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  1. #21
    BPnet Lifer Sauzo's Avatar
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    Caesar had his first rabbit 2 nights ago and after i tried to get him to eat it and him not registering it as food and trying to come out to play with me, I just left it on a piece of cardboard and after about 30 mins of investigating it, he ate it.
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  2. #22
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    Re: Tips for picky eating Retic

    Quote Originally Posted by Sauzo View Post
    Caesar had his first rabbit 2 nights ago and after i tried to get him to eat it and him not registering it as food and trying to come out to play with me, I just left it on a piece of cardboard and after about 30 mins of investigating it, he ate it.
    I've left both frozen and live meals in her cage overnight. She doesn't go for it (although I have a boa who will Only eat if I leave his food on the floor)

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  3. #23
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    I've had success with "chaining" prey items before (not with a retic but other snakes including BPs) so I'd definitely try that. Also, another post suggested
    scenting the rats with chicks (I think the rat odor would be the stronger one though) but what about some dirty chicken feathers stuck onto damp (f/t) rats?
    Assuming you can find someone to give you some dirty chicken litter with feathers...I think they should stick to a wet rat. OK, you'll get some weird looks for
    asking but that's better than $6 a chick, ya?

  4. #24
    BPnet Veteran Dianne's Avatar
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    Re: Tips for picky eating Retic

    Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
    I've had success with "chaining" prey items before (not with a retic but other snakes including BPs) so I'd definitely try that. Also, another post suggested
    scenting the rats with chicks (I think the rat odor would be the stronger one though) but what about some dirty chicken feathers stuck onto damp (f/t) rats?
    Assuming you can find someone to give you some dirty chicken litter with feathers...I think they should stick to a wet rat. OK, you'll get some weird looks for
    asking but that's better than $6 a chick, ya?
    This is a similar conversation to one I was having with some coworkers about my snakes recently. I had purchased what was supposed to be a captive bred Solomon Island ground boa eating live mice. Ummm, not so much. After the show and well after the sale, I reached out to the vendor due to feeding issues. Discovered he was wild caught and preferred geckos. Great. I purchased a gecko, which was left in the same enclosure. Didn’t eat the gecko. Over time I fed him house geckos with very limited success. I also rubbed live pinkies on the gecko...stressful for the pinkies and the gecko...also with limited success. Eventually discovered that he would eat fuzzy/hopper field mice. For a couple of years my Mom raised field mice for my snake...wild caught field mice from the Home Depot where she worked, where we luckily captured a pair.

    On a similar note, a friend had a hatchling king that wouldn’t eat rodents. We kept the shed skins from my hatchling corns and stuffed the pinkies into little cut tubes of shed skin. It worked like a charm and we were eventually able to stop using the sheds. All this to say, if you use chicken bedding or feathers, or rub the rat sufficiently on the preferred prey item, you can often wear down their resistance if you aren’t willing to let your snake go without food until it decides its hungry enough to eat what is on offer. And I do understand the reluctance to wait on the feeding response to kick in, especially during my early years of snake keeping and having snakes on a feeding strike. It can be nerve racking...as I’ve recently experienced with my hatchling lemonblast.

  5. #25
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    Re: Tips for picky eating Retic

    Quote Originally Posted by Dianne View Post
    ...We kept the shed skins from my hatchling corns and stuffed the pinkies into little cut tubes of shed skin. It worked like a charm and we were eventually able to stop using the sheds.....
    That's what I love about keeping snakes...the creativity & "problem-solving" involved. I don't feel good waiting out hunger strikes either, because it weakens
    their immune systems eventually & if there's any little underlying issues that we don't know about they can make some headway.

  6. #26
    BPnet Lifer Sauzo's Avatar
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    Re: Tips for picky eating Retic

    Quote Originally Posted by Jnksnakes View Post
    I've left both frozen and live meals in her cage overnight. She doesn't go for it (although I have a boa who will Only eat if I leave his food on the floor)

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    Hmm guess i got lucky then. My only problem feeder was Luna the dumerils when i was switching her from mice to rats. Scenting, braining, nothing worked. I had to just make her wait about 3-4 weeks with no food and then lay a thawed rat on cardboard and she came over to check it out and finally ate it. She still wont eat rats if you present them to her. She is terrified of them and will machine gun strike them and then haul butt out of the area. I have to lay them down about 6 inches from her on cardboard and she will come over and eat it.

    My boas are garbage cans and will eat anything. I've even had them strike at the cardboard i use on their floor for feeding since it smelled like a mouse, rat, quail or whatever.

    But otherwise, i've never had an issue switching anyone over. Even my JCP who would only eat live black mice at night got switched over to FT rats. Although i never could break her of her habit to strike me about 50% of the time if i even put my hand inside the cage.
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  7. #27
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    Re: Tips for picky eating Retic

    Quote Originally Posted by Dianne View Post
    This is a similar conversation to one I was having with some coworkers about my snakes recently. I had purchased what was supposed to be a captive bred Solomon Island ground boa eating live mice. Ummm, not so much. After the show and well after the sale, I reached out to the vendor due to feeding issues. Discovered he was wild caught and preferred geckos. Great. I purchased a gecko, which was left in the same enclosure. Didn’t eat the gecko. Over time I fed him house geckos with very limited success. I also rubbed live pinkies on the gecko...stressful for the pinkies and the gecko...also with limited success. Eventually discovered that he would eat fuzzy/hopper field mice. For a couple of years my Mom raised field mice for my snake...wild caught field mice from the Home Depot where she worked, where we luckily captured a pair.

    On a similar note, a friend had a hatchling king that wouldn’t eat rodents. We kept the shed skins from my hatchling corns and stuffed the pinkies into little cut tubes of shed skin. It worked like a charm and we were eventually able to stop using the sheds. All this to say, if you use chicken bedding or feathers, or rub the rat sufficiently on the preferred prey item, you can often wear down their resistance if you aren’t willing to let your snake go without food until it decides its hungry enough to eat what is on offer. And I do understand the reluctance to wait on the feeding response to kick in, especially during my early years of snake keeping and having snakes on a feeding strike. It can be nerve racking...as I’ve recently experienced with my hatchling lemonblast.
    The guy I purchased her from is fairly reputable. He said he remembers the snake ( he wholesaled it to someone I knew and I bought it from them at the expo ) and it only had 2 live hopper meals before shipping out. (He usually waits 3-4 to sell). So I believe him that she was eating, but with 2 environmental changes AND an expo to stress her out, I understand why she could be kind of picky. She has no problem with handling, as a matter of fact she's the most docile snake I own atm. I might try "scenting" rats. Who knows. I feed today so I am going to offer her live and frozen rats again.
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  8. #28
    BPnet Senior Member Skyrivers's Avatar
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    Re: Tips for picky eating Retic

    Quote Originally Posted by Sauzo View Post
    Caesar had his first rabbit 2 nights ago and after i tried to get him to eat it and him not registering it as food and trying to come out to play with me, I just left it on a piece of cardboard and after about 30 mins of investigating it, he ate it.
    The first time I offered Rainbow a rabbit, she sniffed it then looked at me like "What the heck is this? Where is my rat or chicken?" and waited almost 10 min before eating it. I guess hunger was stronger than her being challenged to eat something new.

  9. #29
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    Re: Tips for picky eating Retic

    Lmao. Local pet shop sold me a frozen guinea pig instead of a Jumbo Rat. I didn't notice somehow but my wife did. It finally made sense why my burm was like "WTF IS THAT? WHERE'S MY RAT????". He eventually ate it when I left it in there but refused to strike it. He was not a happy camper lmao.
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