especially Kings ) .